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  • Planet Narnia

  • The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis
  • By: Michael Ward
  • Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
  • Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)
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Planet Narnia

By: Michael Ward
Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
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Summary

For over half a century, scholars have labored to show that C. S. Lewis' famed but apparently disorganized Chronicles of Narnia 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 Faerie Queene. None of these explanations has won general acceptance, and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery.  

Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In Planet Narnia, 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' writings, 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". Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles 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.  

Planet Narnia is a groundbreaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the Chronicles, but of Lewis' whole literary and theological outlook.

©2008 Oxford University Press, Inc. (P)2019 Tantor

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    5 out of 5 stars

There is this weird replay in Mercury BUT..

...otherwise it's an excellent reading of this fine work of scholarship.

However, I would recommend having the book within reach, so that the more complex parts may be listened to with the text. Anyone coming to this having read only the Narnia Chronicles will find they have much more to catch up on!

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Riveting

An in depth exploration of CS Lewis’ world. I do need to listen again with a dictionary, as the vocabulary is in the doctorate range, but the voyage through Narnia is too gripping to bother with that at the first listen.

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A proficient, astounding and revelatory study connecting the dots across the cosmos.

This book has moved to the top row on my bookshelf to the line of absolute must reads. Not only is this a breathtaking journey of discovery engaging the mind of CS Lewis but it is exhilarating, like the unraveling of a treasure map. It not only looks comprehensively at the links between his other works but it teaches the reader how to think. The author brings out that very tricky balance, mind and spirit. Bravo.

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