In the Fall Issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, we featured an article about The Chronicles of Narnia and a fascinating interview with Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis and a firm supporter of homeschooling. If you have not obtained this issue, you will want to find it. Back issues are available if you would like to read this exciting interview! And click on the Christmas graphic to the right to subscribe - we have a buy one get one free campaign happening right now! There are great pictures and more information about the upcoming movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is due in theaters on December 9.

We recommend that you and your family read the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, before you view the movie, if you have not done so already. Below are background materials and some ways that you can incorporate this book into your educational activities. Links to other resources will help flesh out this study even further, if you desire to do so. If you plan to view the film, this would also be an excellent opportunity to prepare your kids and make the most of the movie. You can use the ideas below and culminate the study with a family film field trip!

About C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis, known as Jack to his friends, is now regarded as one of the most important and influential literary and Christian figures of the twentieth century. He was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1898, the son of a successful but stern father and a loving mother. He had one brother, Warnie, who became a well-known historian and remained Lewis’s companion through much of the course of his life.

When Lewis was 10, his mother died as a result of cancer. This early tragedy scarred him, and he began to doubt the love of a God who would ignore his childish prayers for her survival. After her death, he was sent to a boarding school with an eccentric headmaster who was later declared insane. His education then consisted of various prep schools and terms with private tutors. During this time, he was awakened intellectually, but he came to completely cast off any remnants of his religious upbringing and to consider himself an atheist.

He entered Oxford University, but World War I soon interrupted his plans. He enlisted in the British Army and trained as an officer. By his nineteenth birthday, he was serving on the front lines in France, facing some of the most ghastly battles of the war. His former Oxford roommate, Paddy Moore, was killed in the conflict after having elicited a promise from Lewis to care for his mother and sister in the event of his death. After the war, Lewis returned to England and fulfilled that request for many years until the death of Mrs. Moore, often at great personal and financial sacrifice.

Lewis returned to Oxford in 1919 and eventually earned a First in Honour Moderations (Greek and Latin Literature) in 1920, a First in Greats (Philosophy and Ancient History) in 1922, and a First in English in 1923. He was a brilliant scholar and was reputed to have a nearly photographic memory with almost total recall for everything he ever read. In 1925, he was elected as a Fellow of the Magdalen College in Oxford, where he served as a tutor in English Language and Literature for 29 years before taking a position at Cambridge, where he served until shortly before his death.

In 1929, the tide began to turn for him spiritually. He admitted the existence of God and became a theist, though he still did not accept Christianity. It was not until 1931, after a conversation with friends and colleagues J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson that Lewis came to accept the sacrifice of Christ in atoning for his sins. He marked his conversion from this time period and recounts the experience in his partial autobiography Surprised by Joy.

In 1933, Lewis and Tolkien began an informal gathering of friends and writers called the Inklings. These friends, including others such as Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson, met semi-regularly at a pub called the Eagle and Child and shared ideas and works of literature with one another. It was in this setting that many of both Lewis’s and Tolkien’s best-known works were born and nurtured. Both Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings were among works read aloud to this group as they were produced. According to Lewis’s biographer and stepson, Douglas Gresham, these meetings were characterized by laughter and good-natured criticism of one another’s works that served to refine the literary efforts of the participants.

Lewis went on to write many books in the realm of lay theology and became a popular Christian writer, lecturer, and radio personality. His keen apologetics in defense of Christianity earned him many enemies as well as innumerable friends. He had a clear, insightful way of delivering truth that has made him one of the most quoted men of his generation.

Lewis did not marry until 1956, when he married a woman 17 years his junior in controversial circumstances. Joy Davidman Gresham was a renowned American poet and writer in her own right. The two had struck up a friendship through literary correspondence initiated by Joy, who had converted from Communism to Christianity largely as a result of reading Lewis’s works. After her divorce from an unfaithful husband, Joy assumed her maiden name and moved to England with her two young sons, where her friendship with Lewis grew. In 1956, Lewis married her in a civil ceremony as an act of friendship to prevent her deportation from England. That same year, it was discovered that Joy had cancer and doctors did not expect her to survive. C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman were again married at her hospital bedside—this time in a ceremony performed in accordance with the rites of the Church of England.

Unexpectedly, Joy’s cancer went into a period of remission for a few years. Lewis learned to love Joy as the wife he had never expected to have, and the two enjoyed a brief time of companionship before cancer claimed her life in 1960. Joy was only 45 at the time of her death. Their amazing love story has been recounted on stage and screen in the work Shadowlands and to some extent in Lewis’s own work A Grief Observed. After Joy’s death, Lewis assumed the care of Joy’s two sons, David and Douglas, though they never took his name. As Douglas Gresham explains, Lewis felt that the boys should keep the Gresham name to honor the father whom God had given them. Their natural father committed suicide shortly after the death of Joy Davidman Lewis.

Lewis’s own health began to decline dramatically after the death of his wife. He died in 1963, just one week before his sixty-fifth birthday. His death occurred on November 22, the same day as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though his life was cut short, his influence remains in the many writings he left behind and in the land of Narnia, which he opened before our eyes.

See below for other works by and about C.S. Lewis

About the Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of books that C.S. Lewis wrote as a “fairy-tale for children” because he felt that the children’s tale genre suited the story he wanted to tell. Though the stories are often referred to as allegories (stories in which persons or objects represent other things beyond the surface meaning of the story), they are not complete allegories in the true sense of the word (though some allegorical elements certainly exist within them). Lewis intended them more to be “supposals.” Suppose, he thought, a world existed where Talking Beasts roamed the land and the characters of mythology really sprang to life? Suppose Evil entered that world? Suppose the Son of God ruled that world? What form would He take? How would He reveal His character? Lewis’s “supposals” are contained in The Chronicles of Narnia. Through these stories, we gain a fresh vision of human nature and the interactions of a just yet loving God with the created beings of His world.

The Chronicles of Narnia consists of seven books:

The Magician’s Nephew—Though this was not the first book written, it is the first in the chronology of Narnia. Lewis later expressed a wish that this book would be placed first in collections of The Chronicles of Narnia, and some more recent collections honor that wish. The Magician’s Nephew recounts the adventures of Digory and his friend Polly, who get swept up in the odd adventures of Digory’s power-hungry and mad uncle, a magician of sorts who discovers an awesome secret. In the course of these adventures, the two children find themselves witnessing the creation of Narnia and the entrance of Evil into the infant world.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—This was the first book written and remains the most popular of all of the Narnian Chronicles. Because of this (and other reasons), it was also chosen as the first to be made into the new film version. Many people still prefer to read this book first. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe recounts the adventures of the four Pevensie children who are visiting the home of Digory (now a grown man and a Professor) and discover a portal to the realm of Narnia.

The Horse and His Boy—The third book relates adventures of a Talking Horse named Bree and his boy (named Shasta) who live in Narnia during the reign of Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy. If you want to know how the children came to rule Narnia, read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you want to know what happens to Bree and Shasta, read this book. There are very interesting girl characters in this book as well (both human and horse).

Prince Caspian—The four Pevensie children are plucked from our world and sent back to Narnia to aid Prince Caspian and attempt to save the kingdom from grave danger. They find that much time has passed in Narnia, things have changed considerably, and they themselves have passed into legend.

At a recent conference I attended with Co-Producer Douglas Gresham, he hinted that if the first Narnia movie proved successful, the second one made would likely be Prince Caspian. This is largely because it contains many of the same characters as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and child actors do not remain child actors long.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader—In this tale, Edmund and Lucy are again sent back to Narnia. This time they are accompanied by their bratty cousin, who is called Eustace Clarence Scrubb (and almost deserves it). While in Narnia, they take an epic sea voyage with Prince Caspian and his crew and encounter strange and marvelous adventures on the way. The wonderful images and tremendous lessons of this book make it well worth the literary voyage.

The Silver Chair—This time, Eustace and his new friend Jill are plucked from the terrors of their boarding school and sent to Narnia to face even greater dangers. The two are given a seemingly impossible task: to find the bewitched son of King Caspian and restore him to Narnia before it is too late. In the course of the quest, they learn more about themselves as well.

The Last Battle—A poignant ending to a truly remarkable series, The Last Battle tells of several of the Friends of Narnia returning to help in her greatest hour of need. By the end, the Friends learn more about the nature of both Narnia and our own world and discover even greater wonders. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but a great battle is in there somewhere.