{"product_id":"9780199738700","title":"Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor over half a century, scholars have laboured to show that C. S. Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised \u003ci\u003eChronicles of Narnia\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eFaerie Queene.\u003c\/i\u003e None of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In \u003ci\u003ePlanet Narnia\u003c\/i\u003e 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 Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the \u003ci\u003eChronicles),\u003c\/i\u003e Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval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 \u003ci\u003eChronicles\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003econna tre\u003c\/i\u003e knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ePlanet Narnia\u003c\/i\u003e is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the \u003ci\u003eChronicles,\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47014839976176,"sku":"9780199738700","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780199738700_p0.jpg?v=1763671631","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780199738700","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}