Product Description

Reflections on literature and science fiction; three stories; and the beginning chapters of a novel. Edited and with a Preface by Walter Hooper.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167174 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780156027670
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) gained international renown for an impressive array of beloved works both popular and scholarly: literary criticism, children's literature, fantasy literature, and numerous books on theology. Among his most celebrated achievements are Out of the Silent Planet, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, The Four Loves, and Surprised by Joy.

Customer Reviews

An OK collection for fans on a budget
In science fiction, Lewis is best known for his space trilogy ("Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", and "That Hideous Strength"), and in fantasy, for his seven-volume "Narnia Chronicles" series. Less known is that Lewis also wrote a few genre short stories and was the author of a number of short works about the genre. Those stories and short works are the subject of this collection.

These works, like the rest of Lewis's shorter works, have been collected and published in book form multiple times. Trying to determine what works are in what collections is, for that reason, difficult, and to complicate matters more, some works appear have appeared under more than one title.

To aid readers, in this review I've listed the works in this collection, with notes indicating other collections they have appeared in. Where a work has appeared under more than one title, I give both titles separated by a slash.

Table of Contents:

(Essays)

"On Stories" / "The Kappa Element in Romance" (1), (3)

"On Three Ways of Writing for Children" (1), (3)

"Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to be Said" (1), (3)

"On Juvenile Tastes" (1), (3)

"It All Began with a Picture ..." (1), (3)

"On Criticism" (1), (3)

"On Science Fiction" (1), (3)

"A Reply to Professor Haldane" (1)

"Unreal Estates" / "The establishment must die and rot ..." (1), (3)

(Stories)

"The Shoddy Lands" (2), (3)

"Ministering Angels" (2), (3)

"Forms of Things Unknown" (2), (3), (4)

"After Ten Years" (an unfinished novel) (2), (3)

Notes:

(1) also published in "On Stories, and Other Essays"

(2) also published in "The Dark Tower and Other Stories"

(3) also published in "Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces"

(4) Lewis's authorship of this is disputed.

Recommendations:

In general, to anyone interested in Lewis's shorter works, my best advice is to get "Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces", which, as of the time of this writing, is available from Amazon UK but not Amazon US. That collection consists of about 130 short works by Lewis. The works in that collection are mostly Christian, but it also includes almost everything in "On Stories, and Other Essays", and "The Dark Tower and Other Stories" (which in turn contain everything in this collection).

If you are interested in Lewis's science fiction and fantasy, and your budget or enthusiasm does not run to "Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces", then my second-best advice is to get "On Stories, and Other Essays" plus "The Dark Tower and Other Stories". (If you don't want essays about the genre, and only the stories themselves, then you can skip "On Stories, and Other Essays"). If you get both of those books, don't buy this one - you'll be wasting your money.

If your budget or interest doesn't stretch to cover both of the afore-mentioned books, then my third-best advice is to buy this book.

Those whose interest in Lewis' work as a literary critic and whose taste is not limited to science fiction and fantasy may also want to consider the following additional two collections (neither has been included in "Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces"):

"Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature"

"Selected Literary Essays" (out of print)

Fly on the wall!
Oh my! This is a treasure. Included: Short stories written by Lewis, an unfinished myth narrative, some literary criticism, commentary on his own stories (Narnia and the Space Trilogy!) as well as some of his favorites (Wind in the Willows, The Treasure Seekers, The Hobbit) and a transcipt of a discussion of sci-fi with two colleagues. The transcript alone is priceless, both for its content and its humor (unintended at times?).

Lewis on Storytelling
This slender grab bag (long and short essays, a recorded conversation about science fiction with Brian Aldiss and Kingsley Amis, three brief science fiction stories, fragments of a scarcely started novel) centers on the writing and reading of stories. The gems of the collection are "On Stories", which explores the relationship between "story" and "plot" and would be valuable reading for the many authors whose fictions serve up immiscible blobs of action and characterization and "atmosphere", and "On Science Fiction", which skillfully analyzes the merits and defects of the several subspecies of fantastic literature. The latter essay includes the best single sentence of advice to writers that I have ever read: "Whatever in a work of art is not used, is doing harm."

Enlightening is "On Criticism", an (unfortunately unfinished) tour of book reviewers' bad habits. "A Reply to Professor Haldane" (also unfinished), defending the "Perelandra" trilogy against the criticisms of a Marxist scientist, is both an enjoyable polemic and a precis of the sociopolitical argument developed at length in "The Abolition of Man".

The other nonfiction pieces are slighter, though not without interest. The short stories are minor efforts. The scraps of a novel, set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, were written when Lewis' health was failing; in his younger days, they might have eventuated in an equal to "Till We Have Faces", but that promise is quite faint.

This is far from the best of Lewis, but enough of it is very good to justify the modest price.