Literary Views &-Reviews An Introduction To C.S. Lewis

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 4

Literary Views &-Reviews An Introduction To C.S. Lewis

(Reviewed b» J.O.RJ Letters of C. S. Lewis. Edited by W. H. Lewis. Geoffrey Bles. 308 pp. Mr W. H. Lewis, who has gathered together many of the letters of his brother, C. S. Lewis, in this book has given the reader an invaluable introduction to the inner life of this well-known author. C. S. Lewis was born in Ireland in 1898, and was a student at Oxford in the post 1914-1918 war period. After he graduated with Ist class honours in English Literature he was soon appointed a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. This college was to be his home for many years whilst a lecturer in English in the university, until he was translated to Cambridge in 1954 to occupy the chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Poetry. Up to this time he had been a bachelor, but was then “Surprised by Joy" (the title given to his autobiography) and married a woman, who at the time of the marriage was suffering with cancer. The short lived marriage is seen to be a time of anxiety and also of happiness. The letters reveal that at the end of his life C. S. Lewis felt he had done his work and was now ready to depart. Undergirding the simple commentary on this influential man, one finds varying, but nevertheless strong virtues. As a teacher in Magdalen, it is quite obvious that he felt that his role as a teacher was directed by his sense of vocation. Thus it was that he could see his field of Mediaeval Poetry as one that really embraced the whole span of literature, from the time of the Greeks, until the modern day. It was in this context alone that he could assess the true worth of the period he had chosen as his life’s work. What he demanded of himself was not dissimilar from that which he demanded of students. A quotation from a letter written to a young student which shows the demands that he placed upon vocation work.

Doing Chaucer and Shakespeare in the same term seems to me a hazardous experiment, unless there is some special reason which I don’t know yet. Our usual plan here is to spend a term on Chaucer and his contemporaries. As regards reading for the Vac., my general view is that the Vac. should be given chiefly to reading the actual literary texts, without much

attention to problems, getting thoroughly f.miliar with stories, situation, and style, and so having an the data for aesthetic judgment ready; then the term can be kept for more scholarly reading. Thus, if you were doing Chaucer and contemporaries next term, 1 should advise you to read Chaucer himself, Langland (if you can get Skeat's edition, the selection is not much good). Gower (again Macaulay's big edition, if possible, not so that you may read every word of the Confesslo but so that you may select yourself —not forgetting the end which is one of the best bits), Gawain (Tolkien and Gordon's edition), Sisam's XIV century prose and verse (all the pieces of any literary significance). If you can borrow Ritson’s Metrical Romance so much the better.

Lest one would think that Lewis had limited his talents to that of the past, one has but to see what he had to offer in children’s books and in space fiction, and also to

note what he felt was the motivating force for such literature. Here is one quotation in relation to space fiction.

“My ’Out of the Silent Planet* has no factual basis and is a critique of our own age only as any Christian work is implicitly a critique of any age. I was trying to redeem for genuinely imaginative purposes the form popularly known in this country as ‘science-fiction’—l think you call it Yuture-romanz’; just as (so para licet componere magnis) Hamlet redeemed the popular revenge play.” For those of us who are keen to master the use of words the following directions to a young girl who wanted advice on this topic are helpful. (1) Turn off the radio.

(2) Bead all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all

magazines. (S) Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if It was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again. (4) Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or Imaginary things, and nothing else. (Notice this means that if you are interested only in writing you win never be a writer, because you will have nothing to write

about. . . .) (5) Take great pains to be dear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single IU-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding. In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he wants to know—the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn't the same

in his. (<) When you give up a bit of work, don't (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away. Put it In a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the re-writing of things begun and abandoned years earlier. (7) Don’t use a typewriter. The noise will destroy your sense of rhythm, which still needs years of training.

(8) Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.

As a lecturer in the University of Oxford, C. S. Lewis was most popular, but he was not in any way swayed by such popularity. It would appear that he looked to a club called the “Inklings,” which held as its members many of the famous writers of his day, to criticise any of his works and at the same time to permit him to be critical of the works contributed by the other members of the club. He acknowledges that this club meant a great deal to him insofar as such high intellectual criticism prevented him or any of the group becoming conceited or self-satisfied.

As a person, C. S. Lewis did not have an easy life. He was never understood really by his father and although he longed to have close association with him his father was not able to meet his son’s need. Also, for many years he suffered under a tyrannical housekeeper, the mother of a soldier friend who died in the

1914-18 war. In his early days he had learnt the value of money, and the letters show that for many years it was extremely difficult- for him even to afford books. This left its mark on him for most of his life, and it is stated that he did not own many books but preferred to borrow reference books from the library, rather than to possess them. Nevertheless, through all the vicissitudes of his life, his personality remained bright and winsome.

Those of us who have benefited from C. S. Lewis’s insight into the nature of religion, will be encouraged to know something of his conversion to Christianity and how simple it really was, and yet how deep. It happened in 1930.

Terrible things are happening to me. The "Spirit” or "Real I” is showing an alarming tendency to become much more personal and ia taking the offensive and behaving just like God. You’d better come on Monday at the latest or 1 may have entered a monastery.

It is not surprising to learn in the introduction to these letters that C. S. Lewis ordered that two-thirds of all the royalties from the sale of his books should be placed in a trust fund from which contributions could be given to charity. The tenderness of C. S. Lewis is shown in his attitude to his wife. Joy Davidman had been one of his own brilliant students, one of the few women whom he felt he could meet as an intellectual equal. Through all her long illness he surrendered himself in loving care to meet her every need. There is no complaint at his destiny but rather thanksgiving for a deepening understanding of the life of prayer.

This book is essential reading for those who have read many of the works of C. S. Lewis. Undoubtedly the famous always become the subject of curious inquiry for their many admirers. In many cases such explorative activity serves in the end to show that often the admired person possesses feet of clay. In the case of Professor Lewis, examination of these letters only serves in the end to create deeper admiration for this man, who through his writings and his public addresses, has so influenced our contemporary world.