Companion volume to Del Rey's successful Tales Before Tolkien--a collection of classic fantasy tales that inspired bestselling author C.S. Lewis.
In his acclaimed collection Tales Before Tolkien, Douglas A. Anderson illuminated
the sources, inspirations, and influences that fired J.R.R. Tolkien's genius. Now
Anderson turns his attention to Tolkien's colleague and friend C. S. Lewis, whose
influence on modern fantasy, through his beloved Narnia books, is second only to
Tolkien's own.
In many ways, Lewis's influence has been even wider than Tolkien's. For in addition to the Narnia series, Lewis wrote groundbreaking works of science
fiction, urban fantasy, and religious allegory, and he came to be regarded as among
the most important Christian writers of the twentieth century. It will come as no
surprise, then, that such a wide-ranging talent drew inspiration from a variety of
sources. Here are twenty of the tributaries that fed Lewis's unique talent, among
them-
""The Wood That Time Forgot- The Enchanted Wood,"" taken from a never-before-published
fantasy by Lewis's biographer and friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, that directly inspired
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; E. Nesbit's charming ""The Aunt and Amabel,""
in which a young girl enters another world by means of a wardrobe; ""The Snow Queen,""
by Hans Christian Andersen, featuring the abduction of a young boy by a woman as
cruel as she is beautiful; and many more, including works by Charles Dickens, Kenneth
Grahame, G. K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald, of whom Lewis would write, ""I have
never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master.""
Full of fascinating
insights into Lewis's life and fiction, Tales Before Narnia is the kind of book that
will be treasured by children and adults alike and passed down lovingly from generation
to generation.
INCLUDING SEVENTEEN MORE WORKS BY THE PROGENITORS OF MODERN FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION- ""Tegner's Drapa"" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
""The Magic Mirror"" by George MacDonald
""Undine"" by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque
""Letters from Hell- Letter III"" by Valdemar Thisted
""Fastosus and Avaro"" by John Macgowan
""The Tapestried Chamber; or, The Lady in the Sacque"" by Sir Walter Scott
""The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton"" by Charles Dickens
""The Child and the Giant"" by Owen Barfield
""A King's Lesson"" by William Morris
""The Waif Woman- A Cue-From a Saga"" by Robert Louis Stevenson
""First Whisper of The Wind in the Willows"" by Kenneth Grahame
""The Wish House"" by Rudyard Kipling
""Et in Sempiternum Pereant"" by Charles Williams
""The Dragon's Visit"" by J.R.R. Tolkien
""The Coloured Lands"" by G. K. Chesterton
""The Man Who Lived Backwards"" by Charles F. Hall
""The Dream Dust Factory"" by William Lindsay Gresham
