Hi, everybody welcome back to Tumnus’ Bookshelf where we review any and all books written by, about and inspired by C.S. Lewis, the Land of Narnia and the Inklings. For today’s review we will be looking at the new book C.S. Lewis & His Circle: Essays and Memoirs from the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society edited by Roger White, Judith Wolfe, and Brandon N. Wolfe.
Title: CS Lewis & His Circle: Essays and Memoirs from the Oxford CS Lewis Society
Editors: Roger White, Judith Wolfe, and Brandon N. Wolfe.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN-10: 0190214341
ISBN-13: 978-0190214340
Summary:
Collecting 24 essays by eighteen different authors throughout their twenty-three year history, this new book C.S. Lewis & His Circle: Essays and Memoirs from the Oxford CS Lewis Society celebrates the life, work, and legacy of C.S. Lewis. Among the notables included in this book are Tom Shippey, George Sayer, Michael Ward, Walter Hooper, Elizabeth Anscombe, Rev. Peter Bide, and Inkling Owen Barfield. From scholarly works that analyze his work, to intimate portraits by those who knew him best, the essays and memoires provide a nuanced and in depth look at one of the most enduring authors of the 20th century.
Review:
In the first essay , “C.S. Lewis: Defender of the Faith” from this new book C.S. Lewis & His Circle, Alister McGrath notes that critic Alistair Cooke had labeled C.S. Lewis a unremarkable minor prophet that would be forgotten after World War II. Wouldn’t he have been surprised by all the books that have been written in the past three decades alone analyzing, criticizing, and celebrating this author’s work, let alone this very website? There is something timeless about the work of C.S. Lewis that has allowed it to last, and leave it to editors Roger White, Judith Wolfe, and Brendan N. Wolfe to compile the best essays and memoirs on Lewis from members of the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society.
Eighteen different writers from throughout this group’s history lend their talents to this remarkable volume. The end product is a book that is woven together to form a wonderful tapestry that celebrates a man who was not just a theologian, but a writer, a scholar, a dreamer, a philosopher, and more importantly a person. The selections in this book are taken from some of the lectures given to this group.
The book is divided into part one “essays” and part two “memoirs”. Then each part contains a subsection that looks at Lewis as a philosopher, which includes Elizabeth Anscombe’s “ C.S. Lewis’ rewrite of Chapter III of Miracles”, her lecture that spurned a revision to C.S. Lewis’ Miracles, and Oxford university Professor of Systemic Theology Paul S. Fiddes’s essay “Charles Williams and the Problem of Evil” that compares and contrasts Lewis and Williams views of the Problem of Evil; literary criticism which includes an insightful analysis by Rowan Williams on That Hideous Strength, and Walter Hooper’s “It all Began With a Picture” that recounts the story of the writing and creation of Narnia; “Memories of C.S. Lewis by his Family and Friends” which includes recollections from his cousin, Joan Murphy, his minister Ronald Head, and Peter Bide, his friend and a former priest who officiated Lewis’ marriage to Joy Davidman; last of all “Memories of the Inklings”, which includes Owen Barfield’s recollections of his friendship with Lewis and John Wain’s “Brothers and Friends” that looks at the bond of friendship that existed between Jack and his brother Warnie.
This book will truly have something for everyone who is an older fan of C.S. Lewis, except for any salacious tawdry tell-all material. As this is the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society and some of these essays are written by those how knew him, many of them take to task the baseless accusations made in A.W. Wilson’s 1993 biography of Lewis that he hasn’t been able to shake. Through them, we see that Lewis was both the man, believer, writer, and scholar that we thought he was. In fact the only “shocking” thing fans may discover about Lewis was that he was often late to church, only arriving in time for the sermon as he detested the sound of the pipe organ.
But this book is not all about debunking accusations or making audacious claims. The memories presented are a celebration of Lewis’ life by those who personally knew him, and not some second hand accounts. The literary and scholarly analysis is well researched and comes from some of the best literary minds around. None of this should come as a surprise. When all the contributors to this book are all members of the Oxford C.S. Lewis society, nothing less than excellence is to be expected.
The editors of the project did a great job choosing and editing the selections featured in the book. The end result is a book that is not only insightful, but an all out enjoyable read. It is unlikely that any of us reading will get the chance to sit in on one of their meetings, and this book is a more then suitable substitute. So poor yourself a cup of tea, sit back in a comfy chair and get ready to feel like you are part of one of their lively meetings. Any serious fan and scholar of C.S. Lewis would do well to have this book among their collection.
Five out of Five Shields.
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The review is definitely worth reading. It shows how the authors put their understanding into papers and makes me read them all in order to create my own opinion, besides it significantly improves writing skills.