The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe popular English folklore. There are several parallels between the White Witch and the immortal white queen, Ayesha, of H. Rider Haggard's "She", a novel greatly admired by C. S. Lewis. "The Story of the Amulet" written by Edith Nesbit also contains scenes that can be considered precursors to sequences presenting Jadis, particularly in "The Magician's Nephew". Nesbit's short story "The Aunt and Amabel" includes the motif of a girl entering a wardrobe to gain access to a magical place. The freeing of Aslan's body from the stone table by field mice is reminiscent of Aesop's fable of "The Lion and
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe finishing the first novel. He completed the sequel by end of 1949, less than a year after finishing the initial book. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" had few readers during 1949 and was not published until late in 1950, so his initial enthusiasm did not stem from favourable reception by the public. While Lewis is known today on the strength of the Narnia stories as a highly successful children’s writer, the initial critical response was muted. At the time it was fashionable for children's stories to be realistic; fantasy and fairy tales were seen as indulgent, appropriate only