What You'll Learn:
British author and scholar C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) once quipped that “you couldn’t get [him] a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit [him].” Lewis was not only a prolific writer; he was also a voracious reader. With his formidable literary appetite and formal training in Literature at Oxford, he became a skilled critic with the ability even to analyze the art of criticism. In this collection of essays, Lewis takes out his scalpel and applies his gift for criticism to famous (and at the time, contemporary, works) like 1984, Animal Farm, and The Lord of the Rings. He also reflects on the joys of reading stories for Story’s sake, takes on persistent misunderstandings about children’s literature (and about children themselves), and argues that many critics are actually quite bad at criticizing.
Key Insights:
- The Lord of the Rings is a story dipped in myth that illuminates all of life’s meaning hidden in plain sight.
- George Orwell’s 1984 was a disappointment, but Animal Farm was nearly perfect.
- Children are not their own breed, separate from adults, as some think.
- A deep hatred for something is not an invitation to criticize it, but to fall silent.
- The role of excitement in a story is both wonderful and misunderstood.
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