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C.S. Lewis: Creator of Narnia

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Arguably the most influential Christian writer of the twentieth century, C. S. Lewis founded his literary reputation on the now classic critical work The Allegory of Love. Within the next five years he would garner international acclaim as the author of The Screwtape Letters and Out of the Silent Planet, the first of three science fiction novels that owe much to his dynamic friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien. In 1950, with the publication of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he would win the hearts of children worldwide. Yet Clive Staples Lewis's path to renown not only as a groundbreaking literary critic, novelist, and Christian theologian was an intellectual and emotionally chaotic one, as Michael White reveals in this probing new biography. He follows the young Lewis, a nervous man profoundly depressed by the death of his mother, in a spiritually tormented course that would take him through the trenches of World War I to the upper ranks of English letters. White cleverly deconstructs Lewis's novels and religious works to reveal the frequently tormented soul and imagination from they sprung. Most importantly, he delves into the mythos that has long surrounded Lewis and rediscovers the man beneath.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

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About the author

Michael White

46 books138 followers
Michael White was a British writer who was based in Perth, Australia. He studied at King's College London (1977–1982) and was a chemistry lecturer at d'Overbroeck's College, Oxford (1984–1991).
He was a science editor of British GQ, a columnist for the Sunday Express in London and, 'in a previous incarnation', he was a member of Colour Me Pop. Colour Me Pop featured on the "Europe in the Year Zero" EP in 1982 with Yazoo and Sudeten Creche and he was then a member of the group The Thompson Twins (1982). He moved to Australia in 2002 and was made an Honorary Research Fellow at Curtin University in 2005.
He was the author of thirty-five books: these include Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science; Leonardo: The First Scientist; Tolkien: A Biography; and C. S. Lewis: The Boy Who Chronicled Narnia. His first novel Equinox – thriller, an occult mystery reached the Top Ten in the bestseller list in the UK and has been translated into 35 languages. His non-fiction production included the biography Galileo: Antichrist. Novels following Equinox include The Medici Secret, The Borgia Ring and The Art of Murder.
White wrote under two further names, Tom West and Sam Fisher. He used the latter pseudonym to publish the E-Force trilogy, State of Emergency, Aftershock, and Nano.
A further novel by White, The Venetian Detective, features characters including Galileo and Elizabeth.
White wrote a biography of Isaac Newton, The Last Sorcerer. He was both short-listed and long-listed for the Aventis prize. Rivals was short-listed in 2002, and The Fruits of War long-listed in 2006. He was also nominated for the Ned Kelly Prize for First Novel (for Equinox in 2007).

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5 stars
19 (15%)
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33 (27%)
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51 (42%)
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for Nicky.
4,138 reviews1,114 followers
October 12, 2013
First book of the October '13 readathon!

Michael White's biography of C.S. Lewis is engaging, careful, and warm. I think it's difficult not to be biased at all when writing a biography, but White does point out the other side of several stories, and takes his time to lay out the circumstances of Lewis' life, his loves and friendships. He doesn't seem to have made enemies too readily, from this account: even where his deep friendship with Tolkien decayed, there's no particular evidence offered for Lewis' alleged bitterness about it.

In many ways, as White says, Lewis was a troubling man. I was interested by his interest in sadism as a young man, and by White's sensitivity in trying to portray fairly his relationship with Janie Moore. To be honest, I thought we heard a little too much about Janie the domestic tyrant, and not enough about the qualities that made Jack Lewis so faithful to her for so long -- I'm sure they must be there. I'd have liked to read more about Joy, too.

All in all, the structure of the book is a little awkward in that each chapter covers a certain topic, more or less, so there's a lot of dodging about as White tries to describe separately parts of Lewis' life which of course overlapped. But overall, it was an interesting and an easy read.
Profile Image for Rachel.
156 reviews3 followers
March 12, 2009
I have a slight obsession with CS Lewis and I have read a few biographies of him. I liked this one a lot, it was much more liberal with the information it gave, instead of trying to put Lewis up on a pedestal like many other biographies do. It focused on his flaws as well as his strengths...
Profile Image for Vikas Datta.
2,178 reviews142 followers
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August 18, 2016
A vivid look at the life and influences of a singular author
2,318 reviews22 followers
June 21, 2024
This is a biography of C.S. Lewis, the well-known British writer best known for his children’s book “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”. That volume, now considered a classic in children’s literature, is one of a series of six fantasy stories which became known as the Narnia Chronicles, published in 1950. However, Lewis did just write children’s stories. He was a literary scholar who wrote book reports, academic articles and many other non-fiction books. In this volume, Michael White does not present Lewis’ life as a linear story but builds a picture of the man in separate chapters, exploring his life under a number of subject headings.

Lewis was born in 1898 in Dublin Ireland, the son of Albert a lawyer and his wife Flora who died in 1908 of cancer when Lewis was only nine years old. Lewis experienced a difficult childhood growing up, seeing his father as distant and demanding, although he did have a warm relationship with his older brother Warren. His unhappy childhood led him to seek comfort in books and a fictional world he created for himself, a world that became the inspiration for the Narnia books.

Lewis was considered a bohemian by his academic peers at Oxford where he held positions in English literature and was often viewed as arrogant by his fellow professors and students. However, White does not devote much time or space to his academic life, choosing to focus more on his unconventional domestic life.

During Lewis’s army training, he developed a close friendship with his roommate Paddy who was killed in World War I. Paddy’s mother Janie was a widow with one other child, a girl named Maureen, Paddy’s sister. Lewis first met Jane when he was eighteen and she was forty-five and he moved in with her and Maureen. It is not clear if Lewis and Janie shared a sexual relationship, although many believed they did. Nevertheless, despite their age difference, they were happy together and remained so for thirty years until Janie died from cancer.

When Lewis was in middle age, he met and fell in love with Joy Gresham, an American divorcee who he believed was his intellectual equal. He married her and adopted her two sons, but she died three years later, also of cancer.

White describes Lewis’s friendship with J.R. Tolkien, who he first met as a fellow academic at Oxford. It was his conversations with Tolkien which led Lewis to reconsider his religion. Lewis had been raised in a religious family and regularly attended the Church of Ireland with his family. However, at the age of fifteen he began to see religion more as a chore and a duty, and that combined with his increasing interest in the occult and fantasy, influenced his decision to embrace atheism. Lewis and Tolkien were close friends for several years and White alludes to what may have happened to their friendship which deteriorated in later years.

This is a well-researched biography which presents an interesting read of a complex man with a powerful imagination. Although not especially inclined to like children, he wrote one of the best loved children’s books of all time, still popular today.

Profile Image for Patrick.
94 reviews
December 1, 2023
I should perhaps preface this by stating that I am a Christian and that C.S.Lewis is, if not exactly one of my heroes, someone for whom I have a distinct admiration. This is true in terms of the way it which he represents ideas about reality, the way he writes stories, and his literary and philosophical projects. I say all that because White also shares some of his starting points in approaching his biography. I had the sense that, inherent to his disclosure, was the claim to a greater objectivity than is perhaps manifest in some of the biographical writing on Lewis. While I agree that much written about Lewis has involved looking though rose-tinted glasses, I don't think White's tinting, or mine for that matter, leads to much greater objectivity. It does provide alternate perspective. In large measure I found White's work of interest, and in general I think he treats Lewis fairly. But he does suffer from the tyranny, or at least mild bossiness, of his own presumptions. One example is his treatment of Lewis's relationship with Janie Moore. I have no problem if Lewis did have a sexual relationship with Moore; I don't need or want Lewis to be some sort of plaster saint. But White never really presents any compelling evidence for what he insists must have been the case. He makes assumptions on the basis that Lewis was a 'man like any other', a phrase I find particularly odd. What does it actually mean? It hardly smacks of objective scholarly research. Another problem I have with White is that he confuses allegory and allusion in claiming that the Narnia stories are allegorical. This is an overly simplistic reading. That they are representational is beyond doubt, but Lewis neither set out write, nor achieved, an allegorical rendering of the Gospel story. What he did was explore the way in which Fantasy gives us a refreshing epistemological insight into the world. This is perhaps most clearly demonstrated towards the end of The Last Battle, when the children notice the way in which Narnia is connected to the broader Universe. So White's biography is worth the read, but it cannot be taken in isolation.
Profile Image for Aafje.
201 reviews11 followers
April 30, 2020
Why this gets two stars:
I have read quite a few of Lewis's books but never knew much about him and thought this book would be a good start. I was wrong. While I learned a lot about his life and therefore felt the need for the second star I don't particularly care for this author's portrayal of Lewis and Christianity.
All I have to say is that I would rather read Lewis's autobiography's that he wrote himself. Also, Mr. White's take on Lewis as a Christian illustrates a point to be made about those who also misinterpret Christianity. As he highlights all of his supposed ( I say supposed because White, in my opinion is grasping at straws with certain aspects of Lewis life and choices and he has no proof) hypocrisy's Mr.White misses one thing. As a Christian it means you have a relationship with Christ and you strive to be more like Jesus. It does not mean you don't mess up anymore (Christian or atheist we are human and make mistakes). Lewis is in heaven not because he became a Christian and high and mighty and perfect. It means that all his sins were forgiven and he accepted the gift of grace.
621 reviews
April 15, 2024
I recently purchased a bundle of bookas by C S Lewis and this book was amongst the package. I decided to read this biography before reading any of the other books and I an glad I did
The biography gave a factual and interesting story from his early childhood to his death. The author portrays Lewis in both a good light paricularly domestically and in his relationships and then describes his personality in the acadaemic world where he could be both arrogant and superior to both his students and certain colleagues . A really complex persona
The book also explores his conversion to Christianity and how his faith affected his day to day living arrangements which worried for quite a large part of his life.
A well researched biography, the writing is entertaining in parts making Lewis seem both accessible and fun.
Profile Image for Sergio.
9 reviews3 followers
August 5, 2023
This is an incredible book about the life of an incredible man and a writer. I've discovered his entire life, from his difficult childhood to his death, the powerful imagination he had since he was a child and conditioned him, the story about how he started to believe in God or the moving love story with Joy. Furthermore we can discover the dear friendship he and Tolkien had, as well as a draft of what happened between them.

An indispensable book if you want to know about Clive Staples Lewis and have a peek at his literary career.
304 reviews1 follower
November 28, 2018
Really enjoyed this biography of CS Lewis, and it really highlighted that he wrote more than the Narnia books, some of these I will have to check out. Would have been nice to read more about how his childhood fuelled those books which is only touched on but overall it is thorough and well written. Will also be looking out for White's biography of Tolkien, who as a one-time close friend of Lewis is mentioned repeatedly
94 reviews
December 15, 2020
As a lifelong fan of C.S. Lewis, I enjoyed the read . I did think the author took a bit of liberty with some of his interpretation when the facts seemed a bit thin, but overall I appreciated him going beyond the standard fawning approach of many biographers of Lewis.
Profile Image for Kirsti.
2,501 reviews105 followers
April 12, 2015
I have never actually read a biography on C.S Lewis, despite the Chronicles of Narnia being a childhood favorite and a book that has remained with me into my adult life. I have also never read a single one of his other books, although my father gave me a copy of the Screwtape Letters simply because of the author. One page in I was done, and I've never returned to it. I wonder if my twelve year old opinion could be changed by the wisdom of time and experience, but I won't rush out to read it after this biography.

I liked the way the author distanced himself from Lewis for much of this book. He tries very hard not to give opinions, so that when they do appear they are glaringly obvious and I smiled at each one. Obviously, Lewis was and is a man of many opinions and it's too difficult to box him up.

There was a line about most children not realizing the similarities between Narnia and the bible. Oddly enough I did see the connections, and knew Aslan as a child, perhaps because young Kirsti was deeply interested in religion, especially bible stories, and probably saw Narnia as an extension of that. A return to Narnia in my teens was entirely for the fantasy element, my nerdy soul reveling in stories that were shorter than my beloved Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Xanth books. I especially liked the Magician's Nephew and the Last Battle, because I enjoyed the continuity of the series.

I honestly had a few revelations while reading this book. I knew that Tolkien and Lewis were friends, but I didn't know of their crumbling friendship towards the end of their lives. I didn't know of their differences, or their influences. It was fascinating, and I think I'll have to read one of my many Tolkien biographies sometime soon.

While I was absorbed in this book, parts of it were rather dry. The opinions threw me out of my groove, and the conclusions the author sometimes drew felt uninformed simply because they didn't really explain where they came up with the reasoning. This was one of a huge bag of books I bought for $3 each at my new favorite Op Shop, Savers in Tea Tree Plaza in Adelaide. I love secondhand books!
11 reviews1 follower
October 7, 2012
In the 226-page biography CS Lewis: The Boy who Chronicled Narnia by Michael White, the author discusses the life of the author from his childhood right up until his death, chronicling the life and friendships of the man.

To start off, I did not think that this book was written very well. It was jumbled and slightly confusing because the author often told part of the story of Lewis's life while leaving out some details, and then coming back in other chapters to add those crucial details, confusingly changing the reader's perception of Lewis's life completely. A bit repetitive in some parts as well, this book could definitely be improved upon by some editing of content and style.

With that said, I still immensely enjoyed this book due to Lewis's fascinating life. I learned a great deal about the life of one of my favorite childhood authors from this book. His life story is absolutely enthralling. I also enjoyed learning about his favorite literary works and how they, as well as his nostalgic attachment to his childhood, influenced his writing and thinking. His conversion from atheism to Christianity also had a fascinating impact upon his literary career as well. The book also covers Lewis's friendship with Tolkien, another of my favorite authors, and centers around Oxford, my favorite city and the place where Lewis lived for all of his adult life.

Reading this book and the discussions of Lewis's other works has inspired me to start one of his science fiction novels, Out of the Silent Planet.
381 reviews9 followers
August 18, 2016
A creative biography - sometimes White imagining how a scene would have been for Lewis but never quite overstepping the boundary of what likely had been the case as when he sets the scene for a meeting of the Inklings or represents Lewis walking through Oxford on his way to take his entrance exams - White conjures up a very complicated and conflicted vision of Lewis, a man who wanted to gain popular appeal and yet despised it, a man who struggled to understand faith, who disliked children but wrote one of the most popular children's series for the children who were residing with him during the London bombings of WWII, a person who had made friends easily - but lost the friendship of one of his greatest allies, J. R. R. Tolkien. His recollections of his childhood in Ireland, his immediate family, and towards women are also intense and at times perplexing (for example his bitterness towards his father). A good biography to pair up with one that is more rigourous in terms of Lewis' scholarship.
Profile Image for Leslie.
961 reviews93 followers
January 2, 2013
An adequate overview of Lewis's life for the general reader. White has no interest whatsoever in Lewis's intellectual life and has apparently read none of his scholarly work, much of which is, very unusually, still read and cited by scholars and of genuine interest, and little in examining the sources of his thinking or his view of the world. His critical responses to Lewis's more popular work, especially the fiction, is superficial. But he covers the facts of Lewis's life in an orderly, readable way. I was interested in his brief comments at the end on Lewis's posthumous fame, especially in the weird, reality-denying attempts by many evangelicals to transform Lewis into some sort of asexual, teetotalling saint and example of the pure Christian life, even at the price of editing his texts to exclude references to alcohol and tobacco (and Lewis was a man who dearly loved both).
152 reviews8 followers
March 25, 2009
I was looking for a book about the author of "The Screwtape Letters" and beyond. I found a disgusting pervert. I must say I did finish the book. I kept looking for the religious man quoted in many Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint's General Conferences. I've read "The Screwtape Letters" and found that excellent and thought provoking.
I was very disappointed to see what "Jack" as he is called was.
Perhaps after a further reading of "The Screwtape Letters" I'll seek another biography of Lewis's later life. Right now I'll go on to something more to my liking.
I definitely wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
Profile Image for Erin.
358 reviews5 followers
July 31, 2012


This book is a fast and interesting take on the life, relationships, and writing of CS Lewis. The author treats his subject with respect but avoids placing Lewis on a pedestal. I particularly liked that White connected what and how Lewis was writing with his relationships with family, colleagues, and friends. Reader be warned, White ventures into amateur armchair psychology frequently.
Profile Image for JackieB.
425 reviews
December 8, 2010
This was fascinating when it dealt with CS Lewis's books and those which influenced him. The first part of this (his childhood and education) was OK but not particulalry interesting. I suspect it wouldn't tell any Lewis fans anything they don't know already especially if they've read other biographies.
Profile Image for Caitlin.
48 reviews
April 9, 2016
Decently written, but a bit mundane. Claims he liked telling stories and baudy jokes but doesn't record any of them. Doesn't bring it to life. Does a good job of not idolizing Lewis (though he's an admitted fan) but also seems to make a lot of claims without really supporting them with facts or sources.
Profile Image for Bree.
337 reviews
April 15, 2009
This book will take Lewis off any pedestal you happen to have him on, which is not bad since no one belongs on a pedestal anyway. It does give you an overview of the man behind his books--and who can resist reading a bio of C.S. Lewis by a member of the Thompson Twins.
Profile Image for Felicity.
1,141 reviews28 followers
July 27, 2011
This was a fantastic well informed biography without being too heavy going. It really gave me an insight into Lewis and how he got the inspiration for his Narnia books from the childhood games he and his brother used to play.
Profile Image for Morgan.
56 reviews21 followers
December 16, 2013
I skimmed through this book and didn't care for it. The author did not appear to be a believer, especially by his comments at the end of the book and therefore I don't think he did C.S. Lewis justice is his writings.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

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