Product Description

Most popularly known as the author of the children's classic The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis was also a prolific poet, essayist, novelist, and Christian writer. His most famous work, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, while known as a children's book is often read as a Christian allegory and remains to this day one of his best-loved works. But Lewis was prolific in a number of areas, including poetry, Christian writing, literary criticism, letters, memoir, autobiography, sermons and more. This set, written by experts, guides readers to a better understanding and appreciation of this important and influential writer.

Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His mother died when he was young, leaving his father to raise him and his older brother Warren. He fought and was wounded in World War I and later became immersed in the spiritual life of Christianity. While he delved into the world of Christian writing, he did not limit himself to one genre and produced a remarkable oeuvre that continues to be widely read, taught, and adored at all levels. As part of the circle known as the Inklings, which consisted of writers and intellectuals, and included J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and others, he developed and honed his skills and continued to put out extensive writings. Many different groups now claim him as their own: spanning genres from science fiction to Christian literature, from nonfiction to children's stories, his output remains among the most popular and complex. Here, experts in the field of Lewis studies examine all his works along with the details of his life and the culture in which he lived to give readers the fullest complete picture of the man, the writer, and the husband, alongside his works, his legacy, and his place in English letters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1379358 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 4
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1416 pages

Review

"The master apologist did not ruminate about himself overmuch. Although he did take his experiences in life into account including his Belfast childhood rife with troubles at school, his service in war, his successes (which were not inconsiderable) at Oxford and Cambridge, his friendships, marriage and bereavement he believed those experiences to be not unique to himself but part of any life. In this he was exceedingly modest, and this set of essays on Lewis's life and work prove so in biographical pieces, critical reviews of works ranging from theology to fantasy, commentary on his role as a Christian intellectual, reviews of his work as a literary historian, tutor and lecturer, and considerations of him as a lover of words."

"Edwards...the author of five other books on C. S. Lewis, in part seeks to correct what he sees as failings in the approaches taken in recent Lewis biographies. These failings, he believes, include an emphasis on perceived personality defects in the author that taint the treatment of his religious conviction and scholarship and, in contrast, an excessive veneration in some biographies that has tended to reduce consideration of Lewis's scope and accomplishments to a few selected aspects of his life and work. To set the record straight, Edwards has gathered a wide-ranging and well-ordered group of essays from an international panel of contributors and divided them into four volumes meant to cover more comprehensively all major aspects of Lewis's life and career.... [T]his is the most thorough and current collection available of analysis and opinion on Lewis.... [R]ecommended for academic and large public libraries."

About the Author
BRUCE L. EDWARDS is Professor and Associate Dean at Bowling Green State University. His works include The C. S. Lewis Readers Encyclopedia, for which he served on the editorial board and wrote 25 entries, The Taste of the Pineapple: Essays on C. S. Lewis as Critic, Reader, and Imaginative Writer; Not a Tame Lion: The Spiritual World of Narnia; and Further Up and Further In: Understanding C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.