Pocket Companion to Narnia: A Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis

by Paul F. Ford

Overview

The pocket guide is an adventurer's passport to the land of Narnia. From Aslan, the great lion, to Zardeenah, the mysterious lady of the night, this comprehensive and accessible companion contains hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries covering all the characters, events, places, and themes that Lewis magically wove into his timeless and magical world.

This little book will be perfect for the millions of kids and parents who already love the Narnia books and want to go deeper into that world, as well as for those newly drawn to the story by the Narnia movie. The Pocket Companion is a perfect gift book, a natural movie tie-in, and will continue to help readers and fans get closer to the magical world of Narnia for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061749575
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Paul Ford, Ph.D., founder of the Southern California C. S. Lewis Society, has been a student of the life and writings of C. S. Lewis for over forty years. He is a professor of theology and liturgy at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo, California.

Read an Excerpt

Pocket Companion to Narnia

A Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis

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By Paul F. Ford

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright © 2005 Paul F. Ford
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0060791284

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Advice to an Intelligent Reader
from an Intelligent Reader or
Reading This Will Make You Smarter

This book has many spoilers! Please read the Chronicles of Narnia first. Only then read this Pocket Companion. I can't be your companion until you have "gone there" first.

C. S. Lewis wrote these books for you, and he meant you to read them with your head and your heart and your feelings. The books are so exciting that you will probably race through them the first time. OK.

But when you reread them, pay attention to the color words, the verbs, the adjectives, and the adverbs.

Try to avoid looking for hidden meanings, as if the Chronicles were codebooks.

C. S. Lewis was very careful not to decode the Chronicles for the children who wrote him about their meaning. Typical of his responses is the answer he made to Hila Newman when she wrote to him about the meaning of the ending of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

As to Aslan's other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas (2) Said he was the son of the Great Emperor (3) Gave himself up for someone else's fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people (4) Came to life again (5) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb (see the end of The Dawn Treader). Don't you really know His name in this world? Think it over and let me know your answer! (Letters to Children, 3 June 1953)

In Which Order Should the
Chronicles Be Read?

The Order by Year of First Publication --
the Canonical Order

Before 1994 there was only one reading order, what scholars have come to call the canonical order, the order in which the chronicles were first published, and they were numbered accordingly:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (published 1950)
Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (published 1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the Caspian triad (published 1952)
The Silver Chair (published 1953)
The Horse and His Boy (published 1954)
The Magician's Nephew (published 1955)
The Last Battle (published 1956)

So, although C. S. Lewis completed The Horse and His Boy before The Silver Chair, the latter was published first, in order to keep together the triad of books in which Caspian is a major character ...

Continues...

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Excerpted from Pocket Companion to Narnia by Paul F. Ford Copyright © 2005 by Paul F. Ford. Excerpted by permission.
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