Tuesday, December 5, 2017

READING C. S. LEWIS

C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, or Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools (New York: Harper One, 2001) (From "Men Without Chests": "For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to  irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head." Id. at , 13-14. "The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it." Id. at 19. From the book flap: "In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis sets out to persuade his audience of the importance and relevance of universal values such as courage and honor in contemporary society. Both astonishing and prophetic, this book is one of the most debated of Lewis's extraordinary works. National Review chose it as number seven on their '100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century.'").

C. S. Lewis, The Complete Chronicles of Narnia, with illustrations hand-colored by Pauline Baynes, introduction by Brian Sibley (New York: HarperCollins, 1998).

 C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters  and Screwtape Proposes a Toast: Annotated Edition, with annotations by Paul McCusker (New York: Harper One, 2013).