C. S. Lewis - Image and Imagination

C. S. Lewis would not have published anything he was not satisfied with, but his overflowing bookshelves contained few of his own books and writings. We can only wonder at what he'd make of this new book, which gathers up all his book reviews, forty-two in total, covering thirty-five years. These have never been collected and will be new to most readers. In addition, the book includes four major essays unavailable in print for over half a century (The idea of an English School, Our English syllabus, the preface to Essays Presented to Charles Williams , The English prose Morte ), two essays that Lewis drafted but never published (Image and imagination, Lucretius), two obituaries (on Oliver Elton and Charles Williams), his preface to A Faith of Our Own by his friend, the theologian Austin Farrer, the foreword to Smoke on the Mountain by Joy Davidman, the woman he eventually married, and his introduction to an edition of La amon's Brut , which he thought he might, one day, translate.

For ease of reference and as a guide through so broad an array of topics, I have presented the different essays and reviews under six broadly thematic sections, rather than chronologically. The first section contains general discussions of literature and literary history. The second includes Lewis's formal, published assessments of the work of his friends in the Inklings circle. A section reflecting on aspects of Christianity follows, and then the rest of the book considers, in turn, specific issues regarding Classical literature, Medieval and Renaissance literature, and, finally, Milton and later English literature. Within each section, material is arranged chronologically by subject (and so, for example, a discussion of Homer precedes one on Aristotle), and more general topics appear before those more narrowly focused. Readers should remember however that Lewis's mind was especially adept at forging unexpected connections. It was part of his genius to recognize that rationality and religion, the material and the metaphorical all inform one another. An essay or review in one chapter, therefore, may have probably will have implications for arguments expressed elsewhere.

This book will appeal principally to anyone with general interests in literature and religion, as well as those who have a particular regard for the academic work of C. S. Lewis or who simply like good English prose style. Taken together, the essays and reviews present some of his best literary criticism and religious exposition. Many were composed with the general reader in mind, having been written originally for popular newspapers and magazines such as The Listener , the Observer , the Spectator , the Sunday Telegraph , Time and Tide , The Times , and the Times Literary Supplement . As ever, I am grateful to the C. S. Lewis Estate for permission to reproduce this material.

I owe an immense debt to Dr A. T. Reyes, the Classical scholar, best known to Lewis readers for his magisterial edition of C. S. Lewis's translation of The Aeneid C. S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile (2011) and to my godson, G. E. M. Lippiatt of Hertford College, who supplied, besides much good advice, the translation of Lewis's French piece, What France means to me in Chapter 20 (see pp. 1436). I am very grateful to both.

Finally, I would like to thank the Syndics of Cambridge University Press for agreeing to publish this book. Dr Linda Bree, the editor in charge of its production, has been helpful and kind throughout. In 1969, I edited for Cambridge Lewis's Selected Literary Essays , to which I hope this new collection of writings will serve as a worthy companion and pendent.

The following abbreviated references have been used: