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The post on Lewis’s theme in the Narnia stories made a few people cite Michael Ward’s acclaimed Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis (Oxford University Press, now in paperback).

Here’s a trailer for a 2009 BBC documentary, “The Narnia Code”—not available online or for purchase, as far as I can see—followed by a clip from the documentary:

For those interested in exploring more, here are a couple of blurbs from Lewis scholars:

“I cannot contain my admiration. No other book on Lewis has ever shown such comprehensive knowledge of his works and such depth of insight. This will make Michael Ward’s name.”
—Walter Hooper, Literary Adviser to the Estate of C.S. Lewis

“Noting Michael Ward’s claim that he has discovered “the secret imaginative key” to the Narnia books, the sensible reader responds by erecting a castle of scepticism. My own castle was gradually but utterly demolished as I read this thoughtful, scholarly, and vividly-written book. If Ward is wrong, his wrongness is cogent: it illuminates and delights. But I don’t think he is wrong. And in revealing the role of the planets in the Chronicles, Ward also gives us the fullest understanding yet of just how deeply Lewis in his own fiction drew upon those medieval and renaissance writers he so loved.”
—Alan Jacobs, Professor of English, Wheaton College and author of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis

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