The Last Battle

The Last Battle
	First edition dustjacket original
Author	C. S. Lewis
Illustrator	Pauline Baynes
Cover artist	Pauline Baynes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Chronicles of Narnia
Genre	Children's fantasy novel, Christian literature
Publisher	The Bodley Head
Publication date	4 September 1956
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	184 pp (first edition); 42,854 words (US)
ISBN	978-0-00-671682-2 (full-colour; Collins, 1998)
OCLC	752428300
LC Class	PZ8.L48 Las
Preceded by	The Magician's Nephew
Text	The Last Battle online

The Last Battle is a portal fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by The Bodley Head in 1956. It was the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956). Like the other novels in the series, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions.^[1]^[3]

The Last Battle is set almost entirely in the Narnia world and the English children who participate arrive only in the middle of the narrative. The novel is set some 200 Narnian years after The Silver Chair and about 2500 years (and 49 Earth years) since the creation of the world narrated in The Magician's Nephew.^[a] A false Aslan is set up in the north-western borderlands and conflict between true and false Narnians merges with that between Narnia and Calormen, whose people worship Tash. It concludes with termination of the world by Aslan, after a "last battle" that is practically lost.

Macmillan US published an American edition within the calendar year.^[3]

Lewis and The Last Battle won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.^[4] The author wrote to illustrator Baynes, "is it not rather 'our' medal? I'm sure the illustrations were taken into account as well as the text."^[5]

^ ^a ^b "Bibliography: The Last Battle". ISFDB. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
^ "Scholastic Catalog – Book Information". Retrieved 23 June 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ ^a ^b ^c "The last battle, a story for children" (first edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record.
"The last battle" (first US edition). LCC record. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
^ Cite error: The named reference medal1956 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Schakel, Peter J. (2002). Imagination and the arts in C. S. Lewis: journeying to Narnia and other worlds. University of Missouri Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-8262-1407-X.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[isfdb-1] "Bibliography: The Last Battle". ISFDB. Retrieved 24 July 2012.

[2] "Scholastic Catalog – Book Information". Retrieved 23 June 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}

[LCC-3] "The last battle, a story for children" (first edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record.
"The last battle" (first US edition). LCC record. Retrieved 2012-09-08.

[medal1956-5] Cite error: The named reference medal1956 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[6] Schakel, Peter J. (2002). Imagination and the arts in C. S. Lewis: journeying to Narnia and other worlds. University of Missouri Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-8262-1407-X.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[a]

[4]

[5]