What do you think?
Rate this book
The Way into Narnia: A Reader's Guide
The practical companion you need for your journey through C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia
How did a middle-aged professor with no children write books that have become beloved classics of children's literature? What is the best order for reading the Chronicles of Narnia? Whatever one's question, The Way into Narnia offers valuable guidance for first-time visitors to Narnia and fresh insights for those who have already traveled there often.
Exploring ideas from Lewis's friend J. R. R. Tolkien, Peter Schakel shows that the best way to enter Narnia is to read the Chronicles as fairy tales. After walking readers through each of the books, he concludes the tour with a unique section of annotations that clarify unfamiliar words and unusual passages.
How did a middle-aged professor with no children write books that have become beloved classics of children's literature? What is the best order for reading the Chronicles of Narnia? Whatever one's question, The Way into Narnia offers valuable guidance for first-time visitors to Narnia and fresh insights for those who have already traveled there often.
Exploring ideas from Lewis's friend J. R. R. Tolkien, Peter Schakel shows that the best way to enter Narnia is to read the Chronicles as fairy tales. After walking readers through each of the books, he concludes the tour with a unique section of annotations that clarify unfamiliar words and unusual passages.
212 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 2005
10 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 3, 2021
The opening chapters are wonderful. Efficient biography of Lewis and great analysis of publication history. The main chapters on each novel were more general and didn't offer as much analysis as I had hoped for.
January 11, 2015
A rather short introduction to the Chronicles, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be much more academic, scholarly, and intellectual than I was expecting. Schakel writes wonderfully.
This would be a great first peak for a reader looking to delve into the literary meanings behind the beloved Narnia stories. The chapters are not long, but they are full of rich insights. Even readers who know the Narnia stories well won't be bogged down by recitations of trifling trivia, obvious theological symbols, or plot summaries -- instead Schakel crafts his sentences well and uses a very specific vocabulary in making his points, while still fostering an enthusiasm and appreciation for the stories.
This is well worth having on any Narnia lover's shelf. Makes me want to return to reading Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis.
"Lewis as story-maker proved to be a highly successful subcreator, bringing to life a series of fairy tales that relate exciting adventures in an enchantingly real world but also, through their mythic dimensions, offers readers a taste of Reality."
This would be a great first peak for a reader looking to delve into the literary meanings behind the beloved Narnia stories. The chapters are not long, but they are full of rich insights. Even readers who know the Narnia stories well won't be bogged down by recitations of trifling trivia, obvious theological symbols, or plot summaries -- instead Schakel crafts his sentences well and uses a very specific vocabulary in making his points, while still fostering an enthusiasm and appreciation for the stories.
This is well worth having on any Narnia lover's shelf. Makes me want to return to reading Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis.
"Lewis as story-maker proved to be a highly successful subcreator, bringing to life a series of fairy tales that relate exciting adventures in an enchantingly real world but also, through their mythic dimensions, offers readers a taste of Reality."
July 26, 2013
I have been obsessing over Lewis for the last year and a half after re-reading the entire Chronicles from start to finish, something I don't think I've ever done. (I've read them all at least a half dozen times or more, but never back-to-back.)
The inconsistencies in the Chronicles, the sloppy writing, the bizarre references - I just HAD to know what was up with Lewis. Consequently, I've been reading as much as I can about the Chronicles and Lewis himself. My theory is that he was so intent on getting his message across that he didn't pay attention to things like plot, structure, continuity, etc.
"The Way Into Narnia" was absolutely critical in helping me understand what on earth was going on in Lewis's head. If you have ever said, "WTF is he doing?" read this book!
I read this book at the same time as I read "The Keys to the Chronicles" by Marvin D. Hinten. I actually would read about LWW in one, then LWW in the other. Individually, they answered a lot of questions, but together, they offered nearly a complete explanation of everything I've ever puzzled over.
The inconsistencies in the Chronicles, the sloppy writing, the bizarre references - I just HAD to know what was up with Lewis. Consequently, I've been reading as much as I can about the Chronicles and Lewis himself. My theory is that he was so intent on getting his message across that he didn't pay attention to things like plot, structure, continuity, etc.
"The Way Into Narnia" was absolutely critical in helping me understand what on earth was going on in Lewis's head. If you have ever said, "WTF is he doing?" read this book!
I read this book at the same time as I read "The Keys to the Chronicles" by Marvin D. Hinten. I actually would read about LWW in one, then LWW in the other. Individually, they answered a lot of questions, but together, they offered nearly a complete explanation of everything I've ever puzzled over.
February 6, 2011
quote:
"The only reason for putting The Magicians Nephew first is to have readers encounter events in chronological order, and that, as every storyteller knows, is quite unimportant as a reason. Often the early events in a sequence gave a greater impact or effect as a flashback, told after later events that provide background and establish perspective. Beginning a story "in medias res" - in the middle of things - is one of the oldest and most basic of narrative strategies, going back at least to the Illiad and the Odyssey, two of the earliest stories in the Western literary tradition."
Love this....especially as a non-traditional storyteller of my own life story {through scrapbooking}. Chronological does not always have to be the way to go.
"The only reason for putting The Magicians Nephew first is to have readers encounter events in chronological order, and that, as every storyteller knows, is quite unimportant as a reason. Often the early events in a sequence gave a greater impact or effect as a flashback, told after later events that provide background and establish perspective. Beginning a story "in medias res" - in the middle of things - is one of the oldest and most basic of narrative strategies, going back at least to the Illiad and the Odyssey, two of the earliest stories in the Western literary tradition."
Love this....especially as a non-traditional storyteller of my own life story {through scrapbooking}. Chronological does not always have to be the way to go.
April 11, 2023
The Narnia series is one of my top all-time favorites. I reread The Last Battle every couple years, and inevitably tear-up at the end. Dr. Schakel does a nice job providing historical context to the writing of the books and giving some insight to the themes. I am fairly conversant in Lewis' work, so didn't learn a lot of new things, but it was nice to review the highlights without taking the time to read the whole series. It was like hearing some updates on dear, old friends.
Note this book assumes you have read the series and remember details reasonably well.
Note this book assumes you have read the series and remember details reasonably well.
January 3, 2023
I bought this to read after finishing The Chronicles of Narnia. I wanted some sort of reading guide to help give some analysis of the books and this was the only one that wasn’t heavily religious.
It is fairly academic, and there’s a essay-like chapter for each book, with a big annotations section to clarify some of the words/changes in the text. Undoubtedly it did do what I wanted, and has helped me discover further reading on this such as The Problem of Susan by Neil Gaiman.
The author’s love of the books is abundantly clear and I slightly envy that as I was saddened by the ending of The Last Battle so hoping this might help change that for me.
It is fairly academic, and there’s a essay-like chapter for each book, with a big annotations section to clarify some of the words/changes in the text. Undoubtedly it did do what I wanted, and has helped me discover further reading on this such as The Problem of Susan by Neil Gaiman.
The author’s love of the books is abundantly clear and I slightly envy that as I was saddened by the ending of The Last Battle so hoping this might help change that for me.
August 21, 2016
Most of the book is made up of a series of chapters about The Chronicles of Narnia, each one walking through the book chronologically, pointing out examples of two major themes in that book. For example, "Magic and Meaning in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." These chapters contain too much summarizing and too little original material. I got more out of the last part of the book (Annotations) which contains definitions and allusions.
I read this because it was recommended by Devin Brown in Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
In my notes below, quotes are from Schakel unless I say they're from Lewis.
Notes
"The fullest imaginative experiencing of The Magician's Nephew comes through reading it as a flashback, for that is the way Lewis thought of it as he wrote it, and those are the narrative strategies he consciously or unconsciously built into it."
Magician "contains one of the most direct contemporary social comments" of the books. Aslan tells the children that some wicked person in the world may discover "a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things" referring to Hitler, Stalin, and the atomic bomb.
In Last Battle, the rules of Shift's "government" reflect "Lewis' concern over the increasing tendency, in his day, toward collectivism and government intrusiveness" in Britain after World War II.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Some legends hold that Lilith (Adam's first wife in legend) was changed to a demon or jinn as punishment for leaving Adam, or that she became Satan's wife who gave birth to jinni.
Lewis invented the names Cruels and People of the Toadstools.
The World Ash Tree alludes to Yggdrasil in Scandinavian mythology. It represents Deep Magic (or Natural Law) being universal, embedded in the universe since the dawn of time, and the foundation on which social order rests.
"Orknies" is probably Old English "orcneas," walking corpses (also source of Tolkien's "Orcs").
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
"Balmier" here means more crazy or foolish.
Poesimeter: a machine name invented by Lewis, with a pun on the meaning of "meter" in poetry.
Choriambus: the Latin name for a metrical foot, extending the pun in "poesimeter."
Silver Chair
Bism: Lewis's adaptation of the Greek "byssos," meaning "bottom" or "the lowest deep," perhaps influenced by the English "chasm."
Magician's Nephew
The Witch's climbing over the wall of the garden alludes to Satan leaping over the walls around Paradise in Milton's Paradise Lost, and to John 10:1.
Last Battle
"Written in the skies" and "the stars never lie" are consistent with the medieval setting, where astrology was treated as legitimate science.
"Holy trees" means special because of being from Lantern Waste; not that they were to be worshipped.
"In Narnia other figures mythical in our world have turned out to be real, and so does Tash." Lewis isn't saying that other gods exist in our world.
Aslan's acceptance of Emeth suggests that Lewis was an inclusivist, not a universalist or exclusivist. "An inclusivist allows for the possibility that God will extend grace to those who earnestly seek the Truth and have virtuous lives even though they have not heard of Christianity."
In Mere Christianity, Lewis wrote,
I read this because it was recommended by Devin Brown in Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
In my notes below, quotes are from Schakel unless I say they're from Lewis.
Notes
"The fullest imaginative experiencing of The Magician's Nephew comes through reading it as a flashback, for that is the way Lewis thought of it as he wrote it, and those are the narrative strategies he consciously or unconsciously built into it."
Magician "contains one of the most direct contemporary social comments" of the books. Aslan tells the children that some wicked person in the world may discover "a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things" referring to Hitler, Stalin, and the atomic bomb.
In Last Battle, the rules of Shift's "government" reflect "Lewis' concern over the increasing tendency, in his day, toward collectivism and government intrusiveness" in Britain after World War II.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Some legends hold that Lilith (Adam's first wife in legend) was changed to a demon or jinn as punishment for leaving Adam, or that she became Satan's wife who gave birth to jinni.
Lewis invented the names Cruels and People of the Toadstools.
The World Ash Tree alludes to Yggdrasil in Scandinavian mythology. It represents Deep Magic (or Natural Law) being universal, embedded in the universe since the dawn of time, and the foundation on which social order rests.
"Orknies" is probably Old English "orcneas," walking corpses (also source of Tolkien's "Orcs").
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
"Balmier" here means more crazy or foolish.
Poesimeter: a machine name invented by Lewis, with a pun on the meaning of "meter" in poetry.
Choriambus: the Latin name for a metrical foot, extending the pun in "poesimeter."
Silver Chair
Bism: Lewis's adaptation of the Greek "byssos," meaning "bottom" or "the lowest deep," perhaps influenced by the English "chasm."
Magician's Nephew
The Witch's climbing over the wall of the garden alludes to Satan leaping over the walls around Paradise in Milton's Paradise Lost, and to John 10:1.
Last Battle
"Written in the skies" and "the stars never lie" are consistent with the medieval setting, where astrology was treated as legitimate science.
"Holy trees" means special because of being from Lantern Waste; not that they were to be worshipped.
"In Narnia other figures mythical in our world have turned out to be real, and so does Tash." Lewis isn't saying that other gods exist in our world.
Aslan's acceptance of Emeth suggests that Lewis was an inclusivist, not a universalist or exclusivist. "An inclusivist allows for the possibility that God will extend grace to those who earnestly seek the Truth and have virtuous lives even though they have not heard of Christianity."
In Mere Christianity, Lewis wrote,
"God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him. … People in other religions … led by God's secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity … thus belong to Christ without knowing it. … Many of the good Pagans long before Christ's birth may have been in this position."
March 1, 2025
This was very good. A Quick Look into the chronicles that points out some things you might not have noticed without bogging you down or hitting you over the head with every last bit of symbolism you might be able to squeeze out of them.
December 21, 2012
And now for a very different four-star book! I read "Planet Narnia: the Seven Heavens of C.S. Lewis", and thought it was so illuminating about Lewis's series and what he was trying to achieve that perhaps no more needed to be said. I was wrong. This brief book is equally illuminating. Schakel's starting point is, amazingly, one I haven't seen emphasized before: the "Narnia" books are fairy tales. Therefore, they have the simple, archetypal structure of fairy tales, as well as many of the elements of faerie. From this beginning, he goes on to examine each book in turn. He shows that every book has its own particular theme - for example, learning and growth, obedience and discipline, finding one's home and identity, and so on. It's quite well done, and helped me to reread these beloved children's books on yet another level. Recommended, and well worth discussing with fellow "Narnia" fans. Why not five stars? Well, it's very close! I just wish it were a little longer, and went into a little more depth (more quotations and comparisons, etc.) But it's really very good.
December 18, 2008
A great look into Lewis' famous series, exploring why he wrote what he did, and nuances of the text a reader might not notice. If there were no other reason, I would love this book for the fact that Schakel supports reading the books in publishing order and not chronologically, which maintains the sense of wonder when you first step into Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
August 14, 2014
Very helpful in many ways, particularly details of Lewis' literary circle and the specific themes of each book. While I certainly see the point of beginning the series in its chronological order of publication, I would argue that, for those of us who reread, it is perfectly satisfying to begin with The Magician's Nephew, because you already have the overall context in place.
December 4, 2014
Enjoyed this tremendously. I read and reread the Narnia Chronicles as a child and later, read my favorites out loud to my own kids. This was a really illuminating return to a much-loved place, and now I want to go back and reread the ones that I didn't get as much from as a child. There's more to be found...
May 8, 2021
If you are any kind of fan of the Narnia books, you should read this book. It is a fairly quick and easy read, while still containing well-explained jargon and feeling scholarly and substantial. Plus, it only gets bonus points for making the same argument for the literary reasons for reading the books in publishing order that I make.
July 30, 2013
A wonderful companion to the Chronicle of Narnia series, with a discussing of each book in particular as well as the value of fairy tales, a bit of Lewis's background, etc. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews