“Prince Caspian” Conclusion
C.S. Lewis Read-Along Vol. 2, Issue 17
We’ve come to the end of our read-along of Prince Caspian, our second volume in the Narnia read-along. Below are links and summaries for each issue, including introductory pieces and all 15 chapters.
You’ll also find links to the resources I used to create this read-along, including 30 works from C.S. Lewis, 18 works about him, and 11 others that give insight into his life and writing.
If you need help understanding why Prince Caspian is numbered as the fourth Narnia book by the publishers but we read it second, you can see the two articles I’ve written on the right reading order for “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
Paid subscribers have access to all the material for this book, as well as the previous read-along for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Prince Caspian: Introduction — In September 1949, Lewis was working on Prince Caspian. Despite his teaching load at Oxford, other academic requirements, and all the personal and health issues impacting his free time, he sent a copy to a friend in December 1950 for feedback and published less than a year later.
Chapter 1: “The Island” — In the first chapter of Prince Caspian, we can see how Narnia has already changed the Pevensie children, but we also see how small choices they make can move them toward a positive end or drag them further away. The seeds that come to fruition in The Last Battle are already starting to bud early in the second book.
Chapter 2: “The Ancient Treasure House” — The children have a strange feeling about the place they found themselves, while they still long to be in Narnia. Lucy even suggests they pretend they are in Cair Paravel. The imagination can precede our rational mind. The Pevensies don’t merely accept the imaginative possibility without using logic and tangible investigation, but their imagination helps lead them to the truth.
Chapter 3: “The Dwarf” — A coin toss between Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in 1936 could’ve led to a very different literary reality for the two Inklings. Tolkien was to write a time-travel story and Lewis a space-travel one. Neither ended up completing a full time-travel book but both incorporated issues of time moving differently in other works.
Chapter 4: “The Dwarf Tells of Prince Caspian” — The usurping king threatens Caspian and demands he rejects the old stories of Narnia. But stories are not so easily defeated. You do not snuff out an idea through sheer force. Instead of moving past those tales, Caspian “thought about the old stories of Narnia far more than before.”
Chapter 5: “Caspian’s Adventure in the Mountains” — In The Four Loves, Lewis wrote, “All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.” Our standard is eternity, not modernity. Truth is not the servant of time. Many characters in Prince Caspian must learn this lesson so do many in our world.
Chapter 6: “The People That Lived in Hiding” — Through his negative example, Nikabrik reminds us that we must cultivate courage and hope, or we will be ruled by fear and despair. No matter how grim things may seem, we must reject any temptation to use evil means even in attempts to accomplish good ends.
Chapter 7: ”Old Narnia in Danger” — Despair takes root in disappointments but is often watered by inconvenience. Lewis recognized the spiritual danger inherent in a growing list of small difficulties. In The Screwtape Letters, the senior demon notes gleefully that “the daily disappointment produces daily ill temper.”
Chapter 8: “How They Left the Island” — Despite spending much of his adult life as a childless bachelor, Lewis had great respect for children in person and in his writing. He believed fantasy stories for children provided something for them and even adult readers that could not be gained from more “true life” stories.
Chapter 9: “What Lucy Saw” — We know Lewis as a successful writer, but he faced numerous disappointments that could’ve derailed his life and work. Instead, they inspired much of his writing and gave him perspective on enduring and overcoming.
Chapter 10: “The Return of the Lion” — Despite his reputation as an apologist, much of Lewis’ writing is concerned with discipleship as much as evangelism. He writes on spiritual growth and the constant need for us to have our perception of God challenged and remade by fresh encounters with God.
Chapter 11 “The Lion Roars” — Trumpkin’s reluctant conversion mirrors Lewis’ own hesitant embrace of Christianity. But as he came to Christ, all of Lewis was changed, including his perspective on pagan mythology.
Chapter 12 “Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance” — Nikabrik gives us an example to avoid. We can see his progression through a pursuit of power and the inevitable destructive end. Lewis intended for us to see this as a cautionary tale.
Chapter 13 “The High King in Command” — Lewis spoke repeatedly about pride, calling it “spiritual cancer.” In this chapter, we see how everyone is susceptible to its effects, but having a community around us can help limit the damage it does.
Chapter 14 “How All Were Very Busy” — Both those who fought in the battle and those who danced with Aslan across the country were “very busy” in the necessary work. We need each other to fully accomplish the task God has given us.
Chapter 15: “Aslan Makes a Door in the Air” — Narnia gives us not only theological insight but a deeper perspective on humanity. By our creation, we are in the very image of God. But with our fall, we have been marred. All right understandings of humanity will keep both of those in mind.
Further up and further in
Here are all of the resources used during this read-along.
Works by Lewis:
Prince Caspian — C.S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — C.S. Lewis
The Silver Chair — C.S. Lewis
The Horse and His Boy — C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle — C.S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters — C.S. Lewis
The Great Divorce — C.S. Lewis
The Ransom (or Space) Trilogy — C.S. Lewis
The Dark Tower and Other Stories — C.S. Lewis
The Pilgrim’s Regress — C.S. Lewis
Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer — C.S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life — C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity — C.S. Lewis
The Weight of Glory — C.S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man — C.S. Lewis
The Four Loves — C.S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain — C.S. Lewis
A Grief Observed — C.S. Lewis
Miracles — C.S. Lewis
God in the Dock — C.S. Lewis essays, edited by Walter Hooper
Present Concerns — C.S. Lewis
The World’s Last Night and Other Essays — C.S. Lewis
Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories — C.S. Lewis
On Stories and Other Essays on Literature — C.S. Lewis
The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 1: Family Letters, 1905-1931 — Editor: Walter Hooper
The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949 — Editor: Walter Hooper
The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950-1963 — Editor: Walter Hooper
Works about Lewis:
C.S. Lewis: The Companion and Guide — Walter Hooper
Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles — David C. Downing
The Keys to the Chronicles: Unlocking the Symbols of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia — Marvin Hinten
Inside Prince Caspian: A Guide to Exploring the Return to Narnia — Devin Brown
Companion to Narnia: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia — Paul Ford
The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings — Philip and Carol Zaleski
C.S. Lewis: A Life — Alister McGrath
C.S. Lewis: A Biography — Walter Hooper and Roger Lancelyn Green
Becoming C.S. Lewis: A Biography of Young Jack Lewis — Harry Lee Poe
The Making of C.S. Lewis: From Atheist to Apologist (1918-1945) — Harry Lee Poe
The Completion of C.S. Lewis: From War to Joy (1945-1963) — Harry Lee Poe
The C.S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia — Ed. Jeffrey Schultz, John G. West, Jr.
Wade Center Podcast “Into Narnia, Vol. 2, Prince Caspian” — Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College
“C. S. Lewis on Walt Disney's ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’” — Joe R. Christopher, The Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society
“The Movie Date That Solidified J.R.R. Tolkien’s Dislike of Walt Disney” — Eric Grundhauser, Atlas Obscura
“C.S. Lewis and the Cautionary Tale of Nikabrik” — Trevin Wax
“Nikabrik’s Candidate” — Gina Dalfonzo, First Things
“C.S. Lewis Warned Us of Close Encounters of the Evangelical Kind,” Christianity Today — Aaron Earls
Works from others:
The Lord of the Rings — J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lost Road and Other Writings (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 5) — J.R.R. Tolkien
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien — Editor: Humphrey Carpenter
Tolkien: A Celebration — Editor: Joseph Pearce
Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future — Olaf Stapledon
Macbeth — William Shakespeare
Tremendous Trifles — G.K. Chesterton
Phantastes — George MacDonald
Little Dorrit — Charles Dickens
Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods — Richard Wagner, trans. Margaret Armour
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Coming Soon
The next Narnia read-along will start this fall and will feature The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I’ve already started reading and working on it. We’ll see the continued growth of Edmund and Lucy, the deepening character of Reepicheep, and meet a boy called Eustace Clarance Scrubb who almost deserved it.
Until we start back, paid subscribers will continue to have access to all archive material. I’m also looking to add some additional content for those who support the site monetarily, including regular devotions and relevant link round-ups.
I look forward to the voyage to the sweet water seas