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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Before picking up this excellent book, there are a few things the reader needs to understand: First of all, what the title means. Many people are confused about the word "regress," especially since it mirrors Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress." Many people (myself included) are under the impression that the story is about a Christian backsliding in his faith. In reality, the "regress" refers to the fact that, as Richard Wagner put it in "C.S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies," you aren't "simply shuffled off to heaven by a host of angels. You have to go back to the real world after you make a decision for Jesus Christ" (p. 231).
Secondly, if the reader doesn't understand the symbolism, it will be a long and perhaps meaningless journey. Some of the symbolism is quite obvious -- Mr. Wisdom represents wisdom, and the story of the mountain apple is symbolic of Adam & Eve eating the apple in Eden. However, there are many symbols in the book that are not quite as obvious, especially since they may reference philosophies that have fallen out of popularity since Lewis's time. For this reason, I highly recommend that the reader find a companion book or website to reference while reading about the pilgrim's journey. I used (and recommend) "C.S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies," but I am sure there are many other resources as well.
Now, on to the meat of my review. Many people (Lewis included) would say that the allegory has failed, because he intended to generalize about the journey from atheism to Christianity. However, when writing he didn't realize how subjective his journey was, and so in the end the story became more autobiographical than he intended. In that sense, yes, the allegory has perhaps failed. Yet, I still found myself relating to many of John's (the pilgrim's) pit stops in his journey. I have been to the city of Claptrap and have seen the Canyon. I have met Mr. Broad, Mr. Sensible, and Vertue. On my return journey from the Canyon, my world looked entirely different. Indeed, there are many ways in which the modern reader can relate to John's travels, even if you are not familiar with 19th-century Rationalism or philosophical idealism.
Specific to this edition of "The Pilgrim's Regress," the headlines at the tops of the pages are, in my opinion, very helpful. Some might find them distracting, and if you are one of those types, perhaps you ought to ignore them altogether. However, I thought they helped me focus on the most important aspects of the story and helped me tie it together quite nicely.
Secondly, if the reader doesn't understand the symbolism, it will be a long and perhaps meaningless journey. Some of the symbolism is quite obvious -- Mr. Wisdom represents wisdom, and the story of the mountain apple is symbolic of Adam & Eve eating the apple in Eden. However, there are many symbols in the book that are not quite as obvious, especially since they may reference philosophies that have fallen out of popularity since Lewis's time. For this reason, I highly recommend that the reader find a companion book or website to reference while reading about the pilgrim's journey. I used (and recommend) "C.S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies," but I am sure there are many other resources as well.
Now, on to the meat of my review. Many people (Lewis included) would say that the allegory has failed, because he intended to generalize about the journey from atheism to Christianity. However, when writing he didn't realize how subjective his journey was, and so in the end the story became more autobiographical than he intended. In that sense, yes, the allegory has perhaps failed. Yet, I still found myself relating to many of John's (the pilgrim's) pit stops in his journey. I have been to the city of Claptrap and have seen the Canyon. I have met Mr. Broad, Mr. Sensible, and Vertue. On my return journey from the Canyon, my world looked entirely different. Indeed, there are many ways in which the modern reader can relate to John's travels, even if you are not familiar with 19th-century Rationalism or philosophical idealism.
Specific to this edition of "The Pilgrim's Regress," the headlines at the tops of the pages are, in my opinion, very helpful. Some might find them distracting, and if you are one of those types, perhaps you ought to ignore them altogether. However, I thought they helped me focus on the most important aspects of the story and helped me tie it together quite nicely.
An autobiographical allegory inspired by John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress that describes Lewis’s journey from atheist to Christian. It centers around the idea of a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, which you might recognize from a well-known quote from Mere Christianity. There were a lot of characters and situations that represented different schools of philosophy which I didn’t really understand, but the parts that talked about the Landlord (God) all made sense to me and I just read the rest as a journey story at surface level.
John sees visions of an Island and desires to go there. In his quest, he goes through lands of Reason and Romanticism, encountering the various ideas and philosophies that try to deal with life and meaning. Through this, Lewis shows how each is insufficient and lacking. God is the only one that makes sense of desire, rationalism, and meaning.
I really enjoyed this novel. It is hard to understand at times since Lewis anthropomorphizes philosophies and worldviews and critiques them. What I did understand was thought provoking. I will need to reread this again sometime once I have a better grasp of such things. I read a cheap kindle edition which didnt have any explanatory notes asides from Lewis' headings but I think if there was a version that did have annotated notes it would make much more sense. I give it a 4.5/5 but rounded down just because it was a difficult book.
I really enjoyed this novel. It is hard to understand at times since Lewis anthropomorphizes philosophies and worldviews and critiques them. What I did understand was thought provoking. I will need to reread this again sometime once I have a better grasp of such things. I read a cheap kindle edition which didnt have any explanatory notes asides from Lewis' headings but I think if there was a version that did have annotated notes it would make much more sense. I give it a 4.5/5 but rounded down just because it was a difficult book.
I love Lewis, and perhaps I would appreciate this book more if I had read Pilgrim's Progress more recently.
However, I feel as though the moment our main character steps out of his hometown, the story's through-line becomes incredibly hard to track.
Additionally, it seemed as though Lewis had just read Pilgrim's Progress and went...
"but what if it was also Game of Thrones...
and also God was less in it...
but also it was somehow MORE about Christianity?"
I hope this review doesn't diminish anyone's enjoyment of the book because it was undoubtedly a fun read that was exciting to interact with, as one of Lewis's earlier books was fascinating.
However, I feel as though the moment our main character steps out of his hometown, the story's through-line becomes incredibly hard to track.
Additionally, it seemed as though Lewis had just read Pilgrim's Progress and went...
"but what if it was also Game of Thrones...
and also God was less in it...
but also it was somehow MORE about Christianity?"
I hope this review doesn't diminish anyone's enjoyment of the book because it was undoubtedly a fun read that was exciting to interact with, as one of Lewis's earlier books was fascinating.
It's okay to not like this book. Not even Lewis liked it--he admits as much in his apologetic preface. The novel (his first published work in prose) did not sell well during its first publication. It also struggled in its 2nd and 3rd editions, and few Christians, even Lewis fans, are aware of it today.
And that's okay. C.S. Lewis is a genius and we should appreciate his body of work. The best thing about "Pilgrim's Regress" is the subtle hinting it gives--even at Lewis' young age, to ideas he would later perfect in works like "The Weight of Glory" and "The Great Divorce."
The read itself is heavy, on-the-nose, a bit pompous, and hopelessly confusing without the added chapter summaries. The tenderness and light-heartedness that will charm beavers' dens and seaside palaces is not there yet, but you can see it coming. "The Pilgrim's Regress" is a must-read for any Lewis fan, even if it is not the best read.
And that's okay. C.S. Lewis is a genius and we should appreciate his body of work. The best thing about "Pilgrim's Regress" is the subtle hinting it gives--even at Lewis' young age, to ideas he would later perfect in works like "The Weight of Glory" and "The Great Divorce."
The read itself is heavy, on-the-nose, a bit pompous, and hopelessly confusing without the added chapter summaries. The tenderness and light-heartedness that will charm beavers' dens and seaside palaces is not there yet, but you can see it coming. "The Pilgrim's Regress" is a must-read for any Lewis fan, even if it is not the best read.
This book was randomly found by me in my latest perusing of the used bookshop down the street from me. I have of course heard of this book before and knew I needed to read at some point (as I desire to read all of Lewis's writings), but never got around to it until now. Helps when I just see it sitting on the shelf staring at me! Backstory aside, I started reading this a few days ago and finished earlier this morning. A totally enthralling (in the best and purest sense of the word) book. I really should not have doubted that Lewis would write something both beautiful and true, but this was something I was not prepared for. He wrote this book in the early 1930s - I believe it may have been the first book he wrote post his conversion to Christianity? - and I loved seeing how so many ideas and themes that he writes about in later works show up in this one! If you want to understand Lewis a bit better and get a grasp on how he views the world and the very nature of reality and religion, this is a must read. It is an allegory, yes. And is it easy to understand the meaning behind the tale? Not always, but I would posit that the struggle to understand makes the realizations all the more impactful. I wondered at times if this allegory was autobiographical, and after reading the afterword that Lewis wrote (which I simply love - the afterword is almost worth the price of the book itself!!), I understand that it is not meant to be autobiographical...but the experiences and the struggles that Lewis encountered on his journey to Christ are very much a part of this book. It is a personal book, but one in which Lewis attempts to lay bare the very truths of this Reality in which we live. This book is one full of longing and beauty. Lewis's explication of this "piercing longing", a desire for which the object is not always apparent, is a major theme of this book and one that fascinates me greatly. I hesitate to explain further here - Lewis's own words talk about this much better than I can. But - what does it mean to have a longing for something that cannot quite be grasped, a longing in which the longing itself is more sweet than the absence of any such longing and which any apparent grasping of the object for which longed often turns out to be a false end, pointing to something further and more Real than our eyes now can see? Lewis attempts to explain such, and though sometimes I wonder if he could not be a little more clear, this tale is one that still makes one sigh for the loveliness and truth unveiled. This book is one in which Lewis attempts to talk about so many different ways of understanding the world and our place in it and how ought we live our lives...and some of the things Lewis talks about feels foreign to me now (or I have no idea what he's talking about!) as our world almost one hundred years removed from the world in which Lewis inhabited is a bit different and the philosophers of his day are not ones I am much acquainted with. Nonetheless, the roots and fires at the hearts of men that Lewis discusses have not changed much and so this book is still relevant. Very much so. This book, being an allegory, is a story first. And the story is interesting and fascinating in and of itself. It is a good tale. But the truths that Lewis is attempting to point out are very much on the surface of the tale, not hidden, even if one doesn't always have the mind to understand! You can tell from this somewhat disjointed review that I am still processing this book and still trying to totally wrap my mind around it. That may be an effort of folly, as I don't think I ever will, as this book is talking about something that can never truly be known from a merely cognitive perspective. At the end of the day though, this book points one to the truth about this life that we live and the life that we are called to. There is a God and this God has revealed Himself to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, and only in repentance and giving oneself up and belief in Him can we be saved to that most beautiful life eternal. Lewis is not quite as direct as that last statement, but that truth is what Lewis points towards. He attempts to answer all the common critiques and arguments against Christianity (especially ones that he had himself struggled with) and I believe he does so admirably well. I want to read this book again. And I have just finished it. One of my favourite bits? Lewis has songs and poems strewn throughout the pages of this book, and these poems and songs are some of the purest expressions of longing and truth in this book - my heart sang while reading. I am very grateful I read this, and while I realize it may partly be because this book is one that I am almost primed to love - I love a beautiful tale that makes the heart ache with the loveliness and purest truth contained therein - I still think this book stands alone as being an almost inimitable production - an intermingling of one's own experience and history and emotions and longing with a piercing analysis of the thought systems and philosophies of this world, all told in an allegorical fashion and presented with poetical flair. The heart delights. Is it perfect? I'm sure not, and I'm sure I could think of little things that Lewis doesn't quite say correctly. But at the end of all things, this book is one that points to that far country that is more Real than all this ground we now trod. And that far country is green and beautiful and my own heart aches as I consider it is even now my home. And I can say this because I know that Man called Jesus whose love He loves me with which even now is my own.