C.S. Lewis Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points
C.S. Lewis's complete bibliography in order — from The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters to Mere Christianity and Till We Have Faces.
C.S. Lewis was simultaneously one of the finest children’s fantasy writers of the twentieth century, the most widely read Christian apologist of the modern era, and a serious academic (a professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Oxford and then Cambridge). These three identities are not separate: the same imagination that produced Narnia wrote The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity, and the same intellect that produced the academic scholarship informed the fantasy.
Born in Belfast in 1898, educated at Oxford, he converted to Christianity in 1931 and thereafter produced both fiction and apologetics at remarkable speed while continuing his academic career. He died in 1963 — on the same day as John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley.
The Chronicles of Narnia (Publication Order)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
The essential starting point — four children enter a wardrobe in the house of an eccentric professor and discover Narnia, a world in eternal winter under the White Witch’s rule, where the great lion Aslan has returned. Lewis’s first Narnia book remains the finest: the imagery (Turkish Delight, the lamp-post in the snowy wood, Aslan’s death and resurrection on the Stone Table) is among the most vivid in children’s literature, and the book works simultaneously as an adventure story and as a version of the Christian story rendered in a form that makes it emotionally legible to children and adults alike.
Prince Caspian (1951)
The four children return to Narnia to find centuries have passed and a usurper occupies the throne. Lewis’s examination of how religious traditions survive persecution and whether miracles are possible for people who have grown too sophisticated to believe in them.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The most episodic of the Narnia books — a sea voyage to the edge of the world — and the one most readers remember with the greatest affection. Each island brings a different test; the character of Eustace (who becomes a dragon through his own pride) is Lewis’s finest Narnia creation alongside Aslan.
The Silver Chair (1953)
Eustace and his schoolfellow Jill Pole are sent to Narnia to rescue Prince Rilian, who has been enchanted by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. The chapters in the underground world of the Underland are Lewis at his most atmospheric.
The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
The origin story — how Narnia was created and how the White Witch first entered it. Best read after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe rather than first, despite its chronological priority, because the creation scene lands with greater force once you know what Narnia will become.
The Last Battle (1956)
The final Narnia book — the end of the world and a vision of what lies beyond it. The darkest and most theologically explicit of the chronicles. Difficult for younger readers; essential for adults completing the series.
The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters (1942)
The most original of Lewis’s apologetic works — a series of letters from a senior devil to his nephew about the management of a human soul. The comedy of the conceit (everything that leads to salvation appears as a setback; everything that leads to damnation appears as a success) is matched by the psychological precision of Lewis’s account of how people rationalise their way out of integrity, faith, and love. The funniest and most immediately engaging of Lewis’s non-fiction.
Reading Order Recommendations
Children’s Narnia (publication order): The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe → Prince Caspian → The Voyage of the Dawn Treader → The Silver Chair → The Horse and His Boy → The Magician’s Nephew → The Last Battle.
Adults: non-fiction first: The Screwtape Letters → Mere Christianity → The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Complete Lewis: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe → The Screwtape Letters → Till We Have Faces.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best C.S. Lewis book to start with?
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) is the natural starting point for most readers — it is the book that opens the Narnia chronicles, the most widely read of Lewis's fiction, and one of the finest children's novels in the English language. For readers interested in Lewis's Christian apologetics rather than his fiction, The Screwtape Letters is the best starting point — a brilliantly conceived comedy in which a senior devil advises his nephew on the corruption of a human soul.
What is the correct reading order for the Chronicles of Narnia?
There are two orders. Publication order: 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). Chronological order within Narnia's history: The Magician's Nephew, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle. Lewis himself, when asked, preferred the chronological order — but most readers and critics recommend publication order for the first reading, because the world of Narnia is better understood if encountered as Lewis revealed it.
What is The Screwtape Letters about?
The Screwtape Letters (1942) consists of letters from Screwtape, a senior devil in Hell's bureaucracy, to his inexperienced nephew Wormwood, who has been assigned to secure the damnation of a young English man during World War II. Lewis's comic conceit — showing Christianity from the devil's perspective, in which the things that lead to salvation appear as threats and the things that lead to damnation appear as successes — is one of the most original in apologetic literature. The book is funny, theologically precise, and shows Lewis's imagination at its most inventive.
Is Lewis's Narnia Christian allegory?
Lewis always resisted the term 'allegory' — he called Narnia a 'supposal': what if there were a world like Narnia, and Christ (in that world's terms) were incarnate as a lion? The Christian elements are more clearly structural in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Aslan's death and resurrection is an unmistakable type of the crucifixion and resurrection) and in The Last Battle (which depicts the end of Narnia and a clear vision of heaven). Lewis's intent was to help readers feel the story of Christianity in a new way — to encounter it with fresh emotions by presenting it in a different form.
