or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
25 used & new from £7.25
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis (Hardcover)

by Michael Ward (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
RRP: £19.99
Price: £10.19 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £9.80 (49%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 24? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
18 new from £7.25 5 used from £8.79 2 collectible from £48.99
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback £9.99 £8.49
12 Days of Christmas Sale in Books
12 Days of Christmas Sale in Books
Get up to 65% off some of our top titles. Shop now

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set by C. S. Lewis

Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis + The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set
Price For Both: £36.18

Show availability and delivery details

  • This item: Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Michael Ward

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set by C. S. Lewis

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Canto)

The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Canto)

by C. S. Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £10.58
Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles

Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles

by David C. Downing
£10.19
Out of the Silent Planet

Out of the Silent Planet

by C. S. Lewis
4.4 out of 5 stars (27)  £4.95
That Hideous Strength

That Hideous Strength

by C. S. Lewis
4.5 out of 5 stars (18)  £5.96
Perelandra

Perelandra

by C. S. Lewis
4.3 out of 5 stars (22)  £5.46
› Explore similar items

Product details

Product Description

Review

...remarkable thesis... (Tom Wright, Times Literary Supplement )

Michael Ward has written a book whose 'donegality' is the medieval scholarship, the poetic craftsmanship, the philosophical acumen and the imaginative genius of the self-conciously Jovial Lewis himself. (Tom Wright, Times Literary Supplement )

'Planet Narnia' is a valuable and excellently argued contribution to our understanding and enjoyment of the Nariad.

Revelatory book. (Peter Costello, The Irish Catholic )

Brilliant study. (Murrough O'Brian, Independent On Sunday. )


Product Description

Over the years, scholars have labored to show that C. S. Lewis's famed 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 nature of Narnia's symbolism has remained a puzzle. Michael Ward has finally solved the mystery. In Planet Narnia, he argues convincingly 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 Chronicles), Ward shows that the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets - the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter 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 Chronicles so that the story-line in each book, countless points of ornamental detail, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality. For instance, in The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader," the sun is the prevailing planetary spirit: magical water turns things to gold, the solar metal; Aslan is seen flying in a sunbeam; and the sun's rising place is actually identified as the destination of the plot: "the very eastern end of the world." Planet Narnia is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major reassessment not only of the Chronicles, but of Lewis's whole literary and theological outlook, revealing him to be a much subtler writer and thinker than has previously been recognized.

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(10)
(6)
(6)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 13 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis
89% buy the item featured on this page:
Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis 4.3 out of 5 stars (14)
£10.19
The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set
7% buy
The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set 4.7 out of 5 stars (155)
£25.99
Out of the Silent Planet
2% buy
Out of the Silent Planet 4.4 out of 5 stars (27)
£4.95
That Hideous Strength
1% buy
That Hideous Strength 4.5 out of 5 stars (18)
£5.96
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
165 of 166 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A 'must-read' for anyone serious about C.S. Lewis, 9 Mar 2008
By T. Cooke "a hnau" (Midlands, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I continue to be astonished by the sheer depth and breadth of research, investigation and knowledge exhibited by those who are passionate about the writings of C.S. Lewis; even those who are not professional academics or theologians go to tremendous lengths to understand and relate small details of Lewis's life and the background to his writings. Michael Ward's book goes far beyond this; he moves easily across the whole breadth of Lewis's own writings, the literature with which Lewis was familiar (which is to say, most of the literature of Western civilisation), and the subsequent critical and biographical writings about Lewis and his works. I'm not qualified to judge the correctness of his central thesis - that the Chronicles of Narnia are themed on the seven planets of the medieval cosmology. But whether Ward is right about this or not, he has certainly produced a work that achieves something else of great importance; he illustrates again, and powerfully, in detail, the fundamental unity of the whole of Lewis's works, arising from the consistency of Lewis's thought and understanding of the nature of things. He answers some of the more well-known criticisms of recent biographers and commentators (specifically, A.N. Wilson and Philip Pullman). Although (and rightly) a scholarly book, which will best be appreciated by those who have some exposure to the same literature as Lewis or are prepared to go and look up references which they don't recognise, nevertheless this book can be read simply as an enlightening and enjoyable sketch of Lewis's major imaginative works - Narnia, the Cosmic Trilogy, some of his poetry. Highly recommended.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Harmony of the spheres, 6 May 2009
By AndrewL94 (Plymouth, U.K.) - See all my reviews
  
I have been a fan of C.S. Lewis since reading the Narnia books at the tender age of 10. When you like an author, you are keen to get your hands on more of his works. Not only did I discover a terrific sequence of science fiction books (the so-called cosmic trilogy), but I was surprised to discover that Lewis was both a Christian apologist and a very highly regarded medieval scholar (I would love to have been present at one of his Oxford lectures which have assumed legendary status).

There is something about the Narnia books, a mystical and poetical element which takes me back to them again and again. A similar atmosphere informs "The Lord of the rings" but is completely absent from the ubiquitous Harry Potter, whatever other qualities he may possess.

Michael Ward takes the credit for discovering a crucial and hitherto unguessed link between the seven Narnia novels and the seven "planets" of medieval cosmology (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, the Sun and the Moon). Incidentally these seven heavenly bodies correspond to the seven days of the week. As soon as he gets started on his exegesis, you realise he is on to a winner. By Chapter 3 I was convinced beyond doubt that Lewis did indeed base these works on his beloved astrological scheme - and deliberately concealed this fact from his readers.

This is not an easy book to read. In discussing Lewis's theology, Ward takes us into some fascinating and obscure backwaters of philosophy. I must admit he left me behind on a number of occasions. Here are some of the words scattered through the text - alterity, anaphora, chthonic, Eutychian, hesychastic, ichneutic, monophysite, oppugnancy, parousia, polysemy. If you understand these words, you will have no problem!

Despite his somewhat dense prose style, full credit must go to Michael Ward for an important discovery about these much-loved stories.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for fans of C S Lewis, 17 May 2009
By R. Porter (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis
Anyone who is a fan of C S Lewis and the Narnia stories will find this a fascinating books as Michael Ward argues that for each book Lewis had a particular planet in mind and that through that imagery he presented different aspects of Christ. This is the reworking of a doctoral thesis and whilst some may be offput by the technical details, others will revel in the detailed endnotes.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The Narnians Are Coming.
Mr. Ward has managed to piece together C.S Lewis' fictional, professional and poetic works to create a very sound thesis. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Someone

2.0 out of 5 stars An unproven Thesis
This is a scholarly work rather than light holiday reading but is, nevertheless, worth persevering with. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. J. Hastings

3.0 out of 5 stars A serious scholarly review
This is a serious scholarly treatise on C.S. Lewis and his interest in the planets both in myth and in science. Read more
Published 4 months ago by P. H. Lloyd

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Bought this for a present for an avid reader of C S Lewis who is currently enthralled with the book.
Published 4 months ago by John H. Gates

5.0 out of 5 stars An ideal companion.
For anyone who loves and regularly reads Lewis' works of fiction - the Narnia stories and his so-called 'Cosmic Trilogy' - Mr Ward's book is an ideal companion. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mooncarrot the Hare

5.0 out of 5 stars Coherent Narnia
For the first time I could see the thinking behind the series, and could appreciate that it was not just isolated one offs that happened to inhabit the same world. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. L. Keating

4.0 out of 5 stars Digging deeper in Narnia and Perelandra
Michael Ward is an Anglican minister who has caused a lot of excitement among his fellow academics and others by his claim to have 'found the key'to C S Lewis' fiction writings... Read more
Published 4 months ago by R. Bailey

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, stellar, heavenly
I found this book fascinating and exciting. Yes, it is academic, but then when I read "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" I found lots of words I didn't know. Read more
Published 5 months ago by A. Bickerstaffe

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone interested in C S Lewis
I agree that Michael Ward's book is a must for anyone interested in C S Lewis. I would also suggest that it is also a book by one of the few wise people and his views on theology... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Polly

4.0 out of 5 stars Planet Narnia - The Links Revealed
I have been reading the books by C.S.Lewis, including the Chronicles of Narnia, for over 40 years. Like many, I knew there must be a logical explanation for the incredible... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. David E. Buckley

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Recall Notice 3 June 2009
› See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject






















i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.