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

Hailed as "an outstanding guide not only to Narnia, but also to Lewis's thinking as a whole" by Books and Culture and as "absorbing . . . serious . . . rich . . . a brilliant work to be savored, read often and kept at hand when re-reading Lewis's novels" by The Catholic Register, this superb book argues convincingly that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated C.S. Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to understanding the seven Narnia novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the Chronicles), Ward shows that the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets-the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter 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 the story-line in each book, countless points of ornamental detail, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality.