What is the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1950 novel that began The Chronicles of Narnia?

C.S. Lewis’s 1950 novel that began The Chronicles of Narnia is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It introduces the Pevensie children, who enter the magical world of Narnia through a wardrobe while staying in an English country house during wartime evacuation.

The book was published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950 and became the best-known entry point to Lewis’s seven-volume Narnia series. Its central conflict concerns the White Witch’s rule, the return of spring, and Aslan’s sacrifice and resurrection. The story combines adventure, folklore, Christian imagery, and talking animals.

Readers sometimes confuse publication order with the series’ internal chronology. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first Narnia book published, while The Magician’s Nephew, published later, is set earlier in Narnian history. Lewis generally wrote and published the books in the order in which readers first encountered them.