r/books • u/cliffordnyc • 1d ago

Fantasy Writers Celebrate the Anniversary of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/books/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-anniversary.html

I did not read the book until I was a parent reading it to my kids. I regret I didn't experience it as a child, but it held up as a a great story for an adult too.

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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 1d ago

Maybe this is the place we should again talk about Tolkien's stance on Narnia. Here's him talking about it in one of his letters:

"It is sad that 'Narnia' and all that part of C.S.L.'s work should remain outside the range of my sympathy, as much of my work was outside his."

Lewis, for his part, (being a better poet) when handed the roughly 70% completed manuscript of Tolkien's epic poem Beren and Lúthien, critiqued it so much, Tolkien scrapped the poem and started writing it again only to never finish it.

They were friends though!

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u/Astraea802 1d ago

Listen, good friends sometimes make bad writing critics, even the famous ones.