Amy Jackson- The Scientific Novels of C.S. Lewis

In a book by Jared Lobdell called "The Scientific Novels of C.S. Lewis", he writes about Lewis' style, "Lewis had grave trouble in constructing story lines: his strength is in his poet's eye for detail and, of course, he eventually turns to established myth for his story lines, as in 'Till We Have Faces" (171). How was C.S. Lewis so successful in his writings if most of his story lines were taken from somewhere else? Books like The Pilgrims Regress, Till We Have Faces, and even Narnia, all had inspiration from other works. Lewis got the idea of the Pilgrims Regress from the story by John Bunyan. He decided to write the same type of story, but with somewhat different themes. Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the old Psyche and Cupid myth. Narnia, in some way was also a retelling. The strong Christian parallels are impossible to ignore. The story of the Bible guided the story of Narnia. These original stories must have impacted C.S. Lewis enough to write them in a different way or with different intentions. He gave these older stories new perspectives. Due to Lewis' brilliance in literary writings, he was able to recreate these stories to draw people in and help them to learn something new.