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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
I listened to the audio book version as read by Simon Vance. While I've read this book before, it has been many years and is a wonderful journey among and between many different philosophical perspectives as John seeks for the true Landlord and the way to the island that he has been seeking fore. Read it :-)
There’s a lot of brilliant ideas and symbols in this book, especially near the beginning and the end. But I feel like it’s not as focused as some of C. S. Lewis’s later works (The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters). As I was reading, the two things that kept coming to my mind were
A. It feels really, needlessly obscure
B. It feels very personal
(Both these points even more so than his other works I alluded to).
What’s hilarious is at the end of the book, there’s an afterword written by Mr. Lewis himself where he admits these points outright in his first paragraph. I honestly didn’t expect that, and so it was funny reading that little bit. He goes on to say that his allegory may have been a failure, which I highly disagree with, as there’s still a LOT to love about it!
This is a brilliant, if somewhat obscure read. This would not be the first C. S. Lewis book I’d recommend, but if you’ve read several of his works and are familiar with his style, I’d say check it out!
A. It feels really, needlessly obscure
B. It feels very personal
(Both these points even more so than his other works I alluded to).
What’s hilarious is at the end of the book, there’s an afterword written by Mr. Lewis himself where he admits these points outright in his first paragraph. I honestly didn’t expect that, and so it was funny reading that little bit. He goes on to say that his allegory may have been a failure, which I highly disagree with, as there’s still a LOT to love about it!
This is a brilliant, if somewhat obscure read. This would not be the first C. S. Lewis book I’d recommend, but if you’ve read several of his works and are familiar with his style, I’d say check it out!
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
C. S. Lewis is such an amazing thinker and writer. I know there is a lot of great meaning in this book, but most of it went over my head. A big part of the problem is that I don’t know Latin and I am unfamiliar with the schools of thought in the earlier twentieth century. I wish I understood this more, because I feel certain that it is probably really clever to the initiated.
This book was very good and enlightening. It is based off of The Pilgrim's Progress, but is about C.S. Lewis' conversion, and was the first book he wrote after being saved. I have this awful feeling that a lot went over my head, but I'm glad that I tried it. I am fairly familier with Pilgrim's Progress, but am not familier with a lot of the characters, which represent movements in culture, and the like. I will be reading this again in the future!
A (as Lewis later admitted) flawed but frequently deeply interesting allegory for his own faith journey--and of course, that of many others. Flawed and frequently obscure, but well worth reading.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I liked this book very much! This is a completely allegorical journey of John, who is in search of the "Island" and goes through an arduous physical journey to find it. The entire physical journey is actually one big long allegory for a spiritual journey and man's search for fulfillment in God.
While this apparently was his first work he wrote after his conversion to Christianity, I would strongly caution against starting here if you're reading CS Lewis for the first time. I think to really get the most out of this book, you need to know CS Lewis and the way his mind works first. I enjoyed the wonderful weirdness of the symbolic characters, land, and situations John finds himself in. I do think that Lewis tries to cram too much philosophy into one allegory, and at times the story can feel a bit muddy and it gets verrrrry dense. Lewis himself would probably agree with that, because he actually wrote an afterword for the book, apologizing for it (lol). However, I don't think he really needed to apologize, this book is completely worth reading for any Lewis fan. But, you probably need a little bit of a background in apologetics before picking this up... otherwise you will be frustrated and confused very quickly.
It's one that I look forward to revisiting at a later date, probably after I've read Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (the format of this book is modeled after Bunyan's work). I'm sure I missed quite a bit of parallels between the two works. Regardless, this is a book that I will think about and ponder for a long time.
While this apparently was his first work he wrote after his conversion to Christianity, I would strongly caution against starting here if you're reading CS Lewis for the first time. I think to really get the most out of this book, you need to know CS Lewis and the way his mind works first. I enjoyed the wonderful weirdness of the symbolic characters, land, and situations John finds himself in. I do think that Lewis tries to cram too much philosophy into one allegory, and at times the story can feel a bit muddy and it gets verrrrry dense. Lewis himself would probably agree with that, because he actually wrote an afterword for the book, apologizing for it (lol). However, I don't think he really needed to apologize, this book is completely worth reading for any Lewis fan. But, you probably need a little bit of a background in apologetics before picking this up... otherwise you will be frustrated and confused very quickly.
It's one that I look forward to revisiting at a later date, probably after I've read Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (the format of this book is modeled after Bunyan's work). I'm sure I missed quite a bit of parallels between the two works. Regardless, this is a book that I will think about and ponder for a long time.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has aged well and poor.
Treating lust as a “little brown girl” that serves as an early symbolic antagonist highlights the worst practices of analogy/symbolic story telling.
The best parts that has aged well is the journey, the people, the lands, the ideas.
Having old and new enlightenment talk to John, being tempted by savage, and being mocked by the Clevers.
Lewis’s journey is his own, but the world he describes is ours. John’s journey for the desire of the island is rebuff with different people telling him what his desire actually means, than John using reason, wisdom, common sense, or whatever as a means to walk away.
His Vertue is incarnationed along side John and requires a reconciliation that this world does not care for. It is a sharp critique of those who insist upon intellect to guide virtue, savage is tempting virtue to his ends always: the ultimate expression of rules for self is a savagery.
A classic for those who can walk the regress and see the Beauty that can influence a man to Christianity and us to see the world.
Treating lust as a “little brown girl” that serves as an early symbolic antagonist highlights the worst practices of analogy/symbolic story telling.
The best parts that has aged well is the journey, the people, the lands, the ideas.
Having old and new enlightenment talk to John, being tempted by savage, and being mocked by the Clevers.
Lewis’s journey is his own, but the world he describes is ours. John’s journey for the desire of the island is rebuff with different people telling him what his desire actually means, than John using reason, wisdom, common sense, or whatever as a means to walk away.
His Vertue is incarnationed along side John and requires a reconciliation that this world does not care for. It is a sharp critique of those who insist upon intellect to guide virtue, savage is tempting virtue to his ends always: the ultimate expression of rules for self is a savagery.
A classic for those who can walk the regress and see the Beauty that can influence a man to Christianity and us to see the world.