Later on when I was an adult, my mother (she was a mystic, I'm sure) gave me a boxed set of the books and said I should read them. And I did. About every 4 years or so, I'd pull them out and read them again. Then they sat, until after I watched the movie Flow and felt some sort of Narnian feeling, although I'm sure there is no connection except in my mind. I honestly love the way C.S. Lewis crafted the words so carefully to give the stories that feel that they were being spoken rather than read. So many little "Easter Eggs" planted to help the reader understand and relate it to their own modern world. 

Does anyone here have the same impression or feelings about the word "magic" C.S. Lewis created? 

And now, I guess I'll have to read some of his books for adults! 

I've read Lewis fans opine that they imagine a story about the adult Susan coming back to Narnia would be like Orual's story in TWHF. I doubt this since to me, Susan and Orual seem like opposites. Even their similarities emphasize their differences. (Major Spoilers Ahead!)

For example, both Susan and Orual become great queens, but TWHF shows that this doesn't necessarily make her a good person whereas in the Narnia books a good ruler always equals a generally good person. TWHF also shows that some of Orual's good actions as queen, such as freeing some of her slaves, also benefit her personally and that she owes a lot to her advisers. It's a more complex, adult look at politics than we see in Narnia. (I don't mean that to criticize Narnia BTW! It's not trying to give any complex, adult look at politics.) 

Both queens have a maternal streak despite never marrying. Orual serves as a mother to her half-sister, Psyche, and Edmund accuses Susan of "trying to talk like Mother" at the beginning of LWW and it's implied she serves as a mother figure to Corin in HHB. But while Orual's motherly relationship with Psyche starts out well (though there's foreshadowing early on that it's unhealthily possessive and obsessive) but she ends up being abusive to her. Susan, on the other, seems like a good mother figure. (I imagine she was a better mother to Corin than she was to her siblings but that's because she was older then.) 

When Orual becomes queen, she excels at taking on a traditionally masculine role. (In her misogynistic culture, there was probably no other way she could rule.) Susan, on the other hand, "is more like an ordinary grown-up lady." In The Last Battle, we're told that Susan is "interested in nothing except nylons and lipstick and invitations." But Orual, who has a lot of what the kids these days call internalized misogyny, looks down on women who are interested in her culture's equivalent of "nylons and lipstick." As for invitations, she really doesn't enjoy the only official feast she attends as queen.

We're also told that Susan is "no good at schoolwork (though otherwise very old for her age.") Orual, on the other hand, is a good student which is part of what enables her to become a great queen despite the odds stacked against her. Another thing Orual has that Susan hasn't is stamina. Susan is the Pevensie most likely to complain or worry about danger. I can't say Orual doesn't complain since the entire book she narrates begins as a "complaint against the gods" but she's a lot more physically tough. 

The flipside of that is that Susan has a lot of compassion even on her rivals whereas Orual, partly because of the cruel world in which she grows up, can be ruthless. I feel like if Rabadash made a move on Orual, she'd...well, at first, she'd probably be flattered because someone was attracted to her for once but then she'd cut off his head. {ym}:giggle:  

The most obvious difference is that Susan is the beauty of her family both in Narnia and in England whereas Orual has a face that could stop a clock. If anything, Lucy is more of a parallel to Orual in VDT: outwardly loving towards her prettier sister but envious and resentful deep down.

On reflection though, I do think there's a parallel to be drawn between Susan and Orual, just not with the Susan in The Last Battle. In Prince Caspian, it's implied that Susan initially can't see Aslan because it would be more convenient for her if he wasn't really there. In Till We Have Faces, Orual can't see Psyche's palace because (on a more subconscious level than Susan) she doesn't want it to exist. 

I still think Orual and Susan would hate each other if they met. But then again, a big theme in TWHF is that the people Orual hates the most are those with whom she has much in common. {ym}:wink:  

This is the book by my former professor (it is a later edition with a slightly different title):

https://www.amazon.com/Way-into-Narnia-Readers-Guide/dp/0802829848

I strongly recommend reading it if you haven’t already.  :)

It's The Official Facebook Page for C. S. Lewis and his work. It's called C.S.Lewis Official.
It says the page is administered by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins. www.cslewis.com

The post says:
Lent begins today, and so does our journey through Preparing for Easter! This devotional from C.S. Lewis offers powerful reflections to guide us in contemplating the 'grand miracle' of the Resurrection

I wondered about buying an e-copy.However, when I looked on Amazon, I was very much discouraged.One of the reviews from someone who bought and read it is disappointing:
This book is nothing what it leads you to believe. It says 50 devotionals for Preparing for Easter. However, out of the whole book there is approx five articles that you could apply for Easter. For each C.S. Lewis article it lists two Bible reading, but none of the readings relate to the articles. I think the book was put together using the popularity of C.S. Lewis's writings for financial benefits only. It is certainly not a book that can be used for what it states. I do not recommend you buying it if you want a study for Easter.

Someone was paid by HarperCollins to collect readings from Lewis to sell as a devotional for Easter, and it was this disappointing to a reader (presumably a Lewis fan). To sell a book specifically for Easter that doesn't seem to have relevant material is disappointing.
Furthermore, the cover decoration style suggests it was written/published during Lewis's lifetime, which is a bit sneaky - some people might think it's a reprint of an older book.

I wonder if other people have encountered collections like this, or this one in particular. If so, what was your reaction?

C.S. Lewis: The Space Trilogy

I haven't read the books yet but this will probably be the incentive I need to finally read them. 

It sounds kind of interesting as a sort of illustrated biography of both men's careers and the impact they had on fantasy literature 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/27/books/review/john-hendrix-the-mythmakers-cs-lewis-jrr-tolkien.html

https://amzn.eu/iY8IebN

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b4f56ffb10598d133ef201f/1718987534808-Z3VJ6I4VT4IH65NWESK2/Mythmakers_JH.jpg

https://www.johnhendrix.com/#/the-mythmakers/

In some ways the premise reminds me a bit of the "Here There Be Dragons" book series by James A Owen, however those were such heavily fictionalised versions of Lewis and Tolkien that it all felt a bit pointless, whereas this does at least seem to be based on their actual lives.

https://www.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=Douglas+Gresham

https://soundcloud.com/harpercollinspublishers/the-abolition-of-man-by-c-s-1

https://www.harperlibrarybookclub.com/9780063136687/c-s-lewis-essential-audio-library/

You can also find a number of talks on YouTube.

You may like to post a link in a reply, if you find other sites, or a Youtube talk you liked.

I just found this recent article from the UK Daily Telegraph that gives us a delightful new discovery — a previously unknown poem by Lewis that he wrote as a gratitude gift for friends, a scholarly couple, Dr Ida and Eric Gordon, with whom he'd stayed overnight and deeply appreciated their hospitality:

Unknown CS Lewis poem on whiskey and warm blankets discovered 

You can read the whole of the poem and the background to it in the linked article, which I think should be accessible to everyone. 

And that's not all... at the end of the article, we're told something I wasn't aware of — that starting this week, from 24th April to 11th September 2024, there's going to be an exhibition on Lewis and his works at Magdalen College in Oxford! Here's the link to the details for anyone who may be able to get there:

C. S. Lewis: Words and Worlds

Well, there's an excuse for me to get down to Oxford some time in the next few months!! {ym}:dancing: (I've been there a number of times before, when I lived closer to Oxford than I do now, but not since 2018, I think it was, when there was an exhibition on Tolkien.) I will definitely report my impressions and would love to hear if any other NarniaWebbers are able to go.