C.S. Lewis was a very interesting man. He was so practical and realistic, but he also enjoyed and appreciated fantasy and fairy tales. His own writing is reflective of this.
I have read much of what he referred to in his letters, but this is unsurprising to me. My father was a Presbyterian minister and an Old Testament scholar, and I was a teacher with degrees in English, language studies, and linguistics. I learned to read at home before starting school...from a father who read to us daily, took us to the library, and read himself. Yes, we were very fortunate.
We read and discussed so many things C.S. Lewis names, as well as his works. I enjoyed Phantastes, Water Babies, and Pilgrim's Progress as allegories. The Angel in the House is probably more interesting for its content than the writing. Andersen's fairy tales are fantastic. I have greatly enjoyed Henry James, the Bronte sisters, Sir Walter Scott, and the incomparable Jane Austen. Kierkegaard's writing and St. Augustine's Confessions are compelling. And, Dorothy L. Sayers wrote fiction and nonfiction, both of which are to be appreciated.
More than anything, I loved hearing Lewis's voice in his letters! There is love for reading and writing, books and poems, and sharing ideas. There is humor, self-deprecation, encouragement, and kinship. So many wonderful thoughts. I especially loved it when he recommended a modern translation of the Bible, as it would be more useful!
Several of his quotes struck me, as he was making recommendations.
"...not very good: but well worth reading."
"...our literary loves are as diverse as our human."
"...I rather wonder whether that 'being made to read it' has spoiled so many books as is supposed."
"I don't believe anything will keep the right reader and the right book apart."
About a year ago I read Phantastes, thinking that if MacDonald was Lewis's Virgil as Lewis had been mine, I should give him a go. I cannot recommend it enough. It is genuinely life changing, if you approach it with the right state of mind, that of an unwilling materialist who wants to get better from that disease of the soul. It really helped me see the life, beauty, and poetry in the world around me, and started to open my heart to the unseen world in much the same way I imagine it opened Lewis's. I still have a very long way to go in that, but it was a start, and a good one.
I suppose I should also mention, I read it at the same time that I, an Evangelical Protestant with a decidedly materialistic, legalistic, and honestly just plain *bland* worldview, obsessed with the practical and immediate in the same way as many of Lewis's unfortunate deuteragonists, found and began studying the Orthodox Church. Without Phantastes as an early shakeup of my mind, I'm not sure I'd have fallen in with angels, demons, saints, and mysteries of the Church as I have since.
I have read Unspoken Sermons that George MacDonald wrote, and I was literally sobbing. I need to read Phantastes. I love Lewis, but I think MacDonald may have had a deeper impact on me, and it’s exactly how you say. MacDonald took me back to the true essence of faith: the beauty, the mystery, the adventure, the wooing, the longing, and the pure life of God that fills the hungry and broken spirit
I’ve always struggled with Lewis’s love for George MacDonald. I have enjoyed several MacDonald books myself, notably: Sir Gibbie, The Fisherman’s Lady, and The Princess and Curdie. But I didn’t like Phantases or Lillith at all, and those were two of Lewis’s favorites. I’ve read several other MacDonald books in which he seems to embrace (somehow, at the same time) both bitter legalism and a strange universalism.
Phantastes is exceptional. The story is imaginative, other-worldly, and a great reminder that the spiritual world is intertwined with the material world. In this materialistic age, it was an enjoyable reminder that our world is filled with much more than just "things."
"Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drope, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"
C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrope
I was introduced to C.S. Lewis' books as a Portuguese emigrant in the Uk many years ago. I was given the first volume of the "The Chronicles of Narnia" and I loved it. It touched the heart and imagination of the inner child I still carry within me - I believe we shall keep nurturing our inner child along life.
And the influence of that wonder influenced me to pursuit the dream of becoming a writer. Please, accept my apologies, because I am speaking about myself in the space that it's entirely consecrated to "The Books that Shaped C.S. Lewis."
"Dochter {daughter} of the Earth, we're very pleased that you have come to us. You took a leap forward with your love of nature and a pure heart! And we need leaps of faith to save our Kingdom," said Queen Titania" in "Serendipity - A Long Journey Starts with a Small Step" published by Palavro, an imprint of Arkbound Foundation, a literature charity based in Glasgow and Bristol.
This is my acknowledgment to this great classic writer and he influenced in my little debut book.
I was enchanted as a boy by the Chronicles of Prydain and I continue to be so, unashamedly. They are not so philosophically rich as The Chronicles of Narnia, of course, but they are very adventurous and charming and contain a lot of wisdom and wit. They are based on an American writer's discovery of British legend during a time spent in Wales. (For Prydain read Britain.) So, there's a real depth of setting unusual in a children's fantasy. I can thoroughly recommend the series to anyone of any age. In fact, I may read the books again now!
Been re-reading Surprised by Joy and finding myself keen to pick up Siegfried & the Twilight of the Gods after his mentioning its effect of plunging him into that “Northerness” of Joy.
Lewis certainly read much more deeply in serious literature than I have, but I’m greatly delighted to learn that he liked “Ivanhoe.” I came across the book in younger years after reading Robert Louis Stevenson and Alexander Dumas, and it made a great impression on me. I didn’t learn until much later that “Ivanhoe” was the source for much of the modern myth of Robin Hood.
I have been keeping track of the books he mentions them in his letters. His first recorded thoughts about Brother Lawrence's writings disappointed me: "I read in two evenings a little book…called The Practice of the Presence of God which I picked up and put in the study when I was there last because it seemed to me a promising title. It is by a Seventeenth century monk. It is full of truth but somehow I didn’t like it: it seemed to me a little unctuous. That sort of stuff, when it is not splendid beyond words, is terribly repulsive, or can be, can’t it? No doubt it depends very largely on one’s mood. I had just finished the fourth Gospel in Greek (as I think you know) before you came, and after that most other things are a come down."
Upon reflection, though, "Practicing the Presence," is akin to reading an exercise or cooking book. The "literary" value isn't the point. The experience of applying the text is where the wonder begins.
It, therefore, made sense that Lewis' response to Mother Julian of Norwich would be richer because deeper thought and reflection in him are provoked. He descrbes two of the revelations and his mental explorations of them. "I have been reading this week the ‘Revelations’ of Mother Julian of Norwich (14th century); not always so profitable as I had expected, but well worth reading....At any rate, this book excites me."
I’ve read George Macdonald’s “Phantastes; I was less impressed by it than Lewis was, which I suspect is mostly a consequence of the fact that Lewis and I come from very different eras and societies, and Macdonald himself comes from a third. I read “Surprised by Joy” some years go; I found it so sad that I’ve never tried to reread it. Every few years I reread the “Narnia” books, and enjoy them every time. Of his ‘theological’ works I like “The Great Divorce,” “Mere Christianity,” and “Screwtape.” I’ve got a book on my shelves called “Reading The Classics With C. S. Lewis,” but I haven’t read it yet. His collected letters (three volumes) are at times fascinating, at times rather dull.
Mauriac's a good recommendation of his I would like to pursue, and unlike most of his likes, not covered in too much ancient dust. I have read his 'Nest of Vipers' and 'Therese Desquereux' for study purposed, perhaps I'll retry these and others for pleasure purposes.
He did! In Of Other Worlds, C.S. Lewis says: "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
C.S. Lewis was a very interesting man. He was so practical and realistic, but he also enjoyed and appreciated fantasy and fairy tales. His own writing is reflective of this.
I have read much of what he referred to in his letters, but this is unsurprising to me. My father was a Presbyterian minister and an Old Testament scholar, and I was a teacher with degrees in English, language studies, and linguistics. I learned to read at home before starting school...from a father who read to us daily, took us to the library, and read himself. Yes, we were very fortunate.
We read and discussed so many things C.S. Lewis names, as well as his works. I enjoyed Phantastes, Water Babies, and Pilgrim's Progress as allegories. The Angel in the House is probably more interesting for its content than the writing. Andersen's fairy tales are fantastic. I have greatly enjoyed Henry James, the Bronte sisters, Sir Walter Scott, and the incomparable Jane Austen. Kierkegaard's writing and St. Augustine's Confessions are compelling. And, Dorothy L. Sayers wrote fiction and nonfiction, both of which are to be appreciated.
More than anything, I loved hearing Lewis's voice in his letters! There is love for reading and writing, books and poems, and sharing ideas. There is humor, self-deprecation, encouragement, and kinship. So many wonderful thoughts. I especially loved it when he recommended a modern translation of the Bible, as it would be more useful!
Several of his quotes struck me, as he was making recommendations.
"...not very good: but well worth reading."
"...our literary loves are as diverse as our human."
"...I rather wonder whether that 'being made to read it' has spoiled so many books as is supposed."
"I don't believe anything will keep the right reader and the right book apart."
Thank you for sharing this today. Lovely.
About a year ago I read Phantastes, thinking that if MacDonald was Lewis's Virgil as Lewis had been mine, I should give him a go. I cannot recommend it enough. It is genuinely life changing, if you approach it with the right state of mind, that of an unwilling materialist who wants to get better from that disease of the soul. It really helped me see the life, beauty, and poetry in the world around me, and started to open my heart to the unseen world in much the same way I imagine it opened Lewis's. I still have a very long way to go in that, but it was a start, and a good one.
I suppose I should also mention, I read it at the same time that I, an Evangelical Protestant with a decidedly materialistic, legalistic, and honestly just plain *bland* worldview, obsessed with the practical and immediate in the same way as many of Lewis's unfortunate deuteragonists, found and began studying the Orthodox Church. Without Phantastes as an early shakeup of my mind, I'm not sure I'd have fallen in with angels, demons, saints, and mysteries of the Church as I have since.
I have read Unspoken Sermons that George MacDonald wrote, and I was literally sobbing. I need to read Phantastes. I love Lewis, but I think MacDonald may have had a deeper impact on me, and it’s exactly how you say. MacDonald took me back to the true essence of faith: the beauty, the mystery, the adventure, the wooing, the longing, and the pure life of God that fills the hungry and broken spirit
I’ve always struggled with Lewis’s love for George MacDonald. I have enjoyed several MacDonald books myself, notably: Sir Gibbie, The Fisherman’s Lady, and The Princess and Curdie. But I didn’t like Phantases or Lillith at all, and those were two of Lewis’s favorites. I’ve read several other MacDonald books in which he seems to embrace (somehow, at the same time) both bitter legalism and a strange universalism.
Phantastes is exceptional. The story is imaginative, other-worldly, and a great reminder that the spiritual world is intertwined with the material world. In this materialistic age, it was an enjoyable reminder that our world is filled with much more than just "things."
"Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drope, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"
C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrope
I was introduced to C.S. Lewis' books as a Portuguese emigrant in the Uk many years ago. I was given the first volume of the "The Chronicles of Narnia" and I loved it. It touched the heart and imagination of the inner child I still carry within me - I believe we shall keep nurturing our inner child along life.
And the influence of that wonder influenced me to pursuit the dream of becoming a writer. Please, accept my apologies, because I am speaking about myself in the space that it's entirely consecrated to "The Books that Shaped C.S. Lewis."
"Dochter {daughter} of the Earth, we're very pleased that you have come to us. You took a leap forward with your love of nature and a pure heart! And we need leaps of faith to save our Kingdom," said Queen Titania" in "Serendipity - A Long Journey Starts with a Small Step" published by Palavro, an imprint of Arkbound Foundation, a literature charity based in Glasgow and Bristol.
This is my acknowledgment to this great classic writer and he influenced in my little debut book.
Thank you.
I was enchanted as a boy by the Chronicles of Prydain and I continue to be so, unashamedly. They are not so philosophically rich as The Chronicles of Narnia, of course, but they are very adventurous and charming and contain a lot of wisdom and wit. They are based on an American writer's discovery of British legend during a time spent in Wales. (For Prydain read Britain.) So, there's a real depth of setting unusual in a children's fantasy. I can thoroughly recommend the series to anyone of any age. In fact, I may read the books again now!
Been re-reading Surprised by Joy and finding myself keen to pick up Siegfried & the Twilight of the Gods after his mentioning its effect of plunging him into that “Northerness” of Joy.
Yes indeed!!! Me too!!
And just today, I was thinking to myself of much I desire to have all of C.S Lewis' books and read each one of them!
Lewis certainly read much more deeply in serious literature than I have, but I’m greatly delighted to learn that he liked “Ivanhoe.” I came across the book in younger years after reading Robert Louis Stevenson and Alexander Dumas, and it made a great impression on me. I didn’t learn until much later that “Ivanhoe” was the source for much of the modern myth of Robin Hood.
I have been keeping track of the books he mentions them in his letters. His first recorded thoughts about Brother Lawrence's writings disappointed me: "I read in two evenings a little book…called The Practice of the Presence of God which I picked up and put in the study when I was there last because it seemed to me a promising title. It is by a Seventeenth century monk. It is full of truth but somehow I didn’t like it: it seemed to me a little unctuous. That sort of stuff, when it is not splendid beyond words, is terribly repulsive, or can be, can’t it? No doubt it depends very largely on one’s mood. I had just finished the fourth Gospel in Greek (as I think you know) before you came, and after that most other things are a come down."
Upon reflection, though, "Practicing the Presence," is akin to reading an exercise or cooking book. The "literary" value isn't the point. The experience of applying the text is where the wonder begins.
It, therefore, made sense that Lewis' response to Mother Julian of Norwich would be richer because deeper thought and reflection in him are provoked. He descrbes two of the revelations and his mental explorations of them. "I have been reading this week the ‘Revelations’ of Mother Julian of Norwich (14th century); not always so profitable as I had expected, but well worth reading....At any rate, this book excites me."
I’ve read George Macdonald’s “Phantastes; I was less impressed by it than Lewis was, which I suspect is mostly a consequence of the fact that Lewis and I come from very different eras and societies, and Macdonald himself comes from a third. I read “Surprised by Joy” some years go; I found it so sad that I’ve never tried to reread it. Every few years I reread the “Narnia” books, and enjoy them every time. Of his ‘theological’ works I like “The Great Divorce,” “Mere Christianity,” and “Screwtape.” I’ve got a book on my shelves called “Reading The Classics With C. S. Lewis,” but I haven’t read it yet. His collected letters (three volumes) are at times fascinating, at times rather dull.
Mauriac's a good recommendation of his I would like to pursue, and unlike most of his likes, not covered in too much ancient dust. I have read his 'Nest of Vipers' and 'Therese Desquereux' for study purposed, perhaps I'll retry these and others for pleasure purposes.
So wonderful to connect with those who love C. S. Lewis, and have done so for decades, as I have. Blessings on you all xxx
Great post. I’ve been reading his letters to Arthur Greaves and amazing to see the beginnings of various themes that eventually see in his books.
He did! In Of Other Worlds, C.S. Lewis says: "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."