TLC Forum

Mine, too. The few finished works covering those times would be a better indicator of how Tolkien might go about it, but I've actually never read those...
On the other hand, even history books tell a story and have ways of going about it, so from that point of view, it's just as interesting to compare, seeing as Lewis never went into that kind of detail.

I remember loving descriptions when I was young. I thought it was so important for an author to describe everything so the reader would get a clear and exact picture in his mind. Narnia was what made me really, truly realize that you don't need all that necessarily, since I just ended up making up my own clear-as-a-bell mental images as I read. (Granted, Lewis did describe some things more than he did others, plus the illustrations were of some help.)

Well, history textbooks are also stories.

Livy is a historian, and we get lots of stories of Roman Antiquities (like Romulus and Remus, or carreer of Numa Pompilius) from him, unless we know Greek as well as Latin.

Do you know where I can find the word counts per Narnia book? I have been wondering that for a while.

I am unsure of how to describe Lewis' style because I compare other books I read to it, but the narrative never confused me.
I feel it is also easier to read Lewis' style than Tolkien's, but Tolkien's style for LOTR was very immersive when I first read it when I was twelve. Maybe I was just the right age, but Middle Earth felt very real because of all the consistent detail Tolkien wrote, and I was glad to see how visually similar the movies looked in the way of color schemes and settings.

Word counts?

Try counting pages, and in every page where there is a picture or a chapter heading or a chapter end, how many lines are left out.

Then count words per line.

For safety, count words per line in normal and in dialogue, and make separate calculations.

I always thought the way Lewis occasionally steps out of the narrator role to address readers directly (e.g., to admonish readers never to close the door and thus shut themselves up in a wardrobe) was a charming effect, making me feel more connected somehow to the story-voice.

Benisse wrote:I always thought the way Lewis occasionally steps out of the narrator role to address readers directly (e.g., to admonish readers never to close the door and thus shut themselves up in a wardrobe) was a charming effect, making me feel more connected somehow to the story-voice.

It worked well when my mom used to read the books aloud to my sister and I when we were little. My mom, I think, especially loved those parts.