XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books.childrens, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   XPost: mn.humor   
   From: tsbrueni@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us   
      
   Steve Hayes wrote:   
      
   > On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:55:55 GMT, "Alan Jones"  wrote:   
   >   
   > >Steve Hayes wrote:   
   > >> On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:23:17 +0100, JF    
   > >> wrote:   
   > >>   
   > >>> X-No-Archive: yes   
   > >>> In message , Steve Hayes   
   > >>>  writes   
   > >>>   
   > >>>> I suggest, if you read the Narnia stories, that you start with "The   
   > >>>> lion, the witch and the wardrobe", and go on reading them in   
   > >>>> publication order,   
   > >>>   
   > >>> That is stupid advice! Read Jack Lewis's opening paragraphs in 'The   
   > >>> Magician's Nephew' as to why it's important to read it first!   
   > >>>   
   > >>> Taking your advice, reading the LWW first, means that the wardrobe   
   > >>> exists before its made from the wood of a tree from Narnia!   
   > >>   
   > >> I quote the opening paragraph"   
   > >>   
   > >> "This is a story about something that happened long ago when your   
   > >> grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it   
   > >> shows how all the comings and goings between our world and the land   
   > >> of Narnia first began."   
   > >>   
   > >> It assumes that the reader *already* knows about "all the comings and   
   > >> goings between our world and the land of Narnia", and sets out to   
   > >> explain the origin of a phenomenon already familiar to the reader.   
   > >   
   > >From the Harper Collins  website: "This [hardback]edition presents all seven   
   > >books unabridged in one impressive volume. The books are presented here   
   > >according to Lewis's preferred order, each chapter graced with an   
   > >illustration byt the original artist, Pauline Baynes." Unfortunately it   
   > >doesn't say what that "preferred order" is, but I will see whether the local   
   > >Ottakars has a copy. At 25GBP it seems a good buy - cheaper than buying the   
   > >seven paperbacks. The illustrations were originally line drawings, but   
   > >Baynes later coloured them in (for a Folio Society boxed edition, IIRC). I   
   > >suppose the new(ish) Harper Collins volume reproduces the coloured   
   > >illustrations.   
   >   
   > I have it, and indeed that was the one I used to quote the first paragraph of   
   > "The magician's nephew", which, unfortunately, it had placed first. The   
   > "preferred order" comes from a single letter that he wrote, and I doubt that   
   > Lewis thought really seriously about the consequences of a casual remark..   
   >   
   > If I had been his editor, and if the books had been published in this   
   > "preferred order" while he was alive, I would have suggested numerous changes   
   > for consistency with the new order, including changes to that first   
   paragraph.   
   > But the new order only came about after his death, and so it was too late to   
   > make the consequential changes.   
   >   
   > Most of the changes would affect "The lion the witch and the wardrobe" and   
   > "The magician's nephew".   
   >   
   > Lewis also tells us that the story started with a mental picture of a faun   
   > loaded up with parcels passing under a lantern in a forest. He later explains   
   > how some of the things get there in "The magician's nephew", that that was   
   > later. And some things he never explained -- like where the faun did his   
   > shopping in the snowbound wilderness, or how sewing machines got to Narnia.   
      
   Or how the animals and the deciduous trees survived the 100 year winter.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)