Gold on the Horizon

Reviewed by:

G. Connor Salter, Professional Writing alumnus from Taylor University, Upland, IN.

Title:

Gold on the Horizon: A Literary Journey through Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Author:

Jem Bloomfield

Publisher:

Darton, Longman & Todd

https://www.dltbooks.com/

Publication Date:

December 13, 2024

Format:

Hardcover

Length:

288 pages

OVERVIEW

Plenty of readers discuss the Christian allusions (Aslan as Christ, etc.) the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia. Far less readers discuss how many other allusions Lewis makes in the book and the later volumes. Gold on the Horizon is Jem Bloomfield’s second book seeking to fix that problem. His book Paths in the Snow explored allusions in the first Narnia chronicle—to the Bible, to Western classical literature, to Victorian adventure stories, and other works that Lewis would have been familiar with. Gold on the Horizon explores the allusions in Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, references as surprising as:

• The shipmates turning into animals in Homer’s The Odyssey
• The biblical story of Jesus sending a herd of pigs into the sea after freeing the demoniac
• The caves showing traces of an older civilization in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
• The bully challenged to a fight in Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes

Bloomfield offers a particular kind of book that may rankle some scholars but is highly useful. He makes excellent guesses on what Lewis is alluding to—ones that Lewis definitely read, ones he quite likely read. Specialists in archival research may be annoyed that Bloomfield does not meticulously cross-reference each book against the books Lewis mentioned in letters or archives show he owned, or add an appendix mentioning scholarly works supporting Bloomfield’s ideas. That kind of scholarship (see, for example, Holly Ordway’s work on J.R.R. Tolkien’s library in Tolkien’s Modern Reading) certainly matters. But, by including books Lewis likely read alongside books he certainly read, Bloomfield encourages other scholars to take that deep dive and verify his claims. This is necessarily scholarship with educated guesses, but all good educated guesses that will generate good conversations.

The book offers other joys for readers who are more interested in the Chronicles of Narnia as a good story than in what it may show about Lewis’s reading habits. It shows how rich the series is, a text that builds on memorable images in other great books to create new iconic moments. Lewis’ ability to take older ideas and develop them into something new, to remember there are no ideas but they become new when used in new ways, is key to what makes his fiction so enriching.

A fun book for researchers, and a fascinating invitation for specialists and first-time alike to consider what makes the Chronicles of Narnia so compelling.

ASSESSMENT

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Suggested Audience:

Fans of the Chronicles of Narnia, particularly the second and third books, wondering about similar books that influenced Lewis as he developed the series.

Christian Impact:

Bloomfield focuses on what literary scholarship shows about the Chronicles of Narnia, but his discussion demonstrates how much Judeo-Christian morals inform Lewis’ writing. The works that influenced Lewis—the Bible, Christian classics such as John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress—offered a wellspring of spiritual truths and compelling ways to demonstrate those ideas that became crucial to Lewis’ storytelling.

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