I believe the "medieval" attempt to make everything fit into a whole (universities, alchemy, and all--but not forcing belief), is the only alternative to nihilism. It is a lonely pilgrimage, but delight comes when you meet another thinker who pushes back against reductionism and says, "I thought I was the only one." I even have a theme song to unite us: To dream the impossible dream.
Thank you for showing us the “through-line” in Lewis’s a academic work. This is very helpful to me to begin to organize my thinking regarding this part of Lewis. I’ve been intimidated to start English Literature In The Sixteenth Century, but your post motivates me. I appreciate your work!
Wow! This is definitely a good-to-know! I really enjoyed reading this article. I can relate as I grew up with a lot of bookshelves at home and having a bookstore as my parents' business.
I really like the cover design for The Discarded Image and the three other works with the same cover style.
I have a 'Complete Works of C. S. Lewis on my ereader that only includes three of his scholarly titles: The Allegory of Love, A Preface to Paradise Lost, and An Experiment in Criticism. So much for completeness...
For those who haven't come across it: Jason Baxter's book THE MEDIEVAL MIND OF C.S. LEWIS is a great window into how all of this scholarly erudition shows up (often very subtly) in Lewis's fiction.
Even in San Jose, before the Barnes and Noble arrived (early 1990s?) there really wasn't much in the way of bookstores. I grew up nearby and "bookstore" basically meant Waldenbooks (which was the size of one small space in a shopping mall, with a mix of calendars and middlebrow stuff). I don't know how, if at all, people would get their hands on literary fiction or serious nonfiction. Maybe through the mail? Outside San Francisco and Berkeley, and maybe Palo Alto/Menlo Park (Kepler's) I'm not sure if anywhere in the Bay Area had a great bookstore before Barnes and Noble showed up. Barnes and Noble was an amazing thing back then!
I love your posts, Joel. Four years of intense undergraduate studies put me off anything Lit. Crit. for a long time, Ive read little since, but I enjoy your eclectic but erudite sharing. I also find interest in piecing together a sketch of your American bibliophilic career: age 17, snapping up esoteric (in the literal sense) critical works in Barnes and Noble! I got a very pleasurable memory of the excitement I felt, at that same age although in a different era, in downtown Sydney, Australia, exploring the shelves of a venerable, cavernous, dim and dusty literary bookstore that was a city institution. You made me realise how fortunate that was for me. Long live the book!
Thanks for this. I've been a devoted fan of Lewis since I first read Mere Christianity shortly after my conversion at age 18 in 1971. After that, I would eagerly buy any Lewis volume that showed up in the local bookstore. I have a large collection now, but of his academic works I only possess The Discarded Image and A Preface to Paradise Lost. I really appreciate the way you lay out the works chronologically and explain how they link together.
When you were growing up in Roseville, I lived in El Dorado County, and The Bookery in Placerville was my book Mecca, where I spent a lot of time and way too much money. I found many Lewis books there, including some of the ones you reviewed here. I'm in Roseville now, and thankfully there is a great Barnes and Noble now. I also find good books at the thrift store and library book sales. No longer a book desert!
Thanks so much for this fabulous intro to Lewis' literary scholarship.
My phone keeps autocorrecting C.S. Lewis to C.S. Luis so I had AI make it official.
He writes magical realism, drinks café de olla, and meets his best friend J.R.R. Tolquién at the pub every Tuesday.
Here’s the picture: https://substack.com/@whitenoise/note/c-223703428
I believe the "medieval" attempt to make everything fit into a whole (universities, alchemy, and all--but not forcing belief), is the only alternative to nihilism. It is a lonely pilgrimage, but delight comes when you meet another thinker who pushes back against reductionism and says, "I thought I was the only one." I even have a theme song to unite us: To dream the impossible dream.
What an epic compendium of Lewis's work. Thank you.
Thank you for showing us the “through-line” in Lewis’s a academic work. This is very helpful to me to begin to organize my thinking regarding this part of Lewis. I’ve been intimidated to start English Literature In The Sixteenth Century, but your post motivates me. I appreciate your work!
This might interest you. A study of how Ireland is persistently overlooked as central to his identity.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-94390-4
A detail of his biography that I know but have never explored. Thanks for sharing that!
Have a review coming up sometime in the 'Irish Times'.
*Studies in Words* should be read by everyone who writes. It puts some punch in George Orwell's complaints in "Politics and the English Language."
Wow! This is definitely a good-to-know! I really enjoyed reading this article. I can relate as I grew up with a lot of bookshelves at home and having a bookstore as my parents' business.
🩷
I really like the cover design for The Discarded Image and the three other works with the same cover style.
I have a 'Complete Works of C. S. Lewis on my ereader that only includes three of his scholarly titles: The Allegory of Love, A Preface to Paradise Lost, and An Experiment in Criticism. So much for completeness...
Wonderful, thank you!
For those who haven't come across it: Jason Baxter's book THE MEDIEVAL MIND OF C.S. LEWIS is a great window into how all of this scholarly erudition shows up (often very subtly) in Lewis's fiction.
Even in San Jose, before the Barnes and Noble arrived (early 1990s?) there really wasn't much in the way of bookstores. I grew up nearby and "bookstore" basically meant Waldenbooks (which was the size of one small space in a shopping mall, with a mix of calendars and middlebrow stuff). I don't know how, if at all, people would get their hands on literary fiction or serious nonfiction. Maybe through the mail? Outside San Francisco and Berkeley, and maybe Palo Alto/Menlo Park (Kepler's) I'm not sure if anywhere in the Bay Area had a great bookstore before Barnes and Noble showed up. Barnes and Noble was an amazing thing back then!
I love your posts, Joel. Four years of intense undergraduate studies put me off anything Lit. Crit. for a long time, Ive read little since, but I enjoy your eclectic but erudite sharing. I also find interest in piecing together a sketch of your American bibliophilic career: age 17, snapping up esoteric (in the literal sense) critical works in Barnes and Noble! I got a very pleasurable memory of the excitement I felt, at that same age although in a different era, in downtown Sydney, Australia, exploring the shelves of a venerable, cavernous, dim and dusty literary bookstore that was a city institution. You made me realise how fortunate that was for me. Long live the book!
Thanks for this. I've been a devoted fan of Lewis since I first read Mere Christianity shortly after my conversion at age 18 in 1971. After that, I would eagerly buy any Lewis volume that showed up in the local bookstore. I have a large collection now, but of his academic works I only possess The Discarded Image and A Preface to Paradise Lost. I really appreciate the way you lay out the works chronologically and explain how they link together.
When you were growing up in Roseville, I lived in El Dorado County, and The Bookery in Placerville was my book Mecca, where I spent a lot of time and way too much money. I found many Lewis books there, including some of the ones you reviewed here. I'm in Roseville now, and thankfully there is a great Barnes and Noble now. I also find good books at the thrift store and library book sales. No longer a book desert!
Excellent post, Joel!
Absolutely epic review and helpful roadmap. I read several of these many years ago but time to revisit them. Thank you, Joel!