Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Confessions of a Reluctant Narniaphile

1. Endless Books: Herodotus to Robert Byron

2. 'It All [Perhaps] Began with a Picture': Narnia, Persian Painting, and Pauline Baynes

3. East of the Wardrobe: The Manners and Customs of the Modern Calormen

4. On Board the Dawn Treader: Epic Quests and Fabulous Voyages to the East

5. Of This and Other Worlds: Portals and Alternative Time, from the Wardrobe to the Qu'ran

6. Mere Christianity? Mere Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Sufism as Well in Narnia

7. Farther Up and Farther In. Messages within, beyond, and east of Narnia

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Warwick Ball is an archaeologist who has carried out excavations, architectural studies, and monumental restoration in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, and Ethiopia. His previous books include Syria: An Architectural and Historical Guide, The Monuments of Afghanistan, Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, The Archaeology of Afghanistan, The Eurasian Steppe: People, Movement, Ideas, and Rome
in the East: The Transformation of an Empire, winner of the James Henry Breasted History Prize.

Reviews

"a complex, wide-ranging investigation" -- Mark Vernon, Church Times

Ball's work highlights the breadth of intellectual and cultural traditions that were available to writers of his generation.
*Greece & Rome*

The book's personal, digressive, and allusive qualities make it a page turner and often sheer fun to read.
*Philip Irving Mitchell, Dallas Baptist University, TX , Mythopoeic Society*

A highly enjoyable and eye-opening account of the myriad ways Lewis was influenced by Eastern art, literature, and philosophy - and, indeed, religion.
*Oliver Tearle, Interesting Literature*

A highly enjoyable and eye-opening account of the myriad ways Lewis was influenced by Eastern art, literature, and philosophy -and, indeed, religion.
*Interesting Literature*

The book's personal, digressive, and allusive qualities make it a page turner and often sheer fun to read... Even those readers who are simply interested in comparative literature can enjoy the numerous possibilities on display. I think East of the Wardrobe will be mined for all of these for some years to come.
*Philip Irving Mitchell, Mythlore*

East of the Wardrobe is as enjoyable as it is important...Laced with Ball's humour and humanity, this book has something for every reader.
*Frazer MacDiarmid, The Stimulus*

East of the Wardrobe is as enjoyable as it is important. Ball betrays intimate familiarity with the Chronicles, undertaking close-reading (even exegesis) of the texts that will delight Narnia fans. Theologians will be fascinated by the variety of Eastern concepts evident in books whose secrets were thought to be long revealed... Even the endnotes were amusing and intriguing, with many meriting footnote status. C. S. Lewis emerges as a more complex and sympathetic author than commonly understood, whose bibliophilia sparked a love of beautiful stories, regardless of provenance. Laced with Ball's humour and humanity, this book has something for every reader.
*The Stimulus*