Editing The Chronicles of Narnia (section)

===Influences from literature===
George MacDonald's ''[[Phantastes]]'' (1858) influenced the structure and setting of "The Chronicles".{{clarify|date=April 2018}} It was a work that was " a great balm to the soul".<ref>{{cite book|last=Downing|first=David C.|title=Into The Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles|year=2005|publisher=Jossey Bass|isbn=978-0-7879-7890-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/intowardrobecsle00down/page/12 12–13]|url=https://archive.org/details/intowardrobecsle00down/page/12}}</ref>

[[Plato]] was an undeniable influence on Lewis's writing of ''The Chronicles''. Most clearly, Digory explicitly invokes Plato's name at the end of ''The Last Battle'', to explain how the old version of Narnia is but a shadow of the newly revealed "true" Narnia. Plato's influence is also apparent in ''The Silver Chair'' when the Queen of the Underland attempts to convince the protagonists that the surface world is not real. She echoes the logic of [[Allegory of the Cave|Plato's Cave]] by comparing the sun to a nearby lamp, arguing that reality is only that which is perceived in the immediate physical vicinity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=William C. |last2=Houtman |first2=Marcia K. |title=Platonic Shadows in C. S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles |journal=Modern Fiction Studies |year=1986 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=75–87 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/article/244283 |access-date=1 October 2018 |doi=10.1353/mfs.0.1154|s2cid=162284034 | issn=0026-7724 }}</ref>

The White Witch in ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'' shares many features, both of appearance and character, with the villainous Duessa of [[Edmund Spenser]]'s ''[[The Faerie Queene|Faerie Queene]]'', a work Lewis studied in detail. Like Duessa, she falsely styles herself Queen; she leads astray the erring Edmund with false temptations; she turns people into stone as Duessa turns them into trees. Both villains wear opulent robes and deck their conveyances out with bells.{{sfn|Hardy|2007|pages=20–25}} In ''The Magician's Nephew'' Jadis takes on echoes of [[Satan#In art and literature|Satan]] from [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'': she climbs over the wall of the paradisal garden in contempt of the command to enter only by the gate, and proceeds to tempt Digory as Satan tempted [[Eve]], with lies and half-truths.{{sfn|Hardy|2007|pages=30–34}} Similarly, the Lady of the Green Kirtle in ''The Silver Chair'' recalls both the snake-woman Errour in ''The Faerie Queene'' and Satan's transformation into a snake in ''Paradise Lost''.{{sfn|Hardy|2007|pages=38–41}}

Lewis read [[Edith Nesbit]]'s children's books as a child and was greatly fond of them.<ref name="lindskoog">{{cite book | last = Lindskoog | first = Kathryn Ann | title = Journey into Narnia: C. S. Lewis's Tales Explored | page = 87 | publisher = Hope Publishing House | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-932727-89-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/journeyintonarni0000lind/page/87 }}</ref> He described ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'' around the time of its completion as "a children's book in the tradition of E. Nesbit".<ref>{{cite book|last=Walsh|first=Chad|title=C. S. Lewis: Apostle to the Skeptics|year=1974|publisher=Norwood Editions|isbn=0-88305-779-4|page=10}}</ref> ''The Magician's Nephew'' in particular bears strong resemblances to Nesbit's ''[[The Story of the Amulet]]'' (1906). This novel focuses on four children living in London who discover a magic amulet. Their father is away and their mother is ill, as is the case with Digory. They manage to transport the queen of [[Babylon|ancient Babylon]] to London and she is the cause of a riot; likewise, Polly and Digory transport Queen Jadis to London, sparking a very similar incident.<ref name="lindskoog" />

Marsha Daigle-Williamson argues that [[Dante Alighieri|Dante's]] ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' had a significant impact on Lewis's writings. In the Narnia series, she identifies this influence as most apparent in ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' and ''The Silver Chair''.{{sfn|Daigle-Williamson|2015|page=5}} Daigle-Williamson identifies the plot of ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' as a Dantean journey with a parallel structure and similar themes.{{sfn|Daigle-Williamson|2015|page=162-170}} She likewise draws numerous connections between ''The Silver Chair'' and the events of Dante's ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]''.{{sfn|Daigle-Williamson|2015|page=170-174}}

[[Colin Duriez]], writing on the shared elements found in both Lewis's and [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s works, highlights the thematic similarities between Tolkien's poem ''Imram'' and Lewis's ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''.<ref name="Duriez, 2015">{{cite book |last=Duriez |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Duriez |title=Bedeviled: Lewis, Tolkien and the Shadow of Evil |date=2015 |publisher=IVP Books |location=Downers Grove, IL |isbn=978-0-8308-3417-4 |pages=180–182}}</ref>