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The Chronicles of Narnia

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Manufacturer: HarperCollins
List Price: $21.99
Our Price: $5.55
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Beloved by generations for more than 50 years, this classic children's series is now available in a special adult edition.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780066238500
ISBN: 0066238501
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 768
Publication Date: 2001-10-01
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Release Date: 2001-10-02
Studio: HarperCollins


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Widescreen Edition)
• J.R.R. Tolkien Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings)
• The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics
• The Hobbit
• His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Chronicles of Narnia
Comment: I am very happy that I have finally received my Chronicles of Narnia Box Set. There is only one issue that I have. I was under the understanding that this was the 1994 print edition, but it is really the 2008 print edition. I just hope that when you purchase this box set that you do not think that it is the 1994 print edition, but you will really be receiving the 2008 print edition.


Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book to read to children and adults alike
Comment: I purchased this book about a year ago, and as with any book I prefer to read it myself before I encourage my kids. I throughly enjoyed this book for several reasons. first it is written in a way that adults and children alike could understand and relate to the moral lessons in it without being pushy. secondly I felt it related to the bible in a metaphoric way which I enjoyed very much and thirdly once I started reading it I could not put it down, it was like taking these adventures in my head. I think this would be a good book to teach in bible study to little children because of the spiritual metaphor content of this book. I have shared it with the little ones in bible study class I teach and the excitement that showed on the kids faces was extermely rewarding and the kids can't wait to hear the next book. This book is well written and certainly worth having in your library.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Genuine Masterpiece for the Ages
Comment: The Chronicles of Narnia, a seven-book fantasy series written by C.S. Lewis, is a beautiful work of art that will continue to be appreciated throughout the ages.

Enter Earth, where four young siblings known as Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy (in descending order of oldest to youngest) escape from the German air bombings of London to a countryside mansion with a mysterious, but wise, owner. In here, they step through a magical wardrobe into a land of dazzling beauty known as Narnia, where animals talk, trees come to life, and a powerful, enigmatic lion called Aslan rules.

But Narnia is in turmoil, and only the four siblings, long ago prophesied to appear in Narnia and save the world from the perpetual winter of the usurper queen, the White Witch, can save it. Together they embark on a journey of epic scope across a frozen land, encountering a plethora of brilliant characters ranging from fauns to beavers to Santa Claus, in the hopes of redeeming one of their own. Their actions will set the stage for a grand world of magic and warfare for both Narnia and their own world.

The Chronicles of Narnia tells the life story of a land corrupted mere hours from birth and eternally perfected in death, through the adventures of eight children called from across time and space by the mighty Aslan.

A masterpiece of fantasy literature, children will love the series for Lewis' clean, simple style of writing that is neither difficult nor remedial, its brilliantly depicted magic and adventure, and its lovable talking critters. Adults will love it for its deeper spiritual meanings (some obvious, some not so much), its entertaining cast of believable humans cast into a foreign world, and its accomplishment as a timeless classic.

To counter the negative criticisms that have something to say about the contents of the books, the main criticism I find is that the books portray some type of racism, mainly to Middle Eastern cultures, for its perceived negative portrayal of "dark-skinned" people. The main source of this criticism is The Horse and His Boy.

I honestly do not know what to say, other than the people reading racism into these books must not have read closely or the entire series. I will not reveal spoilers in a review, no matter how old the book(s) I'm reviewing may be, but to start we can honestly say with certainty that "dark-skinned" does not necessarily mean "not white" (you wouldn't call an ethnic European with a tan anything but "white" or "Caucasian," would you?), and even if the "dark-skinned" characters are not white in the imagination of the author, they are not treated negatively at all. The series' most evil villains, ranging from the White Witch to the Serpent Queen in The Silver Chair, are white (in fact, they are described as unnaturally pale) and Prince Caspian, the hero of Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is "dark-skinned" according to his lineage, and there are characters (that I will not name for care to spoilers) that are dark-skinned and portrayed as heroes.

Another criticism is that Lewis' prose is boring, plain, or flat. In terms of today's standards of writing, this is true of almost any book written during and before and some time after Lewis, as observed by his colleague J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and much, much more. Many (in fact, the vast majority) of classic works fall short of today's standards of adequate prose, pace and mechanics, but it is not these elements that make a story but the imagination and the ideals involved. It is true that this generation may find the books to be somewhat tedious, but that is hardly a low point for the books themselves.

Sexism. I cannot fathom this one at all. The sole source of this criticism is something that happens (or fails to happen, depending on how you look at it) to a single female character at the end of the series. What about all the other women who do end up experiencing what this woman didn't (or not experiencing what this woman did, or. . .you get the point)? There are three main characters and millions (perhaps billions; Narnia is almost as vast as Middle Earth and is never fully explored) that are female. I believe that this criticism arises from those readers that feel somewhat threatened by the series and simply look for a reason to criticize it, until they see what isn't there and critique the series based on that nonexistent element.

The books' religious themes. It is true that C.S. Lewis was a Christian (one of the most influential Christians of the twentieth century) and there are many religious themes reflecting his Christianity in the books. Some have called this reflection "Bible-thumping" or Lewis' way of "pushing his beliefs" on his readers. I have to ask: how can a man dead near-on sixty years possibly push his beliefs on you? Even if the series was pushy, you are not forced to read it, are you? You are not forced to convert, in fact most of those with this criticism remain in whatever beliefs they previously held, so where's the forcing? Does Lewis jump out of the pages, hold you at gunpoint and shout "Convert or die, heretic!"? There is a distinct difference between having beliefs pushed on you and merely being uncomfortable with any sign of preaching, whether perceived or actually there. The series is literally the least "Bible-thumping" work Lewis ever wrote; the man built a career writing fiction and non-fiction alike articulating his personal beliefs on Christianity and religion and philosophy, each and every one of aforementioned work being devoted to an apologetic (not as in an apology but as in a defense) style of "preaching" on Christianity. There are also a couple of statements that the books aren't "Christian" at all, because they contain magic or aforementioned racist/sexist themes. These readers do not seem to understand the difference between Pagan witchcraft and simple fantasy magic, and tend to be in the same boat of those who criticize Harry Potter for merely containing witches and wizards. The best way to go about this is to simply not focus solely on the religious aspect of the books and enjoy them for being fantasy classics.

The Chronicles of Narnia was the first series of books I ever read. Before Narnia, my interest in reading was abysmal, even for a young child. After I had experienced the wonders held in Lewis' world, however, my interest in reading skyrocketed, and is still soaring high, with a library of hundreds of books of all genres tucked away deep into my mind and my bookshelves, with hundreds more to come, both read and (hopefully) written by me, and I have to attribute my bibliophilia to entering the world of Narnia at a young age, perhaps pulled there by Aslan himself at a time when I needed to be there the most.





Customer Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable allegory
Comment: I had to read this for class. The author CS Lewis wrote books of fiction and nonfiction that deal with moral and religious themes and reflect his Christian faith. He wrote a fictional series about the land of Narnia and I wasn't sure I would like it since I'm not usually into children's books or fairytales. I like only some fantasy. I'm not one of these people who jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon. But I read that Lewis was good friends with Tolkien, whose "The Lord of the Rings" I pretty much enjoyed, so I was hoping this would be good too. And it was. It's about these kids who fight an evil witch with the help of a lion to save the creatures of Narnia. Sounds a bit like the "Wizard of Oz", doesn't it? Anyhow, it's an unforgettable story of heroism and an allegory of good vs. evil. It was first published in 1950 and is still very popular today.


Customer Rating:
Summary: A bit boring if you have seen the movies
Comment: I was pretty excited to start reading this book to my 9 year old daughter. We have seen the movies, so the only book in this series that captured our attention was the magician's nephew. My sister said that she read it to her kids who range in age from 15-2 years, and they loved it. (shrug) Maybe it is just because we started The Chronicles of Narnia just after we finished the FableHaven series, which was awesome!

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