Into the Wardrobe

This topic has probably been addressed in previous threads, but I haven't been back to the wardrobe for a few years.

I got my first set of the Chronicles at the age of 11. They enchanted me and were the birth of my love for reading. My naivete led me to think that all works of fiction were this enchanting. How sorely disappointed I quickly became. There have been a few other books that gave me a glimpse of the joy that I'd experienced in the Chronicles. A couple of examples are:

- Works by Stephen Donaldson, especially the Thomas Covenant series.

- The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin. A wonderful "supposal" although depressing at times. Then again, so is The Last Battle.

I'm wondering what other books this community has read that has given them a similar glimpse of joy.

Blessings,

- Dan -

I've had The Book of Sorrows on my shelf for about a decade. I'm worried at how depressing it will be. If Dun Cow brought me down, I've heard that Sorrows might lead me to suicidal tendencies!

Well, I don't know about suicidal, but it is one to cry through.

Lord of the Rings is at the top of the list, of course.

Another obvious choice is George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin, and The Princess and Curdie, not to mention At the Back of North Wind.

Any book written by E. Nesbit (a favorite author of Lewis') but especially Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Enchanted Castle.

Knock Three Times! by Marion St. John Webb is one of my favorite tales of enchantment. It's definitely comparable to CoN.

Another pretty tale is Granny's Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne which is really a compilation of several shorter stories into one big story where the characters all finally meet in the end.

I'm sure I'll think of some more later. Classic children's fantasy is a hobby of mine.

For that pure enjoyment of wonderment and exploration of an unknown and fascinating place that I remember feeling so strongly with the Narnia books, I also felt it with two of Arthur C. Clarke's books. The first was Clarke's first novel The City and the Stars (it is a novel length expansion of the novella Against the Fall of Night which is wonderful too, though best to get the entire novel if one can). It is not just "in the future", but millions of years in the future -- how can an author possibly presume to extrapolate that far into the future? But Clarke does it without having it seem dated as many Science Fiction books are susceptible to. (By the way, there was a sequel to Against the Fall of Night, not by Clarke, called Beyond the Fall of Night that is interesting, but in no way compares to the wonder I felt for the original.)

The other Clarke book that gave me that feeling of wonder was Rendezvous with Rama. Again, there were several sequels churned out, some with mild interest, but in no way, to me, comparing to the first book.

I might also add the Swallows and Amazons books by Arthure Ransome (there are 12 of them). These and the Clarke books of course do not have the "fantasy" and theological elements that Narnia has (though they have glimpses of something joyful in the human mind that somewhat corresponds I think), but they have that "longing for that distant hillside" that Lewis refers to in his description of joy (at least for me -- each person has their own particular sources of joy, I'm sure)

(Of course Wind in the Willows and LotR fall into place here, but they have been mentioned already.)

--Stanley

I was going to mention the Arthur Ransome books, but I figured they didn't really fall into the fantasy category and I'd already given a long list. But you're so right! The Swallows and Amazons books do give you that 'joy of living' feeling like CoN does.

What would be the first of the Ransome books to read?

The Squire's Tale (and sequals) by Gerald Morris
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
The Redwall series by Brian Jacques

I second the reccomendation for Watership Down, Redwall, and Dark is Rising.
And I'll add to the list what are commonly known as the 'Shoe' books by Noel Streatfeild. Ballet Shoes is my favorite, but Dancing Shoes, Theater Shoes and Skating Shoes are also quite good.