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- Partial translations as early as the 1950s.
- Gallimard Jeunesse: complete series from 2001, integral edition in 2005.
- The names vary from one translation to another.

## The first translations

*The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe* was translated into French as early as 1952, by Hachette, in the Idéal-Bibliothèque collection, under the title *Le Lion et la Sorcière blanche* (translated by Mrs. E.-R. Blanchet). *Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia* followed in 1953; these two volumes were reissued in the Bibliothèque rose in 1973. In 1980, Flammarion relaunched the series in the Bibliothèque du Chat perché: *The Magician's Nephew* and *Prince Caspian* (Anne-Marie Dalmais, 1980 and 1982), *The Horse and His Boy* (Michel Baron, 1983) and *The Silver Chair* (Hélène Seyrès, 1984). Three volumes were still missing. For nearly fifty years, French-speaking readers therefore only knew a few of the Chronicles.

## Gallimard Jeunesse

From May 2001, Gallimard Jeunesse published the seven volumes in chronological order, in Folio Junior, with illustrations by Pauline Baynes. The translations are by Anne-Marie Dalmais (*The Magician's Nephew*, *Prince Caspian*, reissues from Flammarion), Cécile Dutheil de la Rochère (*The Magician's Nephew*) and Philippe Morgaut (the other volumes). In September 2005, just before the film, the integral edition *The World of Narnia* was released in a single volume of 880 pages. The illustrations are in black and white and appear only at the beginning of each chapter. Many reissues followed, with the covers from the films and then new designs.

## Why the names change

According to the editions, some characters and places have different names: Reepicheep, Mr Tumnus, Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, Shift, Puzzle, Cair Paravel, or the White Witch. On this site, each sheet gives the most well-known name in the title and indicates the other translation.

## Read in English?

The books are written in simple, lively language. For a teenager learning English, *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe* is an excellent first read.

## See also
- [Home](https://www.narnia-guide.fr/livres/)
- [Pauline Baynes, the original illustrator](https://www.narnia-guide.fr/livres/pauline-baynes/)
- [From Narnia to French: what the names say in English, and what they become in French](https://www.narnia-guide.fr/livres/glossaire-des-noms-anglais-francais/)
- [Narnia and France: the war, translations, readers](https://www.narnia-guide.fr/lewis/cs-lewis-et-la-france/)
- [From Neuchâtel to our bookshops: eighty years of Narnia in French, and the missing books](https://www.narnia-guide.fr/lewis/de-neuchatel-a-nos-librairies/)