Latin Letters Of C.S. Lewis (Hardcover)

by C.S. Lewis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In September 1947, after reading The Screwtape Letters in Italian, Fr. Giovanni Calabria was moved to write the author, but he knew no English, so he addressed his letter in Latin. Therein began a correspondence that was to outlive Fr. Calabria himself (he died in December 1954 and was succeeded in the correspondence by Fr. Luigi Pedrollo).

Translator/editor Martin Moynihan calls these letters "limpid, fluent and deeply refreshing. There was a charm about them, too, and not least in the way they were 'topped and tailed' - that is, in their ever-slightly-varied formalities of address and of farewell."

More than any other of his published works, The Latin Letters shows the strong devotional side of Lewis, and contains letters on topics ranging from Christian unity and modern European history to liturgical worship and general ethical behavior. Moreover, these letters are often intimate and personal.

Language Notes
Text: English, Latin (translation)
Original Language: Latin

Product Details

• Hardcover: 126 pages
• Publisher: St. Augustines Press; 1 edition (November 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890318345
• ISBN-13: 978-1890318345
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #830,832 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mainly for completionists, November 1, 2001

By A Customer

I'm glad I bought this book. The layout and binding are attractive, and it is interesting how well the Lewis style comes across in Moynihan's translation. Nevertheless, I would rank _Latin Letters_ relatively low in importance among Lewis's books, somewhere below _Letters to an American Lady_. The letters are not terribly "meaty", and most of the substantial comments in the letters were also made by Lewis elsewhere. The book is only a little over a hundred pages, and taking into account the fact that roughly half those pages are taken up by the original Latin and that the remaining half has a generous amount of white space, there's really not a whole lot there.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A curiosity with plenty of good features, September 3, 2003

By	F. P. Barbieri "Fabio Paolo Barbieri" (London UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is a pity that more of Lewis' correspondents did not address him in Latin, for his is really delightful, and he proves certainly as able to convey his thoughts easily and eloquently in the older language as in English. The letters of this collection really do not add up to a full book, and there is a certain amount of dead wood on both sides - but there is enough of the real Lewis in numerous comments (such as one about Ireland sectarianism for which his correspondent, Don Giovanni Calabria, felt compelled to tell him that "the Holy Spirit has dictated that sentence to you!") that we would not want to be without them. Remarkable also, and interesting, is the way in which Lewis, the holder of an Oxford triple First and one of the best-read men of his generation, addresses the only moderately well educated Father Calabria as a superior, purely because he is a priest - and not an Anglican priest either, mind you, but a Catholic. It is symptomatic of the seriousness with which he accepted the claims, not only of his religion, but of the Church.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Ecumenism, November 18, 2000

By	"mheppv" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

In this book you can find a real cuantity of ecumenism, an a exceptional exaple to our world about it. This letters between an Anglican (Lewis) and a Catholic (Fr. Calabria), are full of the real God and love.

I, extremly recomend this Book!