Planet Narnia

The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis

Michael Ward (Chaplain, Chaplain, Peterhouse College, Cambridge)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
01 November 2007

Literary studies: classical, early & medieval; Literary studies: from c 1900 -; Children's literature studies: general; Myth & legend told as fiction

"For over half a century, scholars have laboured to show that C. S. Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised Chronicles of Narnia have an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser's Faerie Queene. None of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery.

Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In Planet Narnia he demonstrates that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the Chronicles), Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets - - Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn - - planets which Lewis described as ""spiritual symbols of permanent value"" and ""especially worthwhile in our own generation"". Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles so that in each book the plot-line, the ornamental details, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality. The cosmological theme of each Chronicle is what Lewis called 'the kappa element in romance', the atmospheric essence of a story, everywhere present but nowhere explicit. The reader inhabits this atmosphere and thus imaginatively gains connaître knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody.

Planet Narnia is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the Chronicles, but of Lewis's whole literary and theological outlook. Ward uncovers a much subtler writer and thinker than has previously been recognized, whose central interests were hiddenness, immanence, and knowledge by acquaintance."

By: Michael Ward (Chaplain Chaplain Peterhouse College Cambridge)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 164mm, Spine: 31mm
Weight: 708g
ISBN: 9780195313871
ISBN 10: 0195313879
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 01 November 2007
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Michael Ward, Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.

Reviews for Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis

...remarkable thesis... Tom Wright, Times Literary Supplement Michael Ward has written a book whose 'donegality' is the medieval scholarship, the poetic craftsmanship, the philosophical acumen and the imaginative genius of the self-conciously Jovial Lewis himself. Tom Wright, Times Literary Supplement 'Planet Narnia' is a valuable and excellently argued contribution to our understanding and enjoyment of the Nariad. Revelatory book. Peter Costello, The Irish Catholic Brilliant study. Murrough O'Brian, Independent On Sunday.