978 1 915412 81 2
Hardback | 288 pp | 198 x 126 mm
 
‘Gold on the Horizon is a compelling exploration of C. S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as novels burdened with the weight of the past; Jem Bloomfield skilfully shows how Lewis’s fiction reflected and refracted troubling questions in 20th-century history and archaeology.’
– Dr Francis Young, historian and folklorist, author of Twilight of the Gidlings: The Shadowy Beginnings of Britain’s Supernatural Beings
 
 
Gold on the Horizon is an enthralling companion for readers revisiting C. S. Lewis’s classic Narnia tales Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. With fascinating detail and bewitching diversion, it maps these two novels’ myriad literary influences and cultural allusions to enhance our understanding of their deeper meanings and themes.
 
Drawing on diverse sources from Hamlet to King Solomon’s Mines, and from The Odyssey to Tom Brown’s School Days, Jem Bloomfield is our guide on the Pevensie children’s memorable journeys as we venture into the second and third books Lewis wrote in the Chronicles of Narnia series. His fascinating commentary explores both literary connections and the social and cultural world of mid-century Britain. Discover how Eustace Scrubb and his family were based on a contemporary social stereotype also pilloried by Agatha Christie and George Orwell. Trace how Lucy Pevensie’s character was shaped by the “New Elizabethanism” movement of the 1950s, which also involved Benjamin Britten and Nigel Molesworth.
 
Gold on the Horizon follows on from Bloomfield’s earlier book Paths in the Snow: A Literary Journey through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, taking his literary and theological approach into new realms of adventure.
 
Jem Bloomfield is Assistant Professor of Literature at the University of Nottingham, and a Reader in the Church of England. He teaches on C. S. Lewis at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as running retreats and study days based around Narnia. He still runs a reading group called Narnia Club, which in recent years has produced two books, lots of lively arguments, and one wedding.