A New Look for Narnia
Door Jam: February 17, 2025
The Door Jam is a place to squeeze in articles about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, their work, adaptations of their fantasy worlds, news from other franchises, and interesting articles. Unless otherwise stated, I’m not endorsing (or criticizing) any of these but merely sharing them with you.
This week’s top story is HarperCollins giving The Chronicles of Narnia a makeover with new cover art, including some hidden Easter eggs.
After several video teases, HarperCollins, the publishing house that owns the rights to C.S. Lewis’ works, unveiled new cover art for The Chronicles of Narnia.
The illustrator Owen Richardson shared his thoughts in a brief video.
Interestingly, HarperCollins placed the books in original publication order in their promotional art. They made the decision to release the books in chronological order after they took over worldwide publication in 1994.
Is this a signal that they are returning to publication order? One can hope, but I tend to doubt it. Greta Gerwig is likely beginning the Netflix adaptions with The Magician’s Nephew, the first book chronologically but sixth book in original order. Additionally, The Magician’s Nephew is still first on HarperCollin’s Narnia website.
These high quality images were given to Narnia Fans by HarperCollins. It features the full art for both the front and back covers. Some eagle-eyed fans discovered fun Easter eggs hidden in the artwork.
Each design features a symbol corresponding to a medieval planet that aligns with Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia theory that Lewis designed each book to match one of the planets. You can find the full explanation at Narnia Fans.
My only qualms with the covers have to do with swords. Lucy seemingly has a sword on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe cover. As we discussed in our first read-along, Father Christmas specifically gave her the healing cordial and a dagger but not a sword. On The Voyage of the Dawn Treader cover, Reepicheep faces the sea serpent with sword drawn. If you were part of our read-along for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, you know this was one of the few instances when Reepicheep did not draw his sword.
The books with the new cover art are available for pre-order and will release on April 15, 2025.
Not Safe But Good
C.S. Lewis quote of the week
I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes.
Tumnus’ bookshelf
A book by or about C.S. Lewis
I mentioned Planet Narnia earlier, but The Narnia Code provides the non-academic version of the same theory. It is a good introduction to Ward’s hypothesis about the unifying theme of The Chronicles of Narnia.
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Sneak peek at the bonus articles for paid subscribers
Below, paid subscribers will see a look back at previous Narnia book covers, another addition to Gerwig’s Narnia crew, Lewis’ thoughts on animals in heaven, The Rings of Power is officially back for season three, a hit animated movie’s homage to The Lord of the Rings, a re-creation of Middle-earth in Minecraft, a casting rumor for Harry Potter, another fantasy property coming to Netflix, and more.
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