What is the first published book in C.S. Lewis’s seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first published book in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia.

Macmillan published the novel in 1950. It introduces the Pevensie children—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy—and their discovery of Narnia through a wardrobe. The story presents a land trapped in winter by the White Witch, where Aslan’s return begins the movement toward liberation.

Publication order and internal chronological order are often confused. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published first, but some later editions number The Magician’s Nephew as the first book because its events occur earlier in Narnian history. Lewis originally wrote and published the books in the order in which readers first encountered them.

The novel became one of Lewis’s most widely read works. Its combination of portal fantasy, talking animals, adventure, and Christian symbolism helped make Narnia accessible to children and adults alike.