A Reader’s Guide to Caspian: A Journey into C. S. Lewis’s Narnia By Leland Ryken and Marjorie Lamp Mead

It is an odd fact that many adults, when given the choice, will just read kids books. Why do we condescend, time and again, to follow a few children into a magical woodland? C. S. Lewis scholar Marjorie Lamp Mead and literary specialist Leland Ryken have provided us with a hint.

A Reader’s Guide to Caspian is meant to give vocabulary to that intangible delight we feel while reading Lewis’s fantasy. The “journey” Mead and Ryken have prepared is a literary one. Delving into literary forms and devices such as allegory and “rescue motif,” they tastefully reveal the method behind the story’s magic.

And if you suspect these authors to be a couple heartless lab coats, eager to terminate the spirit of a masterpiece—rest assured. Here are Leland Ryken and Marjorie Lamp Mead’s introductory words to readers who have yet to read Caspian for the first time:

“We say to those who are about to embark upon our reader’s guide to Prince Caspian: ‘DON’T READ THIS! Not yet.’ Instead, curl up in a corner somewhere quiet and settle down to read …. And once you have enjoyed this classic tale in its superb and unique richness, then pick up this reader’s guide once again and join with us in conversation about story generally and Prince Caspian in particular.”

See ivpress.com to read more about A Reader’s Guide to Caspian and the first book, A Reader’s Guide Through the Wardrobe.

Interview with Caspian movie co-producer Douglas Gresham