If you’re a fan of C.S. Lewis, here’s some great news, which I just learned about via Tony Reinke’s blog.
Most people know C.S. Lewis through his Narnian chronicles or his theology books, such as Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, or The Great Divorce. But beyond his stories and books, we shouldn’t forget his essays.
Lewis was one of the most clear and insightful essayists of the twentieth century. You can find his essays scattered within several collections, but until recently there wasn’t a single, comprehensive volume which pulled them together.
That changed in the year 2000, when Lesley Walmsley published C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces. The book spans over 1,000 pages and features 137 essays, letters, and short stories.
It’s a goldmine for C.S. Lewis fans, however it’s a tough one to acquire. The collection was published in London and few copies were printed, so copies are scarce in the United States. Most used copies are at least $150 on Amazon.
But here’s the great news!
You can now get the entire collection in a $35 audiobook through Audible . . . $19.95 audiobook through Audible. The 39 hours of audio is performed by the late British actor, Ralph Cosham (1936–2014).
C.S. Lewis Essay Collection Audiobook (Amazon)
Here’s the full track list:
Essays
1) The Grand Miracle
2) Is Theology Poetry?
3) The Funeral of a Great Myth
4) God In the Dark
5) What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?
6) The World’s Last Night
7) Is Theism Important?
8) The Seeing Eye
9) Must Our Image of God Go?
10) Christianity and Culture
11) Evil and God
12) The Weight of Glory
13) Miracles
14) Dogma and the Universe
15) The Horrid Red Things
16) Religion: Reality or Substitute?
17) Myth Became Fact
18) Religion and Science
19) Christian Apologetics
20) Work and Prayer
21) Religion Without Dogma?
22) The Decline of Religion
23) Unforgiveness
24) The Pains of Animals
25) Petitionary Prayer: A Problem Without an Answer
26) On Obstinacy in Belief
27) What Christmas Means to Me
28) The Psalms
29) Religion and Rocketry
30) The Efficacy of Prayer
31) Fern Seed and Elephants
32) The Language of Religion
33) Transposition
34) Why I am Not a Pacifist
35) Dangers of National Repentance
36) Two Ways With the Self
37) Meditation on the Third Commandment
38) On Ethics
39) Three Kinds of Men
40) Answers to Questions on Christianity
41) The Laws of Nature
42) Membership
43) The Sermon and the Lunch
44) Scraps
45) After Priggery – What?
46) Man or Rabbit?
47) The Trouble With X
48) On Living in an Atomic Age
49) Lillies that Fester
50) Good Work and Good Works
51) A Slip of the Tongue
52) We Have No Right to Happiness
53) Christian Reunion: An Anglican Speaks to Roman Catholics
54) Priestesses in the Church?
55) On Church Music
56) Christianity and Literature
57) High and Low Brows
58) Is English Doomed?
59) On the Reading of Old Books
60) The Parthenon and the Optative
61) The Death of Words
62) On Science Fiction
63) Miserable Offenders
64) Different Tastes in Literature
65) Modern Translations of the Bible
66) On Juvenile Tastes
67) Sex in Literature
68) The Hobbit
69) Period Criticism
70) On Stories
71) On Three Ways of Writing for Children
72) Prudery and Philology
73) Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings”
74) Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said
75) It All Began With a Picture
76) Unreal Estates
77) On Criticism
78) Cross Examination
79) A Tribute to E.R. Eddison
80) The Mythopoeic Gift of Rider Haggard
81) George Orwell
82) A Panegyric for Dorothy L. Sayers
83) The Novels of Charles Williams
84) Learning in War-Time
85) Bulverism (or, The Foundation of 20th Century Thought)
86) The Founding of the Oxford Socratic Club
87) My First School
88) Democratic Education
89) Blimpophobia
90) Private Bates
91) Meditation in a Tool Shed
92) On the Transmission of Christianity
93) Modern Man and His Categories of Thought
94) Historicism
95) The Empty Universe
96) Interim Report
97) Is History Bunk?
98) Before We Can Communicate
99) First and Second Things
100) The Poison of Subjectivism
101) Equality
102) De Futilitate
103) A Dream
104) Hedonics
105) Talking About Bicycles
106) Vivisection
107) The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment
108) Behind the Scenes
109) The Necessity of Chivalry
110) The Inner Ring
111) Two Lectures
112) Some Thoughts
113) X-mas and Christmas
114) Revival or Decay
115) Delinquents in the Snow
116) Willing Slaves of the Welfare State
117) Screwtape Proposes a Toast
Letters
118) The Conditions for a Just War
119) The Conflict in Anglican Theology
120) Miracles
121) Mr. C.S. Lewis on Christianity
122) A Village Experience
123) Correspondence With an Anglican Who Dislikes Hymns
124) The Church’s Liturgy, Invocation, and Invocation of Saints
125) The Holy Name
126) Mere Christians
127) Canonization
128) Pittenger-Lewis and Version Vernacular
129) Capital Punishment and Death Penalty
Short Stories
130) The Man Born Blind
131) The Dark Tower
132) The Dark Tower (continued)
133) The Dark Tower (continued)
134) Ministering Angels
135) The Shoddy Lands
136) After Ten Years
137) Forms of Things Unknown