The Chronicles of Narnia: 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.

LEWIS, C.S. Illustrations by Pauline Baynes.

$40,000.00

Item Number: 147528

London: Geoffrey Bles/The Bodley Head, 1950-1956.

Complete first edition set of C.S. Lewis’s best-selling work, one of the best-selling series of all time which has sold 120 million copies in 47 languages. “Adored by children and academics alike, these books are extremely collectable, sought-after, and scarce” (Connolly, 186). Octavo, seven volumes, original publisher’s cloth, each volume illustrated with plates, in-text illustrations, and maps by Pauline Baynes, including colour where called for. Comprising first editions of: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, covers with light toning to the extremities, dust jacket with some restoration and repairs, 1950; Prince Caspian, price-clipped dust jacket with repairs and restoration, strengthening tape to verso, 1951; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, neat ink ownership inscription to half-title verso, dust jacket with neat repairs and restoration, small ink initials to top of rear dust jacket panel, 1952; The Silver Chair, dust jacket with repairs and restoration, 1953; The Horse and his Boy, unrestored dust jacket with light creasing and a few small closed tears, 1954; The Magician’s Nephew, ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper, dust jacket with repairs and restoration, strengthening tape to verso, toning, 1955; The Last Battle, price-clipped unrestored dust jacket, 1956. A very attractive and rare complete first edition set of Lewis’s timeless, cherished series.

The Chronicles of Narnia is "unforgettable not only for the excitement and suspense of the adventures but also for the strong emotions they describe so well [and they are] further enriched by Lewis' skillful use of language" (Silvey, 406). "Each book has something new and different to offer and there is no weakening of either inspiration or interest" (Eyre, 132). Lewis' inspiration came from a dream: "At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. [O]nce he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon he pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him (On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature, 1980). Lewis's aim with the series was "to do for children what he had done for an adult readership in his science fiction; to re-imagine the story in an exciting narrative context. [The Narnia books are] intoxicating to all but the most relentlessly unimaginative of readers, and must be judged the most sustained achievement in fantasy for children by a 20th-century author" (Carpenter & Pritchard, 370). “Adored by children and academics alike, these books are extremely collectable, sought-after, and scarce” (Connolly, 186).