Which C.S. Lewis book was first published in 1950 and begins The Chronicles of Narnia?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first published in 1950 and begins C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia in publication order.

The novel follows Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie after Lucy discovers a passage from a wardrobe into Narnia. There they encounter the White Witch, whose rule has brought a perpetual winter, and Aslan, the lion who opposes her.

The book is the best-known entry in the series and introduced readers to Narnia’s talking animals, magical geography, and moral conflicts. Although The Magician’s Nephew is set earlier in Narnian chronology, it was published later, in 1955.

The title is sometimes shortened in casual conversation to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but the full title includes the second “the” before Wardrobe. The seven-book series was published between 1950 and 1956.