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C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences
A collection of essays by twenty-two men and women whose reminiscences of Lewis as teacher, colleague, and friend form an intimate, candid, and sometimes surprising community biography. Index.
372 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 4, 2019
Quite the enjoyable collection of reminisces and personal portraits of C.S. Lewis. Absolute favorite is "A Prophet" by Erik Routley. The only rubbish is "A Great Clerke" by John Wain, an imbecile, who is like the dwarves in The Last Battle: in the presence of greatness he does not understand.
August 5, 2022
For some reason I think I most enjoyed the reminiscences by the cab driver and Lewis' doctor. I also found heart-warming the VERY erudite note Lewis once sent to a friend who’d forgotten to buy tickets for an opera show they we supposed to attend. I wouldn’t have guessed Lewis could be such a tease. Like many of Lewis’s admirers, I would have very much liked to attend an Inklings session at the Bird and Baby pub.
One day there will be plenty of time for that and even better... Yes in that Day, there will be stupendous creativity, deeper friendships and Joy unstained.
One day there will be plenty of time for that and even better... Yes in that Day, there will be stupendous creativity, deeper friendships and Joy unstained.
February 21, 2019
A few of the essays bored me (perhaps more of a comment on my own interests than the quality of writing), but several of them were simply delightful. An interesting catalog of Lewis' writing (books, essays, poems, published letters) at the end. Now I want to read some of his poems -- particularly "March for Drum, Trumpet, and Twenty-one Giants".
March 23, 2018
Some of the stories in this collection were really good. It was fun to read thoughts from the people who actually knew Lewis and interacted with him on a daily basis. However, a couple of the stories were just long and pontificating. Maybe skip those.
October 2, 2020
Wonderful book to help the fan of C.S. Lewis know and understand him more as the man behind all of his writing.
December 31, 2024
This anthology consists of 24 different accounts by a variety of Lewis’ friends, acquaintances, and admirers. As is the nature of any anthology, the quality varies widely depending on the author and the subject. Most of these reminiscences are, ironically, not very memorable. That’s not to say that there are any without value; each has an insight or a fact about CS Lewis. But what makes this collection worth reading is a number of pieces that are simply unforgettable. I shall briefly describe these below.
“The Tutor: A Portrait” is worthy of its subtitle, “A Chance Meeting” includes the closest thing to an actual extended conversation with Lewis, “A Christian Gentleman” is a heartfelt account of Lewis from the perspective of his driver, and “From Master to Colleague” has a insights into Lewis as critic, particularly in his Allegory of Love. But the two prizes of the collection are first “Oxford’s Bonny Fighter” where Walter Hooper does some extensive historiography to piece together all that’s known about The Socratic Club and Lewis’s involvement in it. (Many readers of Lewis hear something about it and always want to hear more. This delivers.) The other prize is John Wain’s “A Great Clerke” where he connects insights of Lewis’ personality with his writing style, and finishes with a reasonable judgment on his oeuvre.
"... I think the general view, ultimately, will be that his writing improves as it gets further from the popular and demagogic. ... I think I would put his Reflections on the the Psalms at the bottom of the scale, and at the top his contribution to the Oxford History of English Literature, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century. ... His Oxford History volume is a model. Here, where too instrusive a personality would be fatal, Lewis has just the right amount of idiosyncrasy, combined with that wonderful intellectual vitality and zest. Time after time he performs the feat of writing about some deservedly forgotten book, so some crabbed controversy among the theologians of the Reformation, in a way that makes on follow him with real eagerness. Not by gimmicks or Chestertonian antics: simply by that keen - almost fierce- pleasure in debate and expansion that made him such a great teacher.
It would be a pity if this fine book were never to be read by any but literary students, for it is many things in one. There are passages of pure exposition, examples of how to set out a complex question with economy and lucidity, which out to be studied by everyone who has to use his mind for a living, e.g.. the brilliant and rapid sketch of Renaissance poetics at the beginning of the chapter "Sidney and Spenser." Or thumbnail portraits of key characters in the story, such as the beautiful miniature of King James IV of Scotland (on page 66-67). There is, likewise, a fine humility in the book. Lewis, unlike so many dazzling stars of the business, is not too proud to get down and do some of the dull, slogging work involved in the academic study of the subject - making a bibliography, looking up endless dates, all the long vistas of headaches and inky fingers." pp 74-75
For these works, I would recommend this anthology to any Lewis enthusiast.
“The Tutor: A Portrait” is worthy of its subtitle, “A Chance Meeting” includes the closest thing to an actual extended conversation with Lewis, “A Christian Gentleman” is a heartfelt account of Lewis from the perspective of his driver, and “From Master to Colleague” has a insights into Lewis as critic, particularly in his Allegory of Love. But the two prizes of the collection are first “Oxford’s Bonny Fighter” where Walter Hooper does some extensive historiography to piece together all that’s known about The Socratic Club and Lewis’s involvement in it. (Many readers of Lewis hear something about it and always want to hear more. This delivers.) The other prize is John Wain’s “A Great Clerke” where he connects insights of Lewis’ personality with his writing style, and finishes with a reasonable judgment on his oeuvre.
"... I think the general view, ultimately, will be that his writing improves as it gets further from the popular and demagogic. ... I think I would put his Reflections on the the Psalms at the bottom of the scale, and at the top his contribution to the Oxford History of English Literature, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century. ... His Oxford History volume is a model. Here, where too instrusive a personality would be fatal, Lewis has just the right amount of idiosyncrasy, combined with that wonderful intellectual vitality and zest. Time after time he performs the feat of writing about some deservedly forgotten book, so some crabbed controversy among the theologians of the Reformation, in a way that makes on follow him with real eagerness. Not by gimmicks or Chestertonian antics: simply by that keen - almost fierce- pleasure in debate and expansion that made him such a great teacher.
It would be a pity if this fine book were never to be read by any but literary students, for it is many things in one. There are passages of pure exposition, examples of how to set out a complex question with economy and lucidity, which out to be studied by everyone who has to use his mind for a living, e.g.. the brilliant and rapid sketch of Renaissance poetics at the beginning of the chapter "Sidney and Spenser." Or thumbnail portraits of key characters in the story, such as the beautiful miniature of King James IV of Scotland (on page 66-67). There is, likewise, a fine humility in the book. Lewis, unlike so many dazzling stars of the business, is not too proud to get down and do some of the dull, slogging work involved in the academic study of the subject - making a bibliography, looking up endless dates, all the long vistas of headaches and inky fingers." pp 74-75
For these works, I would recommend this anthology to any Lewis enthusiast.
August 31, 2014
The book is a collection of essays. People who knew Lewis remember him, from the guy who drove him around, to his personal doctor (and friend and Inkling, and blustery good-fellow who fitted him out with a catheter that was not quite the best), his colleagues and acquaintances.
The collection of course contains God's plenty. These are the memories of people who sat with him in a car, went with him on vacation, could tell us how he prayed at train stations and read his Bible in the evening before supper. What is strange is the amount of criticism in it. Good criticism, but criticism nonetheless.
There was a lot of debate, a lot of exchanging ideas in the life of Lewis, and many of the people that remember him in this volume continue some of the debates. Alan Bede Griffiths has some penetrating criticisms to make (he's skeptical of 'the personal heresy'), and another curiously critical essay is that of John Wain. Griffiths brings up some inconsistencies in Lewises attitude toward Catholics. Many of Lewises friends were, but his attitude toward them was peculiar. John Wain seems to have more criticisms than fond recollections, though he adds a few of those. Perhaps Wain's is anomalous.
Certainly, you go from the unpolished and sometimes maudlin essay of the bloke who drove Lewis around, to the too-polished and sometimes byzantine essay of Austin Farrer. But you get it all: the blokes he stayed up late talking to, the Americans who met him once or twice, and poor Walter Hooper's tediously thorough historical account of the Socratic which is the only interminable essay in the collection.
Worth having, if you're after a better understanding of C.S. Lewis.
The collection of course contains God's plenty. These are the memories of people who sat with him in a car, went with him on vacation, could tell us how he prayed at train stations and read his Bible in the evening before supper. What is strange is the amount of criticism in it. Good criticism, but criticism nonetheless.
There was a lot of debate, a lot of exchanging ideas in the life of Lewis, and many of the people that remember him in this volume continue some of the debates. Alan Bede Griffiths has some penetrating criticisms to make (he's skeptical of 'the personal heresy'), and another curiously critical essay is that of John Wain. Griffiths brings up some inconsistencies in Lewises attitude toward Catholics. Many of Lewises friends were, but his attitude toward them was peculiar. John Wain seems to have more criticisms than fond recollections, though he adds a few of those. Perhaps Wain's is anomalous.
Certainly, you go from the unpolished and sometimes maudlin essay of the bloke who drove Lewis around, to the too-polished and sometimes byzantine essay of Austin Farrer. But you get it all: the blokes he stayed up late talking to, the Americans who met him once or twice, and poor Walter Hooper's tediously thorough historical account of the Socratic which is the only interminable essay in the collection.
Worth having, if you're after a better understanding of C.S. Lewis.
May 30, 2014
Interesting idea, to collect essays about one larger than life person. C.S. Lewis, in addition to writing the Chronicles of Narnia, also wrote the definitive edition on 16th century English literature, was a speaker of renown a and was in fact heard on the radio during WWIi more than any person except Churchill. An endeavor like this one helps when those who contribute are all exceptional essayists in their own right. The varying perspectives are a wonderful introduction to this larger-than-life literary figure. And the excerpts from C.S.Lewis himself are wonderful and thoughtful. My favorite, said by Lewis on the death of a very close friend, was to the effect that the great pleasure of knowing the friend almost outweighed the loss. And a great friend Lewis was, to judge by this incredible outpouring of well-crafted tributes. Note: The book is dry and academic and parts, so it's no quick read. Also, if you are not curious about either C.S. Lewis or English academic life or arguments about Christianity, you may not enjoy this particularly.
May 30, 2015
This charming title was replaced, in a subsequent edition, by the less impressive "Remembering C.S. Lewis: Recollections of those Who Knew Him." If another edition is in the works, perhaps "Thirteen Ways of Looking at C.S. Lewis" will be considered. It's a fitting title, considering that Lewis, that fiercely non-modern artist, is here presented from a great variety of angles, sometimes contradictory ones, with no privileged position given to any of the different essays. They range from the dryly argumentative to insightful and touching.
My favorite is certainly that of Clifford Morris, Lewis's longtime chauffeur (perhaps taxi driver would be a more realistic comparison), who begins his essay in admitting that he has "no special qualifications save that he called himself my friend." In the midst of his varied reflections, the sincere and hearty Mr. Morris pauses and says, "I want to say this deliberately: Jack Lewis was the greatest man I have ever known."
We cannot all be Lewises, but perhaps we should strive to be Morrises.
My favorite is certainly that of Clifford Morris, Lewis's longtime chauffeur (perhaps taxi driver would be a more realistic comparison), who begins his essay in admitting that he has "no special qualifications save that he called himself my friend." In the midst of his varied reflections, the sincere and hearty Mr. Morris pauses and says, "I want to say this deliberately: Jack Lewis was the greatest man I have ever known."
We cannot all be Lewises, but perhaps we should strive to be Morrises.
September 21, 2009
[These notes were written in 1983:]. An anthology of personal reminiscences about Lewis, from a satisfyingly wide variety of acquaintance - students, colleagues, close friends, collaborators. Many times, of course, we learn as much about the writer of the memoir as we do about Lewis. But they do seem to agree on a great many things - besides his physical appearance, of course: his outer geniality and inner shyness, his generosity, his conscientiousness towards his students, even though he didn't particularly like tutoring. Although born partly out of the efforts of those who would like to deify Lewis, I think in fact the book should prove a fine antidote to just that impulse. Very interesting reading indeed.
July 29, 2010
This is a collection of both long and short essays about C. S. Lewis written by people who knew him from various perspectives. Some were colleagues at Oxford or Cambridge. Some were former students. Some were Inklings. One man was his regular cab driver. Another was his physician and friend. The commentators are fond of Lewis, but do not hestitate to point out his foibles. The result is a balanced view that doesn't fall into hagiography.
August 25, 2016
An excellent book getting us closer to discovering the answer to the question "Who was C.S. Lewis?". Written by people of varying backgrounds (from students to friends to his driver–who was a good friend), I loved getting to know Mr. Lewis from the perspective of so many different people. I look forward to meeting him!
October 29, 2014
This was an interesting book about C.S. Lewis written by people who knew him. Friends, colleagues, students all tell about the man they knew. He was an incredible man. Very interesting read. It makes me want to read much more of his writings. As in any collection, a few of the essays were harder to get through, but most were very well written and very interesting. 4 1/2 stars.
January 26, 2016
Skimmed
December 29, 2019
I enjoyed the various reminisces, some more than others. Good to read alongside a proper biography
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews