The Last Battle
core novel 1956 The Chronicles of Narnia
Record
| First published | 1956 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.01 (315,250 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 288 |
| First-edition ISBN | 0064405036 |
| First-edition publisher | The Bodley Head |
| First-edition country | UK |
| Internal chronology | 7 |
Synopsis
The final book of the Chronicles of Narnia takes place roughly two hundred years after the events of The Silver Chair, as Narnia enters what proves to be its last age. King Tirian, a descendant of Caspian X, rules a land troubled by ominous portents: the centaur Roonwit senses grave danger approaching, and Tirian and his companion, the unicorn Jewel, investigate reports of Narnia's talking trees being cut down. They discover that a cunning ape named Shift has dressed a simple-minded donkey, Puzzle, in a lion's skin and is presenting him to the Narnians as Aslan himself, while also claiming that Aslan and the Calormene god Tash are one and the same. Using this fabricated authority, Shift compels the Narnians into forced labor and enriches himself, silencing anyone who questions the deception.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Chronicles of Narnia
- Series: The Chronicles of Narnia core; position 7 of 7 in the series' recorded order
- Author: C.S. Lewis
Awards (verified)
- Carnegie Medal, 1956: won
Notes
- From the series record (The Chronicles of Narnia): Dual ordering: publication (1950-56) vs internal chronology (HarperCollins renumbering, 1994); scholars generally prefer publication order.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Chronicles of Narnia: position 7 of 7: previous The Magician's Nephew (1955)
- Internal chronology, within The Chronicles of Narnia: position 7 of 7: previous The Silver Chair (1953)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Battle
- CILIP Carnegie Medal for Writing, official winners archive
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