C.S. Lewis and Narnia

Q. Now that Tolkein's Lord of the Rings has finally been given the big-budget film treatment, isn't it time that C.S. Lewis's Narnia books went the same way

A. Technology has finally caught up with the printed word in its ability to reproduce with staggering realism the more fantastic realms of the literary imagination. As a result, J.R.R. Tolkein's hitherto unfilmable trilogy has made it on to the big screen and into the record books. So why not give the Narnia books the same treatment After all it would now be a doddle to depict talking horses - it was being done on US TV in the early 1960s in Mister Ed - and lions being resurrected Christ-like from the dead. It would be an appropriate move, given that Lewis and Tolkein were friends and part of an Oxford-based literary group known as the Inklings.

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Q. The Inklings

A. Yes. They met mostly in a pub called the Eagle and Child in Oxford, where both writers were lecturers. They shared many concerns in their fiction, including a strong sense of Christian ideology, and both used their works of fantasy to treat the great theme of the perpetual battle between good and evil.

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Q. And a brief biography of Lewis

A. Clive Staples Lewis was born on 29 November 1898 in Belfast. During the First World War he fought in France with the Somerset Light Infantry and was wounded in 1917. The following year he went to University College, Oxford, where he achieved an outstanding record as a classical scholar. Lewis had lapsed into atheism in his teens but experienced a reconversion to Christianity in 1931. From 1925 to 1954 he was a fellow and tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford, and from 1954 to 1963 he was professor of medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge. He died in Oxford on 22 November 1963.

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Q. How about the Narnia books

A. The seven 'Chronicles of Narnia' were written between 1950 and 1956. The first to be published - though actually the second chronologically - was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, an allegory of the betrayal and Resurrection of Christ. The other six, in chronological order are: The Magicians Nephew (1955), The Horse and His Boy (1954), Prince Caspian (1951), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), The Silver Chair (1953) and The Last Battle (1956).

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They tell the story, from Creation to the Last Judgement, of the land of Narnia through the experiences of a number children from our world who are transported in various magical ways to Narnia in order to influence the course of history in that parallel universe.

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All the books are subtitled 'A Story for Children', though the themes explored are adult in content. Lewis had earlier written a trilogy of science-fiction novels: Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (a.k.a. Voyage to Venus, 1943) and That Hideous Strength (1945). These three books centre on an English linguist named Ransom who voyages to Mars and Venus and becomes involved in a cosmic struggle between good and evil in the solar system, and thematically provide an adult counterpart to the Narnia books.

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Q. Have there never been any attempts to dramatise the Narnia books

A. There have been a number of TV, radio and stage adaptations of the books over the years, with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe being the most popular.

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Q. What else did Lewis write

A. 'People won't write the books I want, so I have to do it for myself,' said Lewis, and he did so, prolifically, publishing around 40 books, most of them on Christian apologetics. The best known of these is The Screwtape Letters. Other notable works are a volume of autobiography, Surprised by Joy; The Shape of My Early Life and a novel based on the story of Psyche and Cupid, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold.

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Q. How about J.K. Rowling

A. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books have been likened to both Lewis and Tolkein, but the big difference between hers and theirs is that the latter are fantasies for adults - despite what Lewis may have said - anchored in the social complexities and psychological matters that mirror the world we actually live in.

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See also the answerbank article on the Lord of the Rings

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By Simon Smith