Roni’s Reviews > The Neglected C.S. Lewis: Exploring the Riches of His Most Overlooked Books > Status Update

Conclusion: Bearings on the Bright Blur

Lewis’ The Personal Heresy, An Experiment in Criticism and A Preface to Paradise Lost;

“His warnings when properly attended to, not only strengthen the ability to connect with the real world, but also become a spiritual exercise enabling one to love in the truth.”

“In reading between the lines we show that we cannot read what is actually in the lines themselves.”

Chapter 7 The Heavens Declare the Glory: The Discarded Image

“One does, though, require the past to accurately understand and interpret the present. You can’t divorce the one from the other without severe implications…this is why the Discarded Image is so important.” pg 139

“…to facilitate a more accurate reading of the imaginative literature written during the medieval period.” pg 124

Becoming a Thousand Men - An Experiment in Criticism

"Reading at the level Lewis advocates is a yearning for connection & clarity, to imagine oneself living many lives, seeing through many eyes the many ways the world can be apprehended. It is a way to engage in beneficial iconoclasm, in breaking down the barriers of blindness that keep our hearts & minds fettered-helps us awaken from the lethargy of self-delusion."

Unlocking the Doors of Language - Studies in Words (published in 1960, a series of lectures on his reading of words in old books); Lewis advocates against a modern reader-response criticism or bringing modern understanding to words; it all begins with language - "the potency of words and how they can be used and manipulated with massive ramifications."; take the time to understand what ancient writers meant

From Drab to Golden, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century excluding Drama (700 page long book - his most prolific work); Lewis read every book written in English in the 16th century; highlights from Milton and Spenser, Lewis on poetry and the Reformers

A Book Born in Friendship - Arthurian Torso; theology of Charles Williams

on Lewis’ Personal Heresy (his critique of Tillyard’s take on Milton), a civil debate in an age of polarity, Lewis’s second and third arguments, Lewis on poetry

on Lewis' Allegory of Love