An Experiment in Criticism [Hardcover]

C. S. Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1961

Professor Lewis believed that literature exists above all for the joy of the reader and that books should be judged by the kind of reading they invite. He doubted the use of strictly evaluative criticism, especially its condemnations. Literary criticism is traditionally employed in judging books, and 'bad taste' is thought of as a taste for bad books. Professor Lewis's experiment consists in reversing the process, and judging literature itself by the way men read it. He defined a good book as one which can be read in a certain way, a bad book as one which can only be read in another. He was therefore mainly preoccupied with the notion of good reading: and he showed that this, in its surrender to the work on which it is engaged, has something in common with love, with moral action, and with intellectual achievement. In good reading we should be concerned less in altering our own opinions than in entering fully into the opinions of others; 'in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself'. As with all that Professor Lewis wrote, the arguments are stimulating and the examples apt.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Lewis is at one and the same time provocative, tactful, biased, open-minded, old-fashioned, far-seeing, very annoying and very wise.' Church Times

'This genuinely provocative little book ... Professor Lewis makes the best case against evaluative criticism that I have read.' David Daiches, New York Times Book Review

Book Description

Why do we read literature and how do we judge it? C. S. Lewis's classic analysis springs from the conviction that literature exists for the joy of the reader and that books should be judged by the kind of reading they invite.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1ST edition (January 1, 1961)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521055539
• ISBN-13: 978-0521055536
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), known as Jack to his friends, was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. His major contributions in literary criticism, children's literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim. Lewis and his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the The Lord of the Rings, were part of the Inklings, an informal writers' club that met at a local pub to discuss story ideas. Lewis's fascination with fairy tales, myths, and ancient legends, coupled with inspiration drawn from his childhood, led him to write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the best-loved books of all time. Six further books followed to become the immensely popular The Chronicles of Narnia. The final title in the series, The Last Battle, won the Carnegie Medal, one of the highest marks of excellence in children's literature. His other distinguished and popular accomplishments include Out of the Silent Planet, The Four Loves, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a book of great value, February 13, 2002

By 

NotATameLion (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Experiment in Criticism (Canto) (Paperback)

C.S. Lewis' "Experiment in Criticism" is one of those great books that gives one a new lens with which to view life. This book caused me to do a lot of self-examination and reflection on how I interact not just with literature, but also with culture as a whole.

Lewis' point is that there is not a real "bad" or "good" literature. The value of what we read is in how we interact with it. Lewis defines how people interact with culture in terms of "The Few" and "The Many."

"The Few" are the literary (in other fields they would be musical, have a palette capable of enjoying the best food, or an eye for art). The literary count reading as valuable, read books more than once, are able to be changed by what they read, and remember and share works or pieces of works with others.

"The Many" are the unliterary. Unliterary people generally don't accuse the literary of reading the wrong books-they wonder why literary people make such a big fuss about books at all. They never read a book twice. Their interaction with a work is not deeply felt. Though they may "read a lot" they don't "set much store by it."

Lewis draws some interesting comparisons with other forms of cultural involvement. He compares these two styles of reading with how some people interact with art and music. Just because one is in the literary "Few" does not mean that they are part of the "Few" in other venues.

Chapter five, "On Myth," is incredibly valuable in discussing myth as well as the value of modern genres such as Fantasy and Science Fiction. It is a wonderful area to start exploring what has come to be termed "Mythopoeic literature."

Another notable section is chapter seven which is a discussion of realism. Lewis' definition is broader than the usual. Personally, in changing my perception of what "realistic" fiction is, this chapter probably influenced me more than any other.

This is a book capable of changing the reader's view of culture. It is therefore of great value. I give it my heartfelt recommendation.

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars is there a spider in the room ?, March 28, 2001

By 

Cipriano "www.bookpuddle.blogspot.com" (Planet Claire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Experiment in Criticism (Canto) (Paperback)

Typical of Lewis's deeper insight into things, his "Experiment" consists in a reversal of the usual method of literary judgement. Instead of classifying BOOKS, he classifies READERS and how they "use" or "receive" books. The true (unbiased) critic does not pontificate a judgement of 'good' or 'bad' upon a book without careful cosideration of the possible confusion between degrees of merit and differences of kind. "I want to convince people," says Lewis, "that adverse judgements are always the most hazardous... A negative proposition is harder to establish than a positive. One glance may enable us to say there is a spider in the room; we should need a spring-cleaning (at least) before we could say with certainty that there wasn't. When we pronounce a book good we have a positive experience of our own to go upon... In calling the book bad we are claiming not that it can elicit bad reading, but that it can't elicit good. This negative proposition can never be certain."

Central to his argument is the fact that the same book may be read in different ways. It follows then that there is a certain speculative nature to evaluative criticism, and therefore no amount of reliance upon literary criticism can absolve one from the responsibility of becoming a GOOD READER. And what is a good reader? Well, that is the question isn't it? In my opinion (and it is just that... an opinion) I feel that reading Lewis's "Experiment" can answer that question more effectively than anything I've ever come across. Read it, and see where you fit into Lewis's categories of the "literary" and the "unliterary" person (too lengthy to enumerate here). If at any point, you feel offended and want to hurl the book across the room... you are of the latter category.

Lewis deplored the technical dissection of what he loved so dearly... the simple act of reading. I loved his image in chapter 2 of the "status seeker" type of readers, gathered to discuss the finer (and, of course HIDDEN) points of "approved literature" while the only real literary experience in such a scenario "may be occurring in a back bedroom where a small boy is reading Treasure Island under the bed-clothes by the light of an electric torch."

Lewis sought in books (as he called it here) an "enlargement of his being". He says on page 52, "I am probably one of many who, on a wakeful night, entertain themselves with invented landscapes. I trace great rivers from where the gulls scream at the estuary, through the windings of ever narrower and more precipitous gorges, up to the barely audible tinkling of their source in a fold of the moors. But I am not there myself as explorer or even as tourist. I am looking at that world from outside." This is a terrific/significant book that will be read, re-read, and cherished by anyone who has ever had similar musings. Oh, and by the way... all GOOD readers have !

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important books written on Art: READ IT NOW!, February 6, 2001

By 

Mike London "MAC" (Oxford, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: An Experiment in Criticism (Canto) (Paperback)

As a person whose life is dedicated to art in all its various incarnations, this has proved the single most enlightening work I have ever had the pleasure of reading. While it itself is literary criticism and in one sense not literature but a study thereof, it's the most radical, revolutionary book I have read regarding art. Before I can continue, one point needs to be cleared first.

I'm a Christian, and I believe the single most important priority is to lead people to the knowledge and saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can do such through art. However, anything that Lewis wrote that lead someone to Jesus is, of course, more important than this book in that respect. Jesus comes first, art comes underneath that in priority, as do all things. That being said:

AN EXPERIMENT IN CRITICISM is the single most important work C. S. Lewis has produced when it comes to literature and the arts. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, the SPACE TRILOGY, and TILL WE HAVE FACES are literature, but this overwhelms them all - not because of what it is (a universal principle that can be applied to art), but because of what it is not (a story or work of art that not everyone will have the same taste for). People may or may not like his fiction (although I find it rare to meet a person who doesn't like NARNIA) - but this book anyone can appreciate, especially those interested in literature in specific and art in general (for, although it concerns itself primarily with literature, this book also stands in defense of drama, music, painting, and the artistic endeavours of humankind in general). Because there are differing tastes in terms of fiction, people who will not read Lewis's own literature will (or should) read this. This element comes into play at the last chapter, where Lewis brings out how hard it is to take down a work with this apparatus, because, while you may not enjoy a work, others may. Literature is a very highly subjective experience.

CRITICISM's central argument rests in the fact that books should not be judged by some arbitrary critical analyses, but by what response it elicits in the reader. This book contains one of Lewis's famous quotes, at the end of the Epilogue: "But in reading literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself." That is the central thesis of this work: not to approach a piece of literature, or movie, or painting, or drama, as something to experience and forget immediately afterward, but to enter into it, surrender to it, and approach it with an open mind. That is one thing that is so great about this book - even people who have prejudices against Lewis can read this work.

It also points out the central flaw in evaluative criticism: it may dominate and wipe away the chance at a reader appreciated the work for what it really is, and to experience it in the reader's own way. Lewis does not argue that all evaluative criticism is bad - there's a very human need, he says, to `compare notes', and that is normal, but to much has been given over to this `note comparison' and not enough to the actual work of art. People, especially students (Lewis was, by profession, a medieval literature professor), had quite a broad range of knowledge concerning Chaucerian and Shakespearian criticism and hardly any of Chaucer or Shakespeare (he cited this example at the end of the last chapter). To much has been given over to criticism.

Although I will continue to write reviews, this book has forever changed my approach. Lewis states that one can have an appreciation of a work without the critics, but one CANNOT have an appreciation of the critics without the author. Now I propose that all reviewers should read this book, and keep this in mind when writing. I certainly will. It is also my personal belief that anyone in universities who are studying literature should be required to read this book at the start of their very first semester, so they may examine their motives of precisely WHY they are in this study.

Indeed, the biggest tragedy of this book is, I fear, it is not highly enough read. Regardless of your views on C. S. Lewis, this is one book everyone should read who professes a love for art, and ESPECIALLY by all who write literary criticism. And while that profession does have a place in our world (where would academia be without it? `Publish or perish!'), it is superseded in importance by the art that it deals with, and we should first immerse ourselves in it, sometimes several times over, before we turn away and reach for that scholarly volume. And if it's a good work, it will only encourage you more to go to the work at hand and discover for yourself what the art can do for you. (Shippey's ROAD TO MIDDLE-EARTH is a good example of a well-written criticism). Lewis said one good element about criticism is, if the critics truly care for the art, the enthusiasm will be apparent, and it may cause you to read literature otherwise unknown to you. Also, a central element is the difficulty in producing condemnation to a work. It's a good case against censorship, because although a great work can be abused, it can also be used properly. One may classical images and use it as pornography - while one may look at it and fall in love with the Renaissance. Of course, PLAYBOY is mainly used for lust.

A side note: Pay close attention to the chapter on MYTH, which is a central element in both Tolkien and Lewis. This alone should make it required reading for anyone who study the lives of these two great Christian writers. This work also shows you the depth of versatility of how well-read C. S. Lewis actually was, and shows his phenomenal memory of such things.