Download PDF Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles, by David C. Downing
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Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles, by David C. Downing
Download PDF Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles, by David C. Downing
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From Publishers Weekly
This valuable companion volume to C.S. Lewis's Narnia series draws upon several of Downing's previous books on Lewis, including The Most Reluctant Convert and Into the Region of Awe, adding new material. After an excellent biographical essay that takes seriously Lewis's intellectual as well as personal history, Downing offers an equally helpful and detailed chapter on the genesis of Narnia, with book-by-book descriptions of how the stories came into being. Here we learn about the origins of various characters (some of whom mirrored people Lewis knew in his own life, such as a dreaded headmaster) and about unpublished versions of the stories, including the famous "Lefay fragment" that offers an alternate beginning to "The Magician's Nephew." Downing also speculates about some of the literary influences that can be seen in Lewis's Chronicles, from The Voyage of Saint Brendan and Arabian Nights to the myth of Orpheus and the biblical book of Revelation. In subsequent chapters, Downing elaborates on the series' spiritual vision and moral center (including an intriguing section on Edmund's descent into selfishness and sin). But the most original and arresting chapters are the ones on the significance of names and the medieval and Renaissance literary allusions that crop up throughout the Chronicles. These literary feasts will be best enjoyed by fans who have read the entire series, but those who haven't may be so impressed by Downing's exploration of Lewis's deep and sophisticated imagination that they will sneak "into the wardrobe" and devour the Chronicles for themselves. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Review
“…in this volume, C.S.Lewis’ biography is given concisely, yet thoroughly…before you go to the movies this winter to see the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, read this book…” (The Eternal Night, 13th December 2005). “…a masterful work that will appeal to both new and seasoned fans of Narnia, ‘Into the Wardrobe’ offers a journey beyond Narnia’s deceptively simple surface and into its richly textured and unexpected depths.” (www.eden.co.uk, 13th December 2005) “…fluent and mature…” (Church Times, 9th December 2005)
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Product details
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (September 9, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780787978907
ISBN-13: 978-0787978907
ASIN: 0787978906
Product Dimensions:
5.7 x 1 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.9 out of 5 stars
8 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,704,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
One of my favorite books, I have read it so many times over the years. The author's insight and beautiful narrative is nothing short of enchanting.
The centerpiece of this book is the chapter 'The Genesis of Narnia,' a useful summary of the creation process behind the wonderful Narnia books. Downing cherry-picked most of this information from the thousands of pages of letters, essays, nonfiction books and biographies published by and about C.S. Lewis. He also includes a few new observations not published elsewhere, revealing for instance that the country of Calormen featured in 'The Horse and His Boy' was based primarily on the 'Arabian Nights' collection (his source was an unpublished letter from Lewis). Downing's book also includes a brief biography of Lewis and chapters on Narnia's spiritual vision, moral psychology, classical and medieval elements, an exploration of Narnian names, literary artistry, and a helpful appendix on Narnian allusions which might be obscure to modern or non-British readers.'Into the Wardrobe' becomes frustrating when Downing speaks from his position as a published author, college professor and "C.S. Lewis expert" to forward some sketchy or inaccurate claims, in particular: (1) that Rudolf Otto coined the word 'Numinous,' (2) that the Narnia books are not allegory, and (3) that C.S. Lewis disliked source criticism.1. Downing claims that Rudolph Otto coined the term 'numinous,' which is not true: According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word numinous was coined in 1640 A.D., to mean "the sense of nearness of the divine," and it still means precisely the same thing today. It is true that Otto suggested in his book 'Idea of the Holy' that since God is all-powerful we puny humans must automatically regard him as terrifying despite his benevolence, and this conception of the numinous was influential on Lewis and several other intellectuals of the time ("Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "...Who said anything about [Aslan] being safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good"). However, if you look up numinous in any modern dictionary, you'll see that Otto's attempt to globally update the word's definition was unsuccessful. Anyway, even if Otto had managed to modify the meaning of 'numinous,' that is simply not what it means to coin a word. For example: if I redefined the word "God" in this Amazon review to mean "a giant purple frog," would that mean I had "coined" the word God?2. Downing states that Narnia is not an allegory because (a) it does not always have one-to-one allegorical correspondences, and (b) Lewis did not encourage his readers to think of Narnia as an allegory, but as a "supposal" (as in "Let us suppose that..."). To the first point, it is a fundamental misunderstanding of allegory to believe that a piece must be restricted to one-to-one correspondences to qualify as allegory. Consider Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene,' one of the most-referenced allegories in the English language and a special favorite of C.S. Lewis. On page 321 of 'The Allegory of Love,' Lewis mentions that the Faerie Queene has allegorical correspondences to both the Christian virtues and politics. Queen Elizabeth alone corresponds to at least three different characters (from Wikipedia's Faerie Queene page):"[Queen] Elizabeth...appears most prominently in her guise as Gloriana, the Faerie Queene herself; but also in Books III and IV as the virgin Belphoebe, daughter of Chrysogonee and twin to Amoret, the embodiment of womanly married love; and perhaps also, more critically, in Book I as Lucifera, the 'maiden queen' whose brightly lit Court of Pride masks a dungeon full of prisoners."While it's true that Lewis encouraged a child correspondent to think of Narnia as a "supposal" rather than allegory, is it perhaps the case that Lewis felt that it is proper in romance (which today we would call 'fantasy') for the inner meaning to be carefully hidden?"As is proper in romance, the inner meaning is carefully hidden." -C.S. Lewis in a letter to Arthur Greaves (18 July 1916)Lewis referred to the hidden element in fantasy stories as the 'kappa element' (kappa meaning hidden), and he held a lifelong enthusiasm for that subtle hidden meaning behind words which can express "things that can't be directly told," even stating in his book 'Spenser's Images of Life' that "all great truths should be veiled." Carefully keeping Narnia's allegorical inner meaning hidden does not disqualify it as allegory.3. Downing wrote that "Lewis generally disliked source criticism, the interpretive approach that assumes major characters and images in a story can usually be traced to something in an author's life or reading habits." This is very misleading. Lewis held a lifelong fascination with what he (in common with most English-speaking literary scholars of his time) called quellenforschung (German Quelle, source + Forschung, research), the study of tracing sources for a literary work. In his introduction to 'George MacDonald; An Anthology,' Lewis wrote: "I am a don, and "source-hunting" (Quellenforschung) is perhaps in my [bone] marrow." On page 375 of 'Letters of C.S. Lewis,' the author writes to praise Charles A. Brady for being "the first of my critics so far who has really read and understood all my books," specifically stating "The Quellenforschung is good." Many of Lewis' scholarly books, in particular his 'Allegory of Love,' include facts and guesses on the literary sources informing his favorite authors on nearly every page. It's true that Lewis wrote a cautionary essay called 'Psycho-Analysis and Literary Criticism' on the dangers of mistaking an armchair psychological diagnosis of the author for literary criticism. He was also wearied by quellenforschung done badly, as when a few critics misguidedly assumed The Lord of the Rings had anything to do with the atomic bomb. Neither fact changes the reality that C.S. Lewis held a lifelong fascination with identifying the literary sources for his favorite books.Casual readers may come away from Downing's book misled into believing that identifying the Narnian books as "mere" allegory, or acknowledging that Lewis loved hunting down the literary sources for his own favorite stories, would somehow diminish his achievement. The reality is almost completely the reverse: his Narnian stories have such profound power to convey a sense of the numinous *because* Lewis was able to identify, distill and revivify the allegorical insights of John Bunyan, Dante, Edmund Spenser, George MacDonald, Boethius and his other literary heroes.
C.S Lewis is most widely known today for his children's tales, The Chronicles of Narnia. However, David C. Downing notes in Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles that, "some of his contemporaries were shocked when the eminent C.S. Lewis started writing children's stories." (XIV) Lewis had written some fiction previously, a sci-fi trilogy, The Great Divorce, and some poetry, as well as some notable literary work, but not fiction for children. So when the Chronicles began to be written, what emerged was not merely fairy tales for children, but a magnificent composition of classical, medieval, and modern ideas filtered through the creative theological imagination of C.S. Lewis.Into the Wardrobe explores the background of Narnia in the life and thought of C.S. Lewis. As should any book of this nature, Dr. Downing begins in Chapter 1 with a biography of Lewis. In Chapter 2 we are introduced to the writing of the Chronicles in the order they were composed. Here Dr. Downing offers a summary of each book and some explanations of their origins, including the lost Lefay fragment that was a potential beginning of The Magician's Nephew.The last five chapters examine the content of the series categorically. Chapter 3 takes on the "spiritual vision" of the Chronicles. The spirituality of the series is seen through the perspective of Aslan, who is envisioned as "a Numinous Being," "Supremely Good," "Creator," "Co-Sufferer," "Redeemer," "Comfort and Guide" and "Judge." Next, Dr. Downing examines is the morality taught throughout the series through Edmund's failures, technology, and the virtues of honesty, empathy, privacy, and trust.Chapter 5 looks into the classical and medieval elements found in the Chronicles including hierarchy, chivalry, magic, and astrology. For those who have wondered where Lewis might have gotten the names for his characters, this is described in detail in Chapter 6. The final chapter deals with the literary legacy of the series and grapples with a few of the criticisms that have been made of them and Lewis himself.Into the Wardrobe was almost consistently a stimulating read. My favorite chapters were the one on the spiritual roles of Aslan and the one about classical and medieval elements. For the former, as with most Narnia fans I suspect, I can never get enough of informed Aslan discussion. For the latter, the scholarly work of Lewis in classical and medieval studies is usually only a footnote in what I've read. Dr. Downing shows that this area of Lewis' life and study is just as important as the rest and played an influential role in the formation of the Chronicles. The only chapter I didn't care much for was the one on Narnian names. Perhaps due to the subject at hand, at a couple instances I felt like I was reading a genealogy in the book of NumbersDavid Downing offers us a thought-provoking behind-the-scenes look at what went into the writing of The Chronicles of Narnia. His knowledge of the subject matter and accessible writing style make this book an educational and enjoyable read at the same time.
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