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
Results 6-10 of 52
... readers also gives him a measure of credibility seldom lavished on children's authors, in part also due to Lewis's aversion of heavyhanded preaching. While the overly sentimental and often maudlin works of late Victorians like George ...
... reader over ten years old and held little appeal even for younger readers. When Lewis set out to create his now vastly popular Chronicles of Narnia, he did not map out morals for his young readers, then wrap them in attractive packages ...
... readers can “know better” from reading the Chronicles. Lewis, like most educators, was sometimes frustrated in his work as a teacher, but remains long beyond his death a very good instructor on a variety of levels; in Narnia, he teaches ...
... readers you give them sex, so you thought to yourself, 'That won't do for children, what shall I give them instead? I know! The little blighters like plenty of good eating.'” In reality, however, I myself like eating and drinking. I put ...
... readers to look to Lewis's sources for themselves.2 Tracking every element of any literary work back to each possible influence is all but impossible. It is, however, possible to see how Lewis, in his deep admiration, understanding, and ...
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 |