Customer Reviews

C.S.Lewis Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces

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C. S. Lewis's essays have been published in various combinations for years now. What is absolutely terrific about this volume is that it packages 135 of Lewis's essays and other short writings. Some of those here are hard to find anywhere else such as Christian Reunion. If you are interested in C.S. Lewis's essays -- and functioning neurons ought to be -- then this is the volume to get.

I have a huge library of C.S. Lewis's work -- just about everything and I bought this to flesh out my collection since it contained some essays I didn't have. When I got it I took one look and now it is the first volume I take down when I'm looking for something. The essays are nicely arranged by overall topic -- just the sixteen essays collected as part 6: The Art of Writing and the Gifts of Writers -- are worth the price of admission. Even some of Lewis's fiction is included. The fragment "The Dark Tower" for example -- it's authenticity has been questioned -- read it and decide for yourself. First though I think you should read "Voyage to Arcturus" which taught Lewis what planets are good for. Then when you read the Dark Tower you can meaningfully ask the question "Is this a plausible result given Lewis's expressed views of VTA?" As an exercise in overlap I looked at God In The Dock and so far have found all but two of the essays there (48 of them) are included in the 135 here -- the two missing as far as I can tell are "Rejoinder to Dr. Pittenger" and "Is Progress Possible?" -- so that's an example. If you're just starting out reading Lewis's Essays then this is the book to get.

I simply love this collection. If you don't buy this one you can get most of the essays by buying about five other volumes.

I'm still hyperventilating over the out-of-print price I paid for this, but this is a great, great get. Another reviewer has elsewhere pointed out that the most efficient way to grab up Lewis's essays is to get these:

Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces
Selected Literary Essays
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Unfortunately the top two are out of print. But if you can swing the dough, you will have very nearly every essay published by Lewis, and I believe only a single essay is repeated between the three collections. (I could be wrong, but the number of repeats is tiny. I don't have SLE in front of me to check the math.) To me, they are well worth it.

If you have worked your way through the staples (ha! no pun intended!) of Lewis's canon and want to branch out, this is a gold mine for you. This one, the other two mentioned, and the third volume of his collected letters would be an even better set.

Like what other reviews have said, the book contains most of C.S. Lewis' short works. Although the book looks plain (like an old hymno) without its dust cover, the contents speak louder and do the book very much more justice.