The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It is the first published and best known of seven novels in "The Chronicles of Narnia" (1950–1956). Among all the author's books it is also the most widely held in libraries. Although it was written as well as published first in the series, it is volume two in recent editions, which are sequenced by the stories' chronology (the first being "The Magician's Nephew"). Like the others, it was illustrated by
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as the text". The British edition of the novel had 43 illustrations; American editions generally had fewer. The popular United States paperback edition published by Collier between 1970 and 1994, which sold many millions, had only 17 illustrations, many of them severely cropped from the originals, giving many readers in that country a very different experience when reading the novel. All the illustrations were restored for the 1994 worldwide HarperCollins edition, although these lacked the clarity of early printings. Lewis very much enjoyed writing "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and embarked on the sequel "Prince Caspian" soon after