Customer Reviews

Place of the Lion

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Working through Williams's seven novels I come to "Place of the Lion" fourth (after "Shadows of Ecstasy", "War in Heaven", and "Many Dimensions"). "...Lion" is in some ways the most simple to read of these four, with the most cohesive narrative and fewest extraneous characters. Conceptually, it may be the most difficult of the four, but a simple, definitional understanding of Platonic Ideals is all that is required to open it up to everyone. With that caveat, I find "Place of the Lion" the best of the four novels mentioned. True to Williams's norm, the fantastical pops into the book within the first half-dozen pages and never retreats. Also of the four, "...Lion" is most clearly applicable to life, with particularly valuable insights into the transcendence of love - most overtly of eros and friendship, but of charity and affection as well (see CS Lewis - "The Four Loves" for an excellent non-fiction treatment of the same topics). All-in-all...very good and highly recommended.

Living manifestations of Platonic archtypes invade the earth (a lion embodies courage, a butterfly beauty, etc.) in this supernatural thriller. The destiny of an uncharitable young woman, neurotically absorbed in her doctoral dissertation, hangs in the balance. This is a great read for anyone, but especially for those who struggle with balancing their intellectual pursuits and "the real world."

This is the fourth Williams book I have read. For me, it's been the most difficult to understand, so far. One needs to be schooled (and schooled fairly thoroughly) in philosophy to fully appreciate what is going on here in The Place Of The Lion.
I am not, and don't.
A reader of this book also needs to know a bit about Williams himself. As a neo-Platonist he did not see God acting alone to create the universe, but as the creator also of sub-creators, which are traditionally known as the angelic hierarchies. For Williams, these were ever-present realities, ruling not only the great principles of creation, but also having the ability to burst in and effect the lives and destinies of men, whether on a group or individual basis. Here in The Place Of The Lion these universal powers are inadvertently stumbled upon by a Platonic meditation group led by a Mr. Berringer. Now, according to Platonic theory, behind the visible world lies the invisible world of Ideas. That is, behind every chair we observe, whether it is a King's throne or a leprechaun's toadstool, lies the Idea of "chairness". There is, so to speak, an eternal Chair from which all chairs proceed. This applies to everything in our world; a table is an instance of the Idea of tables, or of the Table; a man and a woman are cases in point of Maleness and Femaleness. In other words, if there is anything that may be called "unreal" says the Platonist, it is this transitory world of mere appearances which we live in.

The picture which Williams chose for The Place Of The Lion is this Platonic one. It so happens that on one occasion, Mr. Berringer's meditation is deep enough to cause a rupture in the divide between the outer and inner worlds. He is out walking in a condition almost of trance, deep in meditation upon the Platonic idea of strength and kingship, using the archetypal image of a lion. In this state, it so happens that his path is crossed by a real lioness which has escaped from a local circus or zoo. The animal attacks him but the remarkable result is that the lioness vanishes into thin air, and Berringer falls into a cataleptic trance, while the mighty figure of a maned lion is seen walking away - the very archetypal image on which he had been meditating.
Bizarre huh? It's only beginning. He now lies in a coma, and his home and the surrounding area become the place of severe archetypal activity. At one point, the archetypal enormous butterfly appears and all the normal butterflys of the world fly back into it. Totally wild.
I cannot begin to scratch the surface of all the very strange happenings that take place in the book, but I think overall it is meaning to say that man ought to be able to rule all of these forces. There is one man in the book that does, and the story ends with him as a second Adam "naming the beasts" and establishing dominion over them.
To "get it" and maintain interest in this book a reader should have a pre-familiarity with Platonic theory. It is by no means an easy read.

I was so glad to find this book in print and available on Amazon; it's been 20 years since I read it as part of a C.S. Lewis Literature class at Cal State Fullerton, and the themes have stayed with me ever since. Reading this book put me into an almost dreamlike state, living the characters' experiences. The idea that archetypal Ideas could enter our world, consuming their physical shadows (our reality) and threatening humanity's existence, is depicted in the setting of a simple English village. Restoration of balance and order are the salvation of the world -- and keeping balance in my own life became a goal after I read this book.

Once again, Mr. Williams fantasizes the eruption of eschatological events into the ordinary life of the provincial British bourgeoisie. The result is something like the literary offspring of the mating of P.G. Wodehouse with the Book of Revelations. One thing that is rarely discussed, though, is the strange brand of comedy that ensues. For example, picture a young woman sitting at her breakfast table and pondering the remarkable events of the previous evening: A giant pterodactyl, which seems to incarnate the essence of her own self-centeredness and bears something of a resemblance to Peter Abelard, has attempted to assault her by smashing through her bedroom window, ultimately destroying the upper stories of her house while virtually obliterating her father in the process. In the nick of time, she is saved from complete physical and spiritual annihilation by the arrival of her boyfriend riding a unicorn and with an enormous eagle resting on his shoulder. Little wonder she seems distracted as she butters her toast!
I'd agree with my fellow reviewer who notes that a passing familiarity with Plato's Ideals is really all the philosophical preparation a reader needs to jump into this novel. However, a little extra reading regarding Abelard's take on "universals" might add a little extra spice - since Abelard is the subject of the heroine's (the pterodactyl girl) doctoral dissertation. I'd suggest the article "The Medieval Problem of Universals" in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

This is a book I have reread countless times, and it is always fresh. It renews my appreciation for reality, for the simple material world, and reminds me of the mystical potential lying beneath the surface we see. I especially enjoy the heroine's journey from self-absorption to concern and compassion, and the hero who rises to the occasion to rescue his friends and incidentally the world. One of my favorite books.

Williams has a narrative gift that reminds you of Chesterton, and when he's telling the story and unfolding events, it's an exciting read. But in his intellectual zeal, the old principle about "show, don't tell" is cast aside--much of the time is taken up in raptured abstraction and grandly obscure history and philosophizing that quickly become tedious (because unclear) and repetitive. He is given to sudden visionary scene shifts that make heavy picture-drawing demands of the reader's mind, made all the harder going by his breathless clauses upon clauses, which as a technique are supposed to gather the soul up into heights undreamed of, but actually read as purple and overwrought.

Williams has an odd way of both under- and over-explaining, taking for granted he's defined his historical or philosophical terms in a precise and usable way for the purposes of the narrative while loudly "tour-guiding" symbols the reader can easily recognize (such as that, for random example, the burning house is the burning bush). His characters are forever stopping the action for a bit of postgrad seminar instead of letting the action unfold the message, perhaps due to lack of trust in the reader.

This is a difficult book, but it's not because Williams ideas are difficult to grasp--they aren't--or rather, they wouldn't be if he expressed them better. It's difficult because the author won't stick to his last and tell a story. The characters are undeveloped except in the most unfair deus ex machina way; the action stops and starts like a lurching bus, always having to slam on the brakes as some verbiage crosses the road; the plot is almost an afterthought, with loose ends everywhere untied. The ideas that animate this book are interesting, and there's certainly nothing wrong with Williams' mind or erudition; but as a novelist, Williams has a hard time moving from the Idea to the Thing and staying with it.

I would recommend this book as a group read, because there's plenty to talk about, but it's nowhere near Lewis, Tolkien, or Chesterton when it comes to throwing a rope around the archetypal and numinous and bringing it home to modern man.

In The Place of the Lion Williams writes an elaborate Revelations kind of prophecy, blending realism with the supernatural and symbolic. The place of the lion is earth; the lion is both a Form for the supernatural beings medievalists called Intelligences, and the symbol for man, as the lion in the story is a hybrid of both. This is the opposite of what Williams' friend, C.S. Lewis, made of the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia, where it symbolized God. In Williams' book this is the eagle. The eagle is also the Form the protagonist, Anthony, identifies with, if not interchanges with. Other animals represent multiple meanings too, such as the snake is a literal threat to Anthony, as well as a Form, such as Aristotle called it, for the supernatural force to come into our world, and the symbol for Satan or evil.

The mixture of meanings reflects the theme of the other world opening up into, and destroying, this world. Williams portrays the chaos and confusion this could cause, and the various kinds of reactions by characters. The most substantial characters - Anthony, Damaris, his beloved, and his friend Quentin - all have some knowledge of the supernatural world as depicted in literature and the Bible, but they don't necessarily believe it until it impinges on their world. For instance, Damaris studies and writes her thesis on medieval literature, specifically Abelard. She is aware of the religious beliefs of the period, but she does not share them. They are only of academic interest. It is only after an encounter in which Abelard comes alive, and becomes death, that she realizes the truth - that Abelard was real, not just an historical figure or concept.

Williams integrates his interest in philosophy and literature without becoming overbearing or too obscure (a criticism made by friends of other works of his). Christianity is the true account to which the story conforms, but it also incorporates Plato's Ideas, Aristotle's Forms, and the argument between universals and specifics that Abelard became noted for, at least in his own autobiography.

Catagorized as science fiction/fantasy, this book is really about the forces of good and evil juxtiposed with Christianity. Incredibily written to challenge the scholar, it dances with the imagination and takes the reader to nearly horrific heights of dark evil. The book is short and that is good, as the imagery and narative make you ready to be done reading it. Don't take that comment as a negative, take it as a nod to the power of the book. One tip, the action is complicated and it is far better to read it in one or two sittings than reading chapters here and there, time permitting. Once you get in the cadence of it, it's hard to put down.

I have only recently become acquainted with Charles Williams, a contemporary and friend af J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose books I have been reading for decades. This is a wonderful book, in the sense that it is full of wonder. It is not for everyone, but if you are one who contemplates the greater meaning of things, or enjoy reading about the interaction of the natural with the supernatural, you will enjoy this book.