Greatest Literature banner

The Chronicles of Narnia

Critique • Quotes

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe first editionFirst edition
By C.S. Lewis
Novels and novellas in series ▽ Novels and novellas in series △

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

• Prince Caspian (1951)

• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

• The Silver Chair (1953)

• The Horse and His Boy (1954)

• The Magician's Nephew (1955)

• The Last Battle (1956)

Publication details ▽ Publication details △

First publications
1950–1956

Literature form
Novel series

Genres
Fantasy fiction, children's literature

Writing language
English

Author's country
England

Length
Seven novels and novellas; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: approx. 38,500 works

Greatest lists ▽ Greatest lists △

• Literature

• Novellas (for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

• British Literature

• Fantasy Fiction

Notable lines

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy.

— First line, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been—if you've been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you—you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing is ever going to happen again.

— The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time.

— The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Once a King or Queen in Narnia, always a King or Queen.

— The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

This is where dreams—dreams, do you understand—come to life, come real. Not daydreams: dreams.

— The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.

— The Magician's Nephew

It is the stupidest children who are most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are most grown-up.

— The Silver Chair

And that is the very end of the adventures of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.

— Last lines, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

— Last line, The Last Battle

 

Critique • Quotes