Posted by John Birch on July 02, 2000 at 00:27:53 from m197-mp1-cvx1a.man.ntl.com:
Just a thought that has occured to me.
My daughter has discovered S&A a year or so after finishing CS Lewis's Narnia series. Both feature a Susan as a key character and the similarities are amazing. For example both Susans are....
* The second oldest of a family of four
* Age roughly the same in the first book of each series
* Following book 1 (and even to an extent in book 1) remarkably "native" (in S&A parlance), sensible, and least interested in any form of fantasy
There are probably other similarities.
Is this all just....
1. Co-incidence. Susan is (or was) a common name.
2. CS Lewis's Susan is inspired by Arthur Ransome's (and by extension the Pevensies by the Walkers?). There is c15-20 years between the series, and I believe that AR knew Tolkein who in turn knew CS...?
3. All Susans are like that, and this is an accurate description of the species.
Oddly enough I have a cousin Susan and she would appear to back up option 3!