Warwick Ball

East of the Wardrobe (eBook, ePUB)

The Unexpected Worlds of C. S. Lewis

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A fascinating look at the rich but under-appreciated Eastern sources behind the Narnia book C. S. Lewis was no great traveller but he was a prodigious bibliophile who absorbed the world's traditions of myth, religion, and cosmology. The Chronicles of Narnia are steeped in allusions to the Bible, Greek mythology, and medieval literature, all of which has been amply discussed by critics. But, until now, what has been overlooked are Lewis' significant borrowings from Eastern influences: Arabian Nights and the Persian poets, great travellers from Herodotus and Marco Polo to T. E. Lawrence and Robert Byron, and the famous fictional adventurers Baron Munchausen, Gulliver, and Sindbad. In East of the Wardrobe, Warwick Ball explores hitherto unrecognised and unexpected Eastern aspects in and influences on C. S. Lewis' Narnia books. These include storylines, themes, imagery, religious elements, and even the cities and landscapes of the East, as well as the 'Persian' style adopted by the illustrator of Narnia, Pauline Baynes. Themes borrowed from the great epics can also be found, from The Odyssey and Aeneid to the Kalevala and The Knight in the Panther's Skin. Delve deeper and Christianity is there along with paganism, but so too are Zoroastrian, Manichaean, and even Islamic and Sufi messages. Ultimately, these influences act as a reflection of the complex intellectual world that Lewis inhabited, of both his own unique philosophy and the wider social and intellectual climate of Oxford in the first half of the twentieth century. All readers of Lewis will find in East of the Wardrobe surprising new paths into the world of Narnia.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 6. Mai 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780197626276
• Artikelnr.: 63794160

Autorenporträt

Warwick Ball is an archaeologist who has carried out excavations, architectural studies, and monumental restoration in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, and Ethiopia. His previous books include Syria: An Architectural and Historical Guide, The Monuments of Afghanistan, Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, The Archaeology of Afghanistan, The Eurasian Steppe: People, Movement, Ideas, and Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire, winner of the James Henry Breasted History Prize.

Inhaltsangabe

* List of Illustrations
* Introduction: Confessions of a Reluctant Narniaphile
* 1. Endless Books: Herodotus to Robert Byron
* 2. 'It All [Perhaps] Began with a Picture': Narnia, Persian Painting,
and Pauline Baynes
* 3. East of the Wardrobe: The Manners and Customs of the Modern
Calormen
* 4. On Board the Dawn Treader: Epic Quests and Fabulous Voyages to the
East
* 5. Of This and Other Worlds: Portals and Alternative Time, from the
Wardrobe to the Qu'ran
* 6. Mere Christianity? Mere Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Sufism as
Well in Narnia
* 7. Farther Up and Farther In. Messages within, beyond, and east of
Narnia
* Bibliography
* Index