Product Review

C.S. Lewis: The Biography

C.S. Lewis is one of the most beloved authors of modern times. People who know little about the man beyond his most famous writings - especially young people – often imagine Lewis as an attractive and charismatic person. Once they see his photo, they are usually disappointed, because he was an ordinary-looking man. Even at the time in his life when he was most popular, he went around in wrinkled slacks, tattered jackets and worn-out shoes. He was overweight, balding and not particularly good-looking.

What Lewis’s dull outward appearance failed to reveal was his unique and intelligent mind and his vivid imagination. Best known today for his masterpiece The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis was a prolific author as well as a speaker and, eventually, an evangelistic one.

Lewis left Christianity in his youth and turned to atheism, only to make the spiritual journey back through theism to Christianity in his later years. Along the way, he became perhaps the most well-known Christian apologist of all time.

In fact, most critics, including friends and fellow academicians, saw The Chronicles of Narnia as a Christian allegory. Lewis adamantly opposed this view. Others saw his fervent Christian lifestyle as outdated or unbecoming an academic. He couldn’t have cared less, and kept the faith for reasons of the heart and the mind together.

Both a military man and a philanthropist, what Lewis seemed to want most in life was to serve humankind. When he was offered one of the highest awards, he turned it down. And, when he finally became prosperous, he gave his money away. Here was a man who lived his principles joyfully.

Although Lewis never lived a life of luxury, he mingled with literary greats. He met Yeats and shared a long-standing friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien. He rose to the top of his profession without accepting either the fortune or all the honors life presented to him.

To study the life of C.S. Lewis is to look into the eyes of literary history. We hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of a great author, thinker and human. When you finish with this book, we encourage you to read his works and dig deeper to learn more about the influences and actions that shaped his life and his stories.

C.S. Lewis: The Biography