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There are two different versions of The Chronicles of Narnia books in the market: Adults and Children.

Which one's original (meaning, originally released by the C. S. Lewis)? And, what are the differences between them?

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    How are you telling the two apart. Is it just the cover art?
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 15:13
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    @DJClayworth Yes, the box set cover. Also, Publisher names are slightly different: "Harper Collins" and "Harper Collins Children's Books"..
    – user931
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 15:26

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An Amazon reviewer has looked into this and reported their findings:

After at least 40 minutes of Googling, I finally found out what the difference between the "adult" version and the regular version is. Apparently the "adult" version includes some essay material about the literature and each book contains a synopsis of information you'd need to know from the other books to read the one you're holding. Other than that, only the packaging is different. The stories all remain the same. I only wish Amazon.com would have provided me this information and saved me the time.

Doing a bit of further digging, it seems that the addition essay is one by C.S Lewis, entitled "On Three Ways of Writing for Children."

Various message boards have discussed this, and the consensus seems to be the same: there is no textual difference between the versions. The "adult" version, however has fewer illustrations and a "plainer" set of covers.

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  • Which one's original?
    – user931
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 15:27
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    If you want to call one "original", it would be the "kids" version as they don't include the essay which was written later. The content of the books, however, are the same. Calling one edition "original" is kind of disingenuous as no actual content was changed.
    – phantom42
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 15:29
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    Baynes' illustrations were in the original editions and it sounds like there are more of them in today's children's than adults' edition. So that's another point in the children's category, if you're wanting to be truer to the experience of the original readership.
    – Mr. Bultitude
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 18:38
  • I've seen different orderings of the books. I had them in a box set in the order that they were published, and I fancied to order them by internal chronology, but I've since seen them published to be read in that order, and I think it's quite wrong.
    – Aaron Hall
    Commented Nov 1, 2014 at 10:34
  • @AaronHall are either of the "kids" or "adult" editions ordered/numbered differently?
    – phantom42
    Commented Nov 1, 2014 at 13:58

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