by Johnny
I came across an interesting article by Devin Brown on Christianity Today, which shows some similarities between the title character Prince Caspian and the life of C.S. Lewis.
Brown, who is a Professor of English at Asbury College, wrote:
Lewis and Caspian share another element—one more significant than all the others, for it changed the direction of their entire lives. The desire for another world which they both experienced as young boys did not remain unsatisfied longing. In a dramatic turnaround, Doctor Cornelius reveals to Caspian, “All you have heard about Old Narnia is true.” In a same way, through the help of J. R. R. Tolkien and their fellow Inkling Hugo Dyson, Lewis came to see that the Christian story was not just a myth like the others which he loved, but a myth that “became fact.”
The fact that some authors infuse autobiographical details of themselves in their characters is nothing new. To give an example from Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling said on more than one occasion that Hermione is an exaggerated version of herself when she was a bookish youngster at Chepstow. Brown’s article gives much food for thought on not only Prince Caspian, but the author, C.S. Lewis.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the mention of my piece on Caspian. You are eactly right about J.K. Rowling and Hermione. It is thought that Tolkien used Lewis’s booming voice in this portrayal of Treebeard.
Hey i think you are right. I have read quite a lot about C.S. Lewis and have learned what you have written. I have read Prince Caspian and that’s why i know!
Devin, yeah, I’ve heard that about Treebeard-Lewis before as well. Nice article, by the way.
I think we could also add that there are bound to be strong Rowling-Harry parallels, as Rowling had to get inside Harry’s mind more than any of the other characters. She said as much to Stephen Fry during an interview in 2005.
I found parallels in The Magician’s Nephew as well between Diggory and Lewis. C.S. Lewis lost his mother at a young age – she lost a terrible battle with cancer. Lewis wrote very movingly of how terrible it was for Diggory to watch his mother suffer, and you can hear the ring of his experience in the writing.
I was thrilled to see this post, since I graduated from Asbury College in 2006 and have gotten to hear Dr. Brown speak in a number of circumstances, though I never had the opportunity to take any of his classes (though I wanted to).
I don’t know if this is correct, but I am under the impression that Lewis paid some homage to Tolkien in the character of philologist Elwin Ransom in his space trilogy.
“It is thought that Tolkien used Lewis’s booming voice in this portrayal of Treebeard.”
Is there any recordings of Lewis online. Any lectures, perhaps?
Yes there are some of C.S. Lewis recordings online, including Beyond Personality (the only serving BBC recording of Lewis’s famous talks during WWII that became the book Mere Christianity) and an Intoduction to The Great Divorce at the BBC’s website, both of which I have on my iPod. Also there are three clips of Lewis reading from The Four Loves. Just click on the first three links at Into the Wardrobe. Hope that helps Kjetil.