Milton, Spenser and The Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis NovelsIn 1950, Clive Staples Lewis published the first in a series of children's stories that became The Chronicles of Narnia. The now vastly popular Chronicles are a widely known testament to the religious and moral principles that Lewis embraced in his later life. What many readers and viewers do not know about the Chronicles is that a close reading of the seven-book series reveals the strikingly effective influences of literary sources as diverse as George MacDonald's fantastic fiction and the courtly love poetry of the High Middle Ages. Arguably the two most influential sources for the series are Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Lewis was so personally intrigued by these two particular pieces of literature that he became renowned for his scholarly studies of both Milton and Spenser. This book examines the important ways in which Lewis so clearly echoes The Faerie Queen and Paradise Lost, and how the elements of each work together to convey similar meanings. Most specifically, the chapters focus on the telling interweavings that can be seen in the depiction of evil, female characters, fantastic and symbolic landscapes and settings, and the spiritual concepts so personally important to C.S. Lewis. |
From inside the book
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... certainly thought that everyone should read and appreciate Spenser and Milton, Lewis did not include material from these classic works of Western literature merely in order to indoctrinate young readers with blatant literary criticism ...
... Certainly, there is little chance of cataloging every possible reference or influence of these, or any other works, upon the Chronicles. Considering Lewis's habit of drawing material into his stories from any source that came to his ...
... certainly has no shortage of villains, many of whom are both externally and internally similar to Spenserian and Miltonic antagonists. Other elements of evil, such as deception, manipulation, and misuse of power, are apparent in all ...
... certainly another incarnation of the same bad mother archetype who rears her sometimes ugly head in fairy and folk tales as wicked stepmother and sorceress. Although Lewis was often skeptical of Jungian theory, the “terrible mother” of ...
... certainly also drawing upon archetypal sources, created villains who lend a number of characteristics to Jadis. The Faerie Queene's Duessa, one of Spenser's masterpieces, is clearly an influence in the creation of Jadis. Like Duessa ...
Contents
17 | |
The Depiction of Evil Men Mortals Monsters and Misled Protagonists | 51 |
Girls Whose Heads Have Something Inside Them The Characterization of Women | 77 |
An Inside Bigger Than Its Outside Setting and Geography | 107 |
Knowing Him Better There Spirituality and Belief | 135 |
Conclusion | 159 |
Chapter Notes | 163 |
Bibliography | 177 |
Index | 183 |