Tales Before Narnia - The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction

Douglas A. Anderson

Random House Publishing Group

2003

432 páginas

14h 24m

ISBN-13: 9780345458551

In his acclaimed collection Tales Before Tolkien, Douglas A. Anderson illuminated the sources, inspirations, and influences that fired J.R.R. Tolkien’s genius. Now Anderson turns his attention to Tolkien’s colleague and friend C. S. Lewis, whose influence on modern fantasy, through his beloved Narnia books, is second only to Tolkien’s own.

In many ways, Lewis’s influence has been even wider than Tolkien’s. For in addition to the Narnia series, Lewis wrote groundbreaking works of science fiction, urban fantasy, and religious allegory, and he came to be regarded as among the most important Christian writers of the twentieth century. It will come as no surprise, then, that such a wide-ranging talent drew inspiration from a variety of sources. Here are twenty of the tributaries that fed Lewis’s unique talent, among them:

“The Wood That Time Forgot: The Enchanted Wood,” taken from a never-before-published fantasy by Lewis’s biographer and friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, that directly inspired The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; E. Nesbit’s charming “The Aunt and Amabel,” in which a young girl enters another world by means of a wardrobe; “The Snow Queen,” by Hans Christian Andersen, featuring the abduction of a young boy by a woman as cruel as she is beautiful; and many more, including works by Charles Dickens, Kenneth Grahame, G. K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald, of whom Lewis would write, “I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master.”

Full of fascinating insights into Lewis’s life and fiction, Tales Before Narnia is the kind of book that will be treasured by children and adults alike and passed down lovingly from generation to generation.

Resenhas (1)

5 (Perfeito)

São 20 contos e histórias percursoras não somente da série Crônicas de Nárnia, mas dos outros trabalhos de ficção de Lewis. Claro que nessa lista não podia faltar o conto de Hans Christian Andersen, “The Snow Queen: a tale of seven histories”, mas fiquei surpresa de encontrar um conto de Tolkien, “The dragon’s visit”. Ao início de capa capítulo existe um textinho introdutório sobre o autor, e no final do livro existe também notinhas biográficas sobre eles. Eu tenho esse livro (ebook) guardado (empatado, na verdade) faz um tempão, então resolvi ler para o desafio achando que seria uma coisa e foi outra (no bom sentido). Recomendo