Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to Narnia and CS Lewis! For this weeks review, we will be looking at CS Lewis’s
The Great Divorce
Book Title: The Great Divorce
Author: CS Lewis
Publisher: HarperOne; New Ed edition (February 6, 2001)
ISBN-10: 0060652950
ISBN-13: 978-0060652951
Summary of the book:
Some Possible Spoilers.( Please Highlight to read)
One rainy day a man stood in line waiting to board a bus. After waiting for a fairly long time and watching as the other passengers got on and watching everything with the other passengers in their attempts to get on board, the man was let on. The man notices that there seemed to be a Light about the driver. This Light even seemed to fill the bus.
As the bus was driving down the road it suddenly flew off into the air. The man spoke with a fellow passenger about the town and where the bus may be heading. The bus, or as it was called The Ominibus, came to a lush green valley unlike any on Earth. Everything in this Valley seemed far more real, and far more alive and vibrant than on Earth, so much so that the passengers of the bus seem as Ghosts in comparison.
The passengers are greeted by the Solid People, or those who dwell in this world. One of them, George McDonald, meets the man and guides him through this world that is filled with gentle lions, unicorns and may other wondrous things. This world exists in-between the worlds of Heaven, Hell and life itself. The man witnesses the discussions between many of the Ghosts and the Solid People and learns what it is that separated these two worlds and leads some to favoring one and not the other.
SPOILERS!As the man’s time in this world comes to a close, George McDonald reveals to him that all of this had been a dream, one which he must relate to others. He awakens , finding himself back home, just as an air raid begins above him.END SPOILERS!
Review:
Jesus once told a parable about two men. A very wealthy man, and a poor beggar named Lazarus. The rich man had everything and Lazarus had nothing. One day both men died. The Rich man went to Hell, while Lazarus was carried by angels to Paradise. The rich man looked over and saw Lazarus at peace in paradise with Abraham. He begged Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his hand in water and touch it to the rich man’s to cool him for he was in great agony. The Rich man said he could not send him as there was a great gulf fixed between Heaven and Hell that none could cross.
It is through this gulf between Heaven and Hell that Lewis allows the reader to peer through in his book The Great Divorce. In this fictional story, Lewis examines the nature of Heaven and Hell. The title’s implication is that the two are so far divided from one another that there is no chance that they can ever be reconciled. Lewis shows just what some of these divisions are.
The story is written from the first person perspective. It is implied by various details that the man in question is CS Lewis, who is dreaming a dream. Because of his limited knowledge as a first person narrator Lewis is able to convey the same sense of wonder and amazement at this strange land he finds himself in, similar to the feeling his characters of the Pevensies feel when they are in Narnia.
Much like with Narnia, Lewis the narrator is taking us to a world that we have never been to. Unlike Narnia, which is like the fantasy world we dream of, this land is one that as Shakespeare said, “ None have journeyed back from.” Lewis in effect is showing what does lie in that “undiscovered country” of death and how we can end up in either the worlds of Heaven or Hell.
In some ways The Great Divorce is not that dissimilar from Dante’s Divine Comedy. In both works the authors take us to the eternal realm, allow us to see the inhabitants and what leads some humans to ending up in one place or another. Much like with Dante, a guide is needed to navigate through this strange country. For Dante it was the poet Virgil in The Inferno, and Dante’s dead lover, Beatrice in Purgatorio and Paradiso.The guide for Lewis is George McDonald, noted author of numerous fantasy works that later inspired those of Lewis and JRR Tolkien.
As Virgil served as a guide and source for inspiration for Dante, McDonald had also served as a sort of guide for Lewis in his own personal life. It was the works of McDonald that Lewis said “baptized his imagination.” Lewis’s “Lord, Liar, Lunatic” rational that was used to confirm the deity of Christ in Mere Christianity, was first employed by McDonald in his Everlasting Man. Lewis felt he owed a great debt to McDonald’s works, both in terms of his own fantasy and his Christian faith, so to use one who guided him indirectly is fitting. Notably Lewis makes reference to the appearance of Beatrice to Dante in Purgatorio when McDonald first appears to him.
There are also many other characters that fall into one of two groups. Except for Lewis and McDonald, none of them are given names as much as descriptive terms and characteristics to describe who they were in life, such as “Man with the Bowler Hat”,”The Hard-bitten Ghost”, “The Tragedian”, and “The Dwarf.” The names of these characters is actually not needed. The only thing that matters with any of them is how they have ended up in Hell as opposed to Heaven.
These people are divided into two groups.The first are the Solid Ones, the people dwell in this Land. The second is The Ghosts or the new arrivals. Through the conversations between these two types of people, Lewis shows what divides Heaven and Hell. The key divider between Heaven and Hell is the choice of Christ. Those who accept Him become Solid.
Perhaps the most haunting conversation is between a Ghost and a Solid Man who killed the Ghost’s friend while the Solid Man was alive. The Solid Man came to Christ and is in Heaven with the Ghost’s friend. It is unsettling for many Christians as it reminds us that essentially every one can get into Heaven if they only choose Christ. This means that the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Phillip Pullman, Nietzsche and Osama Bin-Laden have the chance of being in Heaven with Jesus and standing side by side with the likes of Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Theresa, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and Billy Graham.
The world Lewis visits is described as being “real” and “hard” and is far more real than the world he left. Animals such as lions, fish, and even unicorns dwell and thrive in perfect harmony. This is in contrasted with the dismal ,rainy and virtually empty city they left. In some ways the world Lewis visits is not that dissimilar from Aslan’s kingdom in comparison to the Shadowlands in Narnia, which in turn is derived from Plato’s ideas of Higher Forms.
The Platonic ideas, the references to Dante and even George McDonald himself may be lost on many modern readers, as they may not understand them as most works of classic literature are fading into obscurity. This is the same fate of many of the allusions made in this, and Lewis’s other books, to works of classical literature. They can leave some modern readers confused. Lewis was a scholar of literature and writing in a time when people were more versed in such things. While a modern person may not understand completely what he means Lewis in away helps preserve the ideas in these works of literature and adds to their legacy.
Protestant and Catholic scholars debate about whether or not the dream is set in Purgatory as it appears to be an area in between Heaven and Hell. The location of the dream is not as important as the meaning. Quoting Milton, Lewis says that the choice of Hell over Heaven lies in saying, “better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven,” and in doing so, choosing to favor our Pride and our own will over God’s. The choice of Heaven lies in giving oneself over to God and choosing Christ.
In doing so all the good things of life are outshined by the glory of Heaven. Lewis reminds us that this choice is always before us and that choosing Hell is to choose something that is even more pale, and horrible, and smaller in comparison to even this world. He reassures us that Hell can never veto Heaven as it is nothing next to Heaven. For those bound for Hell, this life ends up being as good as it gets.
The is choice of Heaven is one we all have to make, and must make it while we dwell on Earth. In The Great Divorce, Lewis shows not only why we have to make it, but how. Lewis reminds us in his dream that the only way for any of us to get to Heaven is to choose Christ and let go of ourselves.
Five out of Five sheilds