Milton, Spenser and The Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C. S. Lewis Novels (review)

As Elizabeth Baird Hardy acknowledges in her introduction, the manifold literary sources for C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia have provided many critics of children's literature with fertile material for academic analysis. In this detailed and scholarly study, Hardy examines the ways in which Lewis echoes and references various aspects of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen and John Milton's Paradise Lost, while never losing sight of the manner in which Lewis interweaves these elements with both Christian spirituality and a consciousness of more secular twentieth-century cultural references, such as Disney and Father Christmas. Hardy acknowledges the diverse influences involved in the creative process of a writer, touching on the influence Lewis's fellow writers in the Oxford-based group "The Inklings" may have had on his work, particularly the fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien, and occasionally referring the reader to influential biographical incidents.

Divided into five distinct sections, the study employs close analysis of specific examples to demonstrate how Spenserian and Miltonic literary tropes inform Lewis's treatment of characterization and geographical setting. Hardy examines the influence of courtly and biblical depictions of evil in feminine form, positive female characters, evil in mortal men, monsters, and "misled" repentant protagonists on Lewis's Chronicles, she also compares comparing the geographical settings of Narnia and its predecessors. In addition, Hardy explores and compares the spiritual and theological standpoints of Lewis and his source writers.

Meticulously referenced and supported, Hardy's close examination provides more than just detailed evidence to substantiate her claim for the significance of these two particular literary sources for Lewis's Chronicles; she provides a convincing explanation for Lewis's use of courtly tradition beyond his academic admiration for his sources and a subconscious referencing of favorite literary works. In her discussion of Lewis's treatment of sinful women in chapter 1, Hardy identifies the difficulty faced by Lewis in representing sins of the flesh. By employing recognizable courtly signifiers for sinful women, Hardy argues, Lewis avoids explicit references to lasciviousness in a work for children, a topic touched upon again in chapter 2's discussion of monstrous giants with huge, unnatural, gastronomic appetites. The sensory temptations that the juvenile protagonists find it difficult to resist are presented in the form of comfort—warm baths and beds, good food, and nice clothes. The fantasy genre, Hardy argues, provided Lewis with a form of literature in which the dangers of evil could be represented to children without being too frightening.

Less convincingly, and seemingly motivated by her own academic admiration for Lewis, in chapter 2 Hardy employs the justification of courtly tradition as an explanation for Lewis's negative depiction of the "dark" Calormenes. Hardy's veneration of Lewis, as a writer and a theologian, occasionally leads her to try and defend him against any criticism, and her vindication of Lewis on this point is not a completely persuasive exoneration of him from accusations of racism. However, Hardy's defense of Lewis against allegations of misogyny in chapter 3 is more compelling and more comprehensively supported. She cites Spenser's female warrior, Britomart, a brave yet feminine woman, as the ideal template for Lewis's female warriors. Hardy's emphasis that all of the texts discussed were intended to be allegorical, including the Chronicles—she stresses on a number of occasions that Lewis never intended Aslan to "equal Christ; rather he represents how Christ might appear in a country like Narnia" (112)—provides an explanation for the virgin/whore dichotomy that appears to afflict the representation of many female characters in all the texts, "[s]ubtle character shadings are not suitable for allegory, particularly when characters must represent idealized images of concepts such as chastity and temperance" (101).

Chapter 4 examines the roots of Lewis's representation of the geography of Narnia and also addresses the ongoing debate regarding the order the books should be read in—either...