Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #732888 in Books
• Published on: 1979-02-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 287 pages

Customer Reviews

Buy it from the UK Amazon site
This is a great book but don't be sucked into buying it for 150 dollers goto the UK site and get it for 8 bucks. Ships just as fast.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0261103474/ref=sr_aps_books_1_2/026-5367973-8334817

As excellent as its subject matter!
Anyone interested in these legendary writers cannot miss out on reading this book (the trick is in FINDING it)! Lewis (d.1963), Tolkien (d.1973) and Williams (d.1945) were, and remain, three of the most profound and influential authors of the 20th Century. Carpenter's book captures the atmosphere of the friendship that existed between these three "Oxonians" as they met to drink beer on Tuesdays at the "Bird & Baby" and read selections from their works in progress. Among the "friends" who can also be considered Inklings we find R.E. Havard, Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, Colin Hardie, David Cecil, Lewis's brother Warnie and others that I'm forgetting here. Through Carpenter's excellent book we get to lean in on the banter of unrivalled literary wit and wisdom. Here in "The Inklings" we get as close as possible to an understanding of the depth of these great minds... in these meetings, great works such as The Lord of The Rings, The Screwtape Letters, and All Hallows Eve were read aloud for the first time to the laughter, approval and/or criticism of those at table.
Carpenter's book is very well written, well laid out and had me captivated from start to finish. This book was the worthy winner of the Somerset Maugham Award for Best Biography.

Great collective biography of a remarkable group
For years, a small number of Oxford dons and fellows, as well as some of their friends, met in a local pub on Tuesdays to drink beer, hold discussions on such matters as mythology, morality, and literature, and read aloud the things they had been writing. Perhaps more important than these meetings were the Thursday night gatherings in the rooms of CS Lewis at Magdalen college. This group, which included such intellectual giants as Lewis, JRR Tolkien, and Charles Williams, was known as "The Inklings."

Much of "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and Lewis's Space Trilogy were read in these meetings. Lewis also read much of his apologetic work to the group. The Inklings have had an enormous effect on the world of fantasy and Christian apology, and this biography by Humphrey Carpenter attempts to examine, in detail, just what occurred at these meetings, and what the effect was on those who participated.

Actually, this book is more of a biography on CS Lewis than on the rest of the members. Carpenter, who wrote a separate biography on Tolkien, does not elaborate much on the creator of "The Lord of the Rings", but rather spends most of his time on Lewis, who was, after all, the life of the group. Despite the focus on Lewis, however, there is a large section devoted to the life and times of Charles Williams, another principal member of the group. By using Lewis's life as a narrative, Carpenter is able to explore the composition and disposition of the Inklings as a group, as well as discuss their collective impact on the world of literature, fantasy, and criticism.

This biography is well-written, and covers its subject well. The Inklings were a fascinating group of men, and this book provides much information and detail about the group as a whole that is difficult to glean from a biography which focuses on just one of the members. Unfortunately, this volume is not currently available in the US, and must be obtained either from Amazon.uk or from a used bookseller. Despite the difficulty in obtaining the book, however, this is a fascinating and worthwhile look at the Inklings.