Charles Williams: The Third Inkling

by Lindop

This is the first full biography of Charles Williams (1886-1945), an extraordinary and controversial figure who was a central member of the Inklings―the group of Oxford writers that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Charles Williams―novelist, poet, theologian, magician and guru―was the strangest, most multi-talented, and most controversial member of the group.

He was a pioneering fantasy writer, who still has a cult following. C.S. Lewis thought his poems on King Arthur and the Holy Grail were among the best poetry of the twentieth century for 'the soaring and gorgeous novelty of their technique, and their profound wisdom'. But Williams was full of contradictions. An influential theologian, Williams was also deeply involved in the occult, experimenting extensively with magic, practising erotically-tinged rituals, and acquiring a following of devoted disciples.

Membership of the Inklings, whom he joined at the outbreak of the Second World War, was only the final phase in a remarkable career. From a poor background in working-class London, Charles Williams rose to become an influential publisher, a successful dramatist, and an innovative literary critic. His friends and admirers included T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and the young Philip Larkin.

A charismatic personality, he held left-wing political views, and believed that the Christian churches had dangerously undervalued sexuality. To redress the balance, he developed a 'Romantic Theology', aiming at an approach to God through sexual love. He became the most admired lecturer in wartime Oxford, influencing a generation of young writers before dying suddenly at the height of his powers.

This biography draws on a wealth of documents, letters and private papers, many never before opened to researchers, and on more than twenty interviews with people who knew Williams. It vividly recreates the bizarre and dramatic life of this strange, uneasy genius, of whom Eliot wrote, 'For him there was no frontier between the material and the spiritual world.'

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Theology, Literature

532 pages, Paperback

First published December 29, 2015

Reviews

[Sørina · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.co...

The official biography of Charles Williams, Charles Williams: The Third Inkling, written by Grevel Lindop and published by Oxford University Press, is scheduled to be released tomorrow! I have had an advance copy for a few days now, and let me tell you: It has been worth the wait, and you will not be disappointed! I am awash in happiness as I read this book: it’s big, thick, thoughtful, and rewarding. It is top-notch scholarship written in a beautiful style. There are quite a few surprises about CW (pleasant and otherwise!), and layers and layers of rich detail. It is hard to review the biography itself without slipping into a review of CW’s character–so I will try to do the one first and the other second. This is only a mini-review, as I have not finished reading the book (I’ve only had it for 5 days and spent 1 of those on the road and another in the ER!) and plan to reread it carefully, making notes, etc., so I will review it again more thoroughly later. I also plan to write reviews focusing on various aspects for Books & Culture and for Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal.
grevel

Grevel Lindop, poet and biographer

So, then: let me review the quality of Grevel Lindop’s research and writing in this book. I think it’s perfect. That’s saying a lot from critical old me. I have a hard time with weird prose styles, and lots of biographies are written in a strange, disconnected manner, with unrelated facts crammed into the same sentence. This is not. Grevel’s prose style is lovely! It’s smooth, precise, intelligent, and aesthetically pleasing. This is probably the result of his many years as a practicing poet. So that’s the first hurdle: the sentences are smooth and sweet, making the reading of this long book a pleasure.

Then there’s structure. It is very difficult to shape a biography into a coherent, compelling narrative. I visited with Louisa Gilder on Monday evening, author of The Age of Entanglement, and we talked quite a bit about the shaping of biographies. Right now, Louisa is working with the manuscript of a biography about Edith Wharton. This MS was written in French, and after the author’s death, her widow asked the Edith Wharton estate and The Mount to publish the book. They hired Louisa to edit, reshape, revise, and polish the book for publication. The original material with which she’s working wasn’t all in chronological order, so she has had to revise it extensively. Anyway, Grevel has structured his biography beautifully. Each chapter has its own narrative arc, building to some high point or turning point in CW’s life. The book as a whole has a lovely progression, but without implying that the Life was moving toward some pre-determined climax. biography

And then there’s the research. This is meticulously done. It is thorough and far-reaching. In fact, the scholarship is so good that it gives rise to the only disappointment that I have experienced while reading this: There’s no gossip. I haven’t learned a whole lot of new, juicy facts about CW’s private life. If there isn’t evidence, Grevel hesitates to put forward speculation. There are a few times that he says something “may be” or “probably is” the case, but I trust these instances because they are so rare and restrained.

As a work of biographical scholarship, then, The Third Inkling leaves nothing to be desired. I will read it and read it again and again and recommend it to everyone I think might have even the slightest interest. Bravo, Grevel! It’s been worth the wait!

But then, there’s The Third Inkling himself. What does this bio tell me about CW? Do I feel differently about him than I did before? What has it revealed about his character that I didn’t know before?
Phyllis

Phyllis Jones

In short, it has confirmed all my worst suspicions. His affair with Phyllis Jones was uglier and creepier than I knew–she once wrote him a letter suggesting they go to a toy store and buy a cane and a delicate whip and then rent a hotel room for six hours of fun. She sat on his lap. They kissed. The volume and passion of their love letters is extensive. He even once threatened to renounce Christianity if she left him.

His involvement with the occult was also more extensive than we have previously known. I won’t spoil the biggest surprise about that–read the biography to find out for yourselves!–but let’s say CW was involved with more groups and for much longer periods than we knew, and that his magical experimentation (as opposed to the purely mystical) was probably considerable.

I’d also say, however, that this book helps me to understand CW much, much better. Perhaps I may judge his behavior and beliefs to be sinful or erroneous, but I can certainly see why he did and thought those things, given his background, upbringing, struggles, disappointments, and influences. And really, in the end, perhaps that is what a biography is for: to understand its human subject fully as a person, as someone I now know.

Well done, Grevel!

[G. Salter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I "read" (i.e. skimmed huge sections of the text between skimming at least 3 other books during a seminar) this book in May 2019. I have now read it more carefully, and found the following:
- Lindop corrects many misconceptions, even when the answers are more bizarre then we expected
- He details some of Williams' peculiarities (his interest in muse, ceremonial rituals that Williams apparently thought drove his creative processes) and makes them understandable, even if they are bizarre. And he does this without throwing too much of a contemporary lens over him (no attempts to diagnose Williams as a manic depressive, argue what x, y or z school of therapy would recommend for him today, etc.)
- He makes an excellent that even if Williams wasn't associated with the Inklings, his other accomplishments (his Arthurian poetry; his connections to Dylan Thomas, W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot; being one of the first editors to bring Kierkegaard to a UK audience) make him an important figure worth studying.
Well worth reading.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally we have a very fine biography of the “Third Inkling” Charles Williams. Grevel Lindop enables us to experience the mercurial intellectual brilliance and charismatic personality of this genius. It must be stated, though, that Williams is a genius nearly forgotten. In his preface Lindop gives the reasons why this happened and outlines his objectives in the biography. Essentially he hopes that it will result in a reassessment of Williams as a literary figure--particularly as a major poet. Additionally, we learn a considerable amount about the impact Williams had as a critic, dramatist, lecturer, novelist, Rosicrucian adept, theologian, and spiritual Guru who founded a mystical order of companions for lay people.

Lindop emphasises that the biography “ . . . is by no means an unmixed advocacy. “ He attempts {completely successfully in my opinion} to create a unified portrait so that “. . . a figure formerly regarded as somewhat mystifying becomes comprehensible, and much more interesting.” This process allows us to see a man whose fierce creative charisma seemed to necessitate certain disturbing sadomasochistic aspects. But a person who embodied a blazing sanctity and holiness also emerges. Younger women in particular found him hypnotically attractive and usually fell in love. At the same time he had problems with his marriage and his wife who clearly loved him had serious doubts about his ability to be a spiritual mentor and described the Rosicrucians with whom he associated during one phase of his life as "phonies". Grevel Lindop gives us a balanced narrative which reveals both the brilliance and darkness--the Yin and Yang--of this enigmatic friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

One thing is certain--he was a visionary who seemed to unite opposites and lived life with an incredible spiritual and creative intensity. He died at the height of his powers but left behind a legacy that deserves to be remembered. It is to be hoped that this very fine biography will initiate a reassessment of “The Third Inkling”.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it very much...
Much information about one of the Inklings.

Also good written indeed!
If you are interested in C. S.Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings, then go for it!!!

Charles Williams, a somewhat gloomy poet and critic...
A good friend of Lewis also...

I do recommend it to lovers of Lewis and Tolkien books.

[Colin Duriez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ground-breaking and compelling biography establishing, after years of neglect, Charles Williams as a poet, writer and critic of major importance. Grevel Lindop's research into the arcane complexities of Williams's often troubled life and soul is of astonishing depth, as he vividly captures the making of a unique poet admired by the likes of T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, and Dorothy L. Sayers, and who became a dynamic part of the Oxford Inklings circle of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally Charles Williams has the biography his work and presence have long deserved, even if the subtitle reduces him, as always, to his company of his more famous peers CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. Elsewhere I’ve read that the proposed subtitle was “The Last Magician,” which I much prefer, as it places the emphasis on the more distinctive (and peculiar) aspects of Williams’ worldview. While his beliefs were professedly Anglican — his remarkable books on the Divine Comedy (The Figure of Beatrice: A Study in Dante) and the development of Christian doctrine (The Descent of the Dove) are poetically, wildly inventive in their defense of the faith — what moved him most was the coincidence of human and supernatural power. (For the curious, I’d recommend The Place of the Lion, in which Platonic ideas accidentally take physical form in the material word.)

In terms of his friendships and fugitive loves, Williams seems to have been a kind of wizard. Not only the Inklings, but people like TS Eliot, WH Auden and Dorothy L Sayers felt themselves in the presence of someone extraordinary. Charisma is perilous. Williams also brought any number of young women into his private circle; his powerful erotic attachments were (barely) sublimated into rituals that involved him making requests of pretty women and punishing them when they failed to sufficiently obey.

As with any remarkable person, there is plenty to disturb and disappoint. In the sometimes tedious process of reading this biography, I realized that despite my long appreciation of Williams’ originality, I am far less impressed with his thought and poetry than is Lindop (who values the Arthurian poetry very highly). Yet I was impressed and moved by his struggle and persistence against poverty, the lack of the education he deserved, a confining marriage, a troubled child, and physical ailments to achieve so much. His imagination and spirit soared so high, but the heights strike me as spectacular compensation for raw disappointment and frustration. Maybe that’s as good a definition of magic as any.

[Mogg Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You know, the only reason I don't appear is that it would be ... well, bad manners.' Charles Williams, in a post mortem dream to C S Lewis

A literary biography, superbly done by Grevel Lindop, who manages to makes interesting an important writer who has become obscure.

"Remember that Adam has to say 'ankle' instead of 'anus' - the Censor insisted that the latter must not be allowed on the stage."

If Williams ever climbed mountains they were all in the world of books. I still feel it is his handful of novels that will most endure, and even then the focus on christian theology is probably never going to seem as immediate as it once did.

"I admire Charles Williams a good deal as a literary critic and as a 'Pillar of the Swiss' as Dylan Thomas would spoonerise but I don't give a fart for his poetry. This I endeavour to conceal." Philip Larkin to Amis quoted in "The 3rd Inkling"

The account of his tantrik "love cult" was the most surprising aspect of story.

"In Holy Cross/I, unexpectedly moved, laying you on the altar whole and bound and glorious in the Holy Ghost, "


I wanted more of his Rosicrucian adventures.

"Never interdooce yer Donah to a pal, 'cos the odds is ten to one he sneaks yer gal!" Donah is cockney slang for girlfriend, not sure why?

Charles Williams "tantric cult", almost, & reminiscent of Hindu Sahaja cult of "hidden moon" (see Dimock) passionate but celibate circles

Modernist poetry= Irregular line length, often no rhyme, fragmentation, density of texture, obscurity

[Joel Zartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lindop’s biography of Charles Williams makes sense of him, which is no small feat. I do not say Lindop explains Williams in an easy and unsatisfying way that resolves all the enigmas, but he puts the enigmas into context, and shows where they are continuous with what we can understand. It really is an extraordinary work on an extraordinary person. Williams was a complex fellow, and untangling everything, considering he left a lot of scattered and private evidence that Lindop has carefully dug it up, cannot have been easy.

Williams was admired by T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis and W. H. Auden, in his day. He was admired by another handful of people you will not recognize, but has never been much of a majority taste, nor is he—because he is difficult and resists popularization—ever likely to be. Still, to be admired by those who did says much, and this biography serves to provide a greater understanding and a better appreciation of the man.

It is no small book, but for all that it is not expansive. There is not much of Lindop in it. It could easily be curtly factual; what saves it is careful organization and a deft touch. You realize how many quotations you’re reading, how many excerpts from letters to which few still have access, and you start to think that it is going to be too much. But it is all carefully arranged, and the inclusion of each quotation is obvious and interesting, not to mention new material (I have to wonder if Lindop hasn’t spoiled all the joy that having Williams’ letters published would give, though). Because this is the first full biography, it has to be factual, to stick to its case rather than being expansive and reflective. Lindop does pause to reflect, but in succinct, lapidary ways. And everything else he did was so well done that one is left wishing he had expanded more, just to understand a bit more about the extraordinary biographer.

It is common for people not to exercise sympathetic imagination in dealing with Williams and just to be disturbed, the way Alan Jacobs is in The Narnian. Misgivings abound, and they are warranted, but they should not prevent appreciation. The life of Williams gave itself to wild innuendo. Lindop is tremendous for not doing this (though he used it to market the book on twitter): he relates everything with equanimity, unflinching from the extent of what can be known, drawing the negative conclusions when warranted. He figures out how many degrees Williams advanced in his secret society, what some of the rituals were like, how it spilled out into his life and writing, and what it served to accomplish. But he remains anchored to what he can definitely say, what is factual, and draws good conclusions from it. The emerging result is believable, comprehensible, and adds up: we can see how far things went (far enough), but no farther. One is not surprised to read, when Williams unexpectedly dies, of his friends rushing around gathering up his stuff, sending letters away, making sure his secret life is not divulged too soon. And it shows how careful Lindop has been to research it.

Williams was drawn to ritual. He wanted symbols, meanings, he wanted to know and to handle these things skillfully. He joined societies, he researched witchcraft and wrote a book on it. But more than information, he wanted to undergo things, to immerse himself in order to understand, unflinching and if his relationships with women (physically chaste, if not symbolically so) are anything to go by, in reckless and unheeding ways. Lindop’s thesis is that Williams was a major poet, and what he was doing was developing his skill, going wherever it took him, even when in life he lost his way. I am being persuaded he is right—not that anybody should follow that approach, but that it is what Williams was doing. It is a full picture of greatness and weakness both. Williams at last gained recognition even as his life descended into confusion at the end. As Lindop tell it, it was nevertheless a life worth reading about.

[Leaflet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll start by saying that I was sorry when this book ended. It was excellent and well researched. Just a couple of quotes from the book, this one by one of his pupils: I would sit there, entranced by his amazing personality. He was fire and air, immensely exciting; poetry seemed to take on a whole new meaning.

And by another pupil: He was, I suppose, the most remarkable person I ever met in my life, the most unusual person.[...] He didn't in the least make you feel how inadequate you were in comparison with him, he somehow kind of lifted you up there into this other plane with him, which was just so lovely.

Bonus Fun Fact: "At some point the future actor Christopher Lee, then working as an office junior in London, attended Williams's lectures and visited him at the Press [Oxford University Press]."

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admirably clear, jargon free, elegantly phrased, judiciously analyzed, Grevel Lindop surveys letters, fiction, reminiscences, memos, recollections, interviews, and especially the (for me and I'm not alone) formidable poetry (which attracted this Thomas de Quincey scholar) of this Third Inkling. Who edged in later, suffered from a Cockney accent, lack of degree, and not quite belonging to the donnish snobs.

Yet despite his eccentricities, Williams (I kept wondering if he was of Welsh descent given his Matter of Britain obsession, and also if he'd read the poet David Jones: neither question is raised here. Nor did Lindop clarify how the Order of Co-Inherence communicated their petitions and vows outside of Williams' supervision, or if the community survived his sudden demise in 1945) did exert charm, especially over certain female students and subordinates at the OUP. (Its Amen House is lovingly evoked in its horrible and memorable blend of semi-asylum in both senses.) CW's disturbing "ritual" relationships mixing spiritual counseling and sexual dominance blurred lines whether on paper or in person. Lindop maneuvers this difficult terrain with sensitivity, nuance, and insight as cautionary tale. For CW exerted an uncanny magic, not only in the figurative sense, over more than one smart woman, and this dark energy mingled with his Anglican devotion, a Rosicrucian induction over years, a heterodox immersion into divination, a daring talent at reinterpretation of Christian history, and a fanatical work ethic whether on the clock at OUP or double-timing with his own output, for decades.

And he smoked constantly even beyond what seems the excessive amount of the first half of the 20c.

So his life didn't last as long as it might have. But be crammed an extraordinary amount of teaching, lecturing, hack work, love affairs, and correspondence with a host of figures famous or obscure, and all who Lindop cites seem to have been moved by this gawky Londoner with a monkey face, tics, and a passion to inspire ordinary people to learn to interpret literature no matter their upbringing or lack of prior knowledge. And that endears me regardless of his predatory manipulation and creepy skill to seduce or sway acolytes into his powerful orbit. I'm readying myself to tackle his seven admittedly untidy "metaphysical thrillers."

Meanwhile dipping into his odd, acute, compact and curiously argued treatise Descent of the Dove, I figured I'd get an overview of his career. Lindop affords scant attention to many of his writings (and not all merit in-depth coverage as so much of this output paid the bills) but this is a necessary, overdue, biography rather than a critical commentary. Which could emerge someday, as the demands of Inkling-spattered academics may exhaust even CSL or JRRT eventually.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I am reading an excellent biography when I find myself skipping to last chapter to find out how it ends.

Charles Williams was a weird, brilliant, spiritual, charismatic and creepy writer from England between the world wars. He is remembered now as a minor member of the Inklings, the convivial group of writers that included CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. But Williams' friendship connected some of the most brilliant writers of his day: TS Eliot, WH Auden, Dylan Thomas, Christopher Fry, as well as Lewis and Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers and others.

The namedropping alone may generate interest, but Williams own work is the real fascination. In this biography, Grevel Lindop shows the connecting themes and obsessions that run through his work and life. Central to it all is Williams' theology of romantic love and his fascination with magic, a fascination that crystallized into peculiar, ritualized relationships with young women that he used to fuel his work. Williams saw himself as a spiritual pioneer, someone introducing exciting new spiritual insights into Christianity. Or he may have simply been a pervert. Lindop draws you into Williams' life and personality in a way that shows you both the deep appeal he had for his "disciples" and the danger of being exploited that the young women around him faced.

Williams' novels were very important to me when I was young, and I had always tried to set aside the rumors about him. Lindop makes this impossible. He successfully shows that the affairs and the BDSM were not a side facet of Williams: they were the core of his life and work. For better or for worse, there is no Charles Williams without it.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A recommendation to read War in heaven made me wonder why I'd never looked very much at the 'third' inkling, but I think that, although Williams had/s a lot of young followers, my theological and literary understanding was not ready to appreciate him until now, so I'm forgiving myself. I found this an excellent biography in itself, informative and descriptive of the man, his family, friends and associates, and the effect of the times they lived through. Theologically one doesn't have to agree with what Williams believed and explored to enjoy, reflect on and benefit from his theology. I am also inspired to return to the literature and literary themes he explored. Such a blow and a sadness that his life was cut short, but how much he managed to do in that time, with what determination, and how many he inspired! A man who didn't find life easy, got many things very wrong, but still managed to produce so much and inspire so many in some of the very important and much neglected and derided areas of life.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a good biography! Not that I have a lot of experience reading biographies, but it was smoothly written, interesting, and thought-provoking. Lindop also succeeded in getting me invested in Williams as a person: I cried at the end when he died, which of course he did, but it was still an emotional time.

It was a long book, perhaps the longest book I read all year, and certainly a commitment. But Lindop did an excellent job portraying the complexity of Williams, who emerges as a deeply flawed but also deeply compelling person. As was hinted to me, he is a David sort of person, but by the end of the book I found it hard to pass judgement on him (which is good, because that is not my job anyways).

Also good as a reflection on workaholism, poverty, power, influence, and what you do with the deep flaws and fissures in the characters of people you look up to, are friends with, or even hear about on the news. Also yours.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Williams has been long overdue for his own biographical treatment, as he is generally relegated to a single chapter shoehorned into a collection of "Inklings" biographies. And refreshingly, Grevel Lindhop has no visible agenda - he merely presents the (muddled, and occasionally deeply disturbing) facts of a complicated 20th century writer who rose from obscurity by virtue of his own tenacity, and whose life tragically ended before composing the masterwork he was so clearly capable of. Williams' own writing is almost more present in this work than Lindhop's is - we are treated to a wide variety of letters and poems that either never were published or have long been out of publication. It is definitely a must read for serious scholars of the Inklings, although casual fans are likely to be turned away by the 400+ page count.

[Jonathan Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superlative biography. Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and making a strong case for the importance of its subject. It also offers many new discoveries about Williams' private life. Some of these are surprising, shocking even, but there is no prurience: Lindop is always at pains to explore their connection to Williams' creative practice.

Readers attracted by the subtitle may come away feeling a little disappointed, since the Inklings only constituted a small part of Williams' event-filled life, but the appearances by T. S. Eliot, Auden. Dorothy L. Sayers, et al., more than make up for this.

[Andrew Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Williams (1886-1945) is primarily known in the shadow of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as the subtitle of Grevel Lindop’s excellent biography suggests. Lewis’s admiration was a mixed blessing as his uncritical admiration of Williams’s writings and character seem to have caused a backlash as Williams’s faults in both areas emerge. As far as I’m concerned, Charles Williams wasn’t just the “third” inkling, he was a visionary theologian, poet, and novelist in his own right and a charismatic figure who could overwhelm many of the people he ran into or who ran into him.

Coming from humble stock, Williams could not afford a university education. Howwever, he held a humble job as toiler at the Oxford University Press OUP) in London but the work he did put him in touch with many major figures of his time. Williams did editorial work on many of he anthologies of poetry published by the OUP during the time he worked there and so had a hidden but important influence on the cultural life of the English-speaking world. One of many important contributions he made was his strong advocacy of the works of Søren Kierkegaard that resulted in the publication of many of Kierkegaard’s works in English for the first time. T.S. Eliot was a good friend who admired Williams’s work and helped get some of his novels and poems published.

Williams’s involvement with the occult is well-known. This book fills in the known details. Williams was involved in two ways. One was the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross in which he was initiated by A.E. Waite, a contact he made through his work at the OUP. The other was a small group that met that the home of an Anglican priest, Arthur Lee for discussions. Both involvements were with fellow-Christians. A life-long Anglo-Catholic, Williams valued ritual very highly and that was obviously one attraction to the Fellowship. Also, as one born with a mythical vision, the rich symbolism in occult lore fascinated him, with the Kabbalah holding a high place

The big and, to some degree, most scandalous element in Williams’s life were the complicated and enigmatic relationships with his wife Michel (a nickname of Charles that she accepted, maybe even embraced) and Phyllis Jones. Perhaps the greatest of the merits of Linkdop’s work is the light he can throw on these relationships through his study of the many voluminous letters and other accounts that survive. Williams’s marriage is often written off as a failure, loveless, matter, but Lindop shows how a strong level of mutual affection undergirded their troubled relationship. More problematic is Phyllis Jones, the young librarian at the OUP. Many brief sketched is Williams’s life paint the affair as a middle-aged man panting over a younger woman. There is much, much more to it. For one thing, the documents make it clear that the affair was a two-way street where, most of the time, Phillis was as anxious to keep it going as Charles.

Most troubling was Williams’ sadistic streak that became a regular, if ritualistic practice. This surfaces in the documents first in the relationship with Phyllis Jones who seems to have welcomed it. If someone like Lois Lang-Sims had been the first woman after Michel in Williams’ life, maybe it would have remained a fantasy that was not expressed. Even so, large numbers of people, especially women but many men as well, after attending his evening lectures would seek Williams out to confide in him and ask for direction in their lives.

As with all of Williams’s known relationships with women, the relationship with Phyllis was highly erotic but chaste in the sense of intentionally falling short of genital activity. Also, as with these other relationships, there was a strong mythological element. Women who became close friends with him received a new name for him that reflected a higher vision of the person than the earthly reality. As an avid reader and profound commentator on Dante, he saw Beatrice in many women. Again, it was Lois Lang-Sims who called him on the problematic aspects of this idealization. (Lang-Sims wrote up her experiences with Williams in a book called Lalage.)

As a biography, this book mainly provides the story and personal profile of the man behind the writings. Every surviving work is noted and briefly discussed for a page or two with pointed an illuminating comments. The two great themes that pervade the poetry, theology & novels that can be called theological thrillers are 1) the Affirmative Way of romantic love and 2) Coinherence. The latter is the living of the Trinity. Williams became convinced that St. Paul’s admonition to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6: 2) meant that we should literally carry the emotional burdens of other people, such as bearing the fear a person is experiencing so as to relieve that person’s fear. This is a challenging and daunting task and can seem spooky to some, but there is something to it. It becomes crystal clear that when we pray for another person in need, we do indeed bear that person’s burdens in Christ.

For all his serious fault, Williams had elements of sanctity, a brilliant mind and, most importantly, a deep sense of self-critique. Few people with such a dark side know that dark side as well as Williams did. Lindop points out that In his best novel Descent into Hell, Williams not only portrays his ideal self in the poet and playwright Stanhope but also his darkest side in the devilish Wentworth.

A valuable contribution to the study of Charles Williams.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough and thoughtful biography that neither downplays nor insists on just how strange Charles Williams was and how magnetic he seemed to be. Good on his novels, which are my primary interest in his work, and very good on the poetry and drama, which I require this level of context and care to understand at all.

Given how far-removed we are from Williams's life we probably weren't going to get another shot at a biography, so it's a real relief that this one handles its business so well.

[Jasper Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book, if a bit overburdened by quotes, about a truly strange and fascinating man. The title and cover are click-bait though, as the vast majority of the book does not at all deal with the Inklings.

[Jeremy]

Review here. Anecdote about the meeting between Lewis and Eliot.

[Rachel Motte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Leslie McCurdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful biography about a gifted, flawed, unusual man. A close friend of C. S. Lewis. An aloof and distracted husband and father. A poet, novelist, biographer, editor, and writer.

[Almostshane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic biography.
Slow starter and an unfortunate abrupt end.

[Chris Zull · Rating 4 out of 5]

With access to an abundant wealth of writings, notes, correspondences, etc., Mr. Lindop is able to paint what is likely to be the most complete portrait of Charles Williams we will ever have. This in an outstanding biography that brings to life a uniquely brilliant, but profoundly odd and confounding, man of letters. For all of the faults to be found both in Williams's life and in his works, I will never cease being fascinating by the more than considerable strengths of both the artist and his art.

[Michael Joosten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I come to Williams enticed by the title: The Third Inkling--a Tolkienist following up the trail. It's a bit unfair to Williams (one gets the sense from the book that Williams suffered more than a few such indignities) to put it that way--he had a full life before and beside the Inklings, and where Tolkien and Lewis were at the height of their powers and on the cusp of their development as the Inklings came about, Williams was maturing into his final stages--benefitting, no doubt, from their influence, but not as formed by it.

The limitations of the title notwithstanding, Lindop's biography is well worth the read. Charles Williams is fascinating individual and his life is a reminder of just how broad the human experience can be. In several respects, he seems to be the anti-Tolkien: his fascinating with the occult, his many emotional affairs with younger women (and elements of sadism therein!), his general LACK of self-definition in World War I--all this stands in direct contrast, but one gets the sense anyway that one would want to meet him.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a perfectly adequate and comprehensive cradle to grave biography of the previously rather neglected writer Charles Williams, meticulously researched, well-written, with a good balance between scholarship and anecdote. I enjoyed learning more about him and about his circle of friends and acquaintances, but was less interested in the work, although the author does his best to encourage interest. Nothing much else to say, really – the books does all that a good biography should.

[Joanne McPortland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography of Williams is exhaustive and at times exhausting, but it offers many insights into this brilliant, disturbed, charming and frustrating personality. The book is--like the man--at times moving and at times a difficult slog. In the end, CW remains as much a mystery to the reader as he was to himself and those who loved him, which is perhaps exactly how it should be.

[Andrew Stout · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant and revealing biography. Lindop has put together a detailed and fascinating portrait of a complicated man. I enjoyed it as much or more as any other Inklings related book.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched, interesting biography but only covers the other Inklings slightly. Good discussions of Williams' poetry and novels. Nice selection of photos and art.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an absorbing read, very thoroughly researched, about a complex character, and didn't shy away from the ambiguities of his life.