Talk:The 35th of May; or, Conrad's Ride to the South Seas

"very funny"
Such a judgement call shouldn't be present in an encyclopaedia.


 * Agreed - I've removed it. AndrewWTaylor 12:55, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Wardrobe portal
(quote) "The plot device of a magic wardrobe through which protagonists enter magical lands anticipates the similar device used by C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

LWW was published much later, in 1951. But E. Nesbit (1858–1924) was one important source for Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia in particular, and LWW in more particular. In 1948 CSL told a visitor 'about completing a children's book which he had begun "in the tradition of E. Nesbit".' --the visitor reported in 1974 (LWW ref #13). When Lucy visits Narnia in LWW, she is misunderstood regarding 'War Drobe' and 'Spare Oom' (or so i recall that Tumnus the Faun understands her). One Nesbit story published in 1912, "The Aunt and Amabel", features a wardrobe portal to a fantasy setting and uses the term 'Bigwardrobeinspareroom'. Source for the latter, no doubt more generally valuable:
 * "What C. S. Lewis Took From E. Nesbit", Mervyn Nicholson, Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Volume 16, Number 1, Spring 1991, pp. 16-22 | 10.1353/chq.0.0823 — via Project MUSE. (The entire article is available to me here but I may owe that to the university library setting.)

We have an article on the 1912 Nesbit collection that includes "The Aunt and Amabel", The Magic World (it says much less but gives a different source by the same scholar Melvyn Nicholson).

Does Kästner owes something to Nesbit?


 * P.S. to self: The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is useful on Lewis/Narnia and Nesbit, iirc.

--P64 (talk) 01:08, 6 August 2013 (UTC)
 * --P64 (talk) 01:12, 6 August 2013 (UTC)