Milton, Spenser and the "Chronicles of Narnia": Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis Novels - Softcover

Hardy, Elizabeth Baird

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786428767 ISBN 13: 9780786428762

Publisher: McFarland & Co, 2007

Synopsis

In 1950, Clive Staples Lewis published the first in a series of allegorical 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.

About this title

Review:

• “A good addition”—Catholic Library World
• “Meticulously referenced...an ideal introduction to the critical debates surrounding Lewis’s most widely read works...useful reference”—Children’s Literature Association Quarterly

About the Author:

Elizabeth Baird Hardy is an English instructor at Mayland Community College, where she was chosen as the 2006 outstanding faculty member. She lives in western North Carolina.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland & Co
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0786428767
• ISBN 13: 9780786428762
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 196