C.S. Lewis Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points

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.

A Writer of Many Gifts

C.S. Lewis was a writer of extraordinary range and many gifts, a figure who achieved distinction across fiction and non-fiction, children’s literature and Christian apologetics, scholarship and imagination, and whose varied body of work has reached and influenced an enormous readership. Lewis’s output was remarkably varied, encompassing beloved children’s fantasy, science fiction, works of Christian apologetics and theology, literary scholarship, and other writing, and his achievement across this range of forms and genres is among the most striking features of his career. He was at once a celebrated children’s author, a popular Christian apologist, a scholar of literature, and a writer of fiction and non-fiction across many genres, and his varied gifts have made his work beloved by readers of many different kinds. This range and versatility are central to Lewis’s achievement, for he achieved distinction across an unusual variety of forms and genres, from children’s fantasy to Christian apologetics, reaching and influencing an enormous and varied readership. His ability to write with distinction across so many forms, and to reach readers ranging from children to scholars to seekers of faith, marks him as a writer of extraordinary range and many gifts. For readers, Lewis offers a remarkably varied body of work, distinguished across fiction and non-fiction, children’s literature and Christian apologetics, scholarship and imagination. A writer of many gifts, Lewis achieved distinction across fiction and non-fiction, children’s literature and Christian apologetics, scholarship and imagination, and his varied body of work has reached and influenced an enormous and varied readership.

Imagination and Faith

A defining feature of C.S. Lewis’s work is the union of imagination and faith, his use of the imaginative resources of fantasy and fiction to explore, embody, and communicate his Christian faith and its truths. Lewis brought together imagination and faith in a distinctive and powerful union, using the imaginative resources of fantasy, allegory, and fiction to explore and communicate his Christian beliefs and to embody spiritual and moral truths in imaginative form. His beloved Narnia stories, for instance, embody Christian themes and truths within the imaginative form of children’s fantasy, while his other fiction and his apologetics alike unite imaginative power with the exploration and communication of faith. This union of imagination and faith is central to Lewis’s achievement, for he used the imaginative power of fantasy and fiction to explore, embody, and communicate his Christian faith, reaching readers through imagination as well as argument. His ability to embody spiritual and moral truths in imaginative form, to communicate faith through the resources of fantasy and story, is among the most distinctive features of his work. For readers, Lewis offers the union of imagination and faith, the use of fantasy and fiction to explore, embody, and communicate Christian belief and spiritual truth. Imagination and faith are united in Lewis’s work, his use of the imaginative resources of fantasy and fiction to explore, embody, and communicate his Christian faith and its truths, reaching readers through imagination as well as argument.

The Power of Accessible Wisdom

C.S. Lewis possessed a remarkable gift for accessible wisdom, the ability to communicate profound ideas, whether of faith, morality, or human experience, with a clarity, warmth, and accessibility that have made his work beloved and influential. Lewis was a master of clear and accessible communication, able to render profound and complex ideas, particularly the ideas of his Christian faith and his reflections on morality and human experience, with a clarity, warmth, and accessibility that reach a wide readership. His apologetic and reflective writing, in particular, communicates profound ideas with a clarity and accessibility that have made it beloved and influential, reaching readers who might be daunted by more difficult or technical treatments. This power of accessible wisdom is central to Lewis’s enduring appeal and influence, for he communicated profound ideas of faith, morality, and human experience with a clarity, warmth, and accessibility that have made his work beloved and widely read. His gift for rendering complex and profound ideas accessible, for communicating wisdom with clarity and warmth, has made him one of the most widely read and influential writers on faith and human experience. For readers, Lewis offers the power of accessible wisdom, profound ideas of faith, morality, and human experience communicated with clarity, warmth, and accessibility. The power of accessible wisdom is central to Lewis’s appeal, his ability to communicate profound ideas of faith, morality, and human experience with a clarity, warmth, and accessibility that have made his work beloved and influential.

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.