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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... dwarf breakfasts of sausage and omelettes to sumptuous royal feasts with elaborate presentations merely because children like food or to make other people like food; he included so much food because he liked to eat: In my own first ...
... Dwarfs. He was unhappy with the dwarfs, as one may imagine based on his own dwarfs, but found parts of the film truly delightful. One of his favorite segments was the scene in which the abandoned and terrified Snow White sees eyes ...
... dwarfs to frozen waterfalls, leading him to rapture at the sight of Arthur Rackham's illustrations or the sound of Richard Wagner's operas, and finding expression in his lasting interest in Norse mythology. Many of the most powerful ...
... , and their deceptively cheerful appearances. The Witch, when she sets about the serious business of pursuing Peter, Susan, Lucy, and the Beavers, orders her dwarf slave to 20 MILTON, SPENSER AND THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.
... dwarf slave to prepare her sledge using the harness without the bells (LWW 94). Her true nature has been exposed, and the pretext of a pleasant sleigh ride is discarded in favor of deadly silence and stealth. Once her hand has been ...
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 |