The Narnian CD: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis | 
 enlarge | Creator: Alan Jacobs
Publisher: HarperAudio
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
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Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 1408693
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0060831251
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780060831257
ASIN: 0060831251
Publication Date: October 1, 2005
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Product Description
The White Witch, Aslan, fauns and talking beasts, centaurs and epic battles between good and evil -- these have become a part of our collective imagination through the classic volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia. Yet who was the man who created this world? This audio book attempts to unearth the making of the first Narnian, C. S. Lewis himself. One of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential religious writer of his day, Lewis was also an Oxford don and a scholar of medieval literature who loved to debate philosophy at his local pub. Yet one of the most intriguing aspects of Clive Staples Lewis remains unanswered. How did a bachelor professor, nearly fifty, and living in a wholly adult world, turn to the writing of stories for children -- stories that would become among the most popular and beloved ever written? Alan Jacobs masterfully tells the story of C. S. Lewis. From his childhood days in Ireland to his horrific experiences in the trenches of the First World War, to his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkein (and other members of the "Inklings") and his remarkable late-life marriage to Joy Davidman, Jacobs traces the events and people that shaped Lewis's philosophy, theology, and fiction. The story of a profound mind and extraordinary imagination, The Narnian is a remarkable tale of a man who knew great loss and great delight, but who knew above all that the world holds far more richness and meaning than the average eye can see.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
A valueable guide to understanding C. S. Lewis August 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very good biography of C. S. Lewis. Jacobs is a skillful writer and has a great knack for weaving Lewis' own writing and ideas into the events of his life. He brings out the greatness of Lewis' mind and character without hiding his flaws or failing to point out what he thinks are some of his half-baked or somewhat parochial ideas. The thorough research that has evidently gone into writing this book is skillfully crafted into a fascinating narrative; very enjoyable reading. Jacobs convincingly debunks the more bizarre speculations of A. N. Wilson's unfriendly biography (particularly those surrounding his debate with Elizabeth Anscombe--see also Victor Reppert's essay in ch. 21 of Bassham and Walls' book, "The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy" for more on this.) and fills in many gaps that other biographers have left. If you only have time to read one story of Lewis' life this is a good one. I highly recommend it. But you should make time to read two. George Sayer's biography, written from the perspective of a personal friend is a good companion to this one. You'll find some good stories in there that Jacobs leaves out. Sayer gives a better picture of Lewis' relationship with Joy Davidman, for example. Those who fault Jacobs for trying too hard to psychoanalyze Lewis have a good point. But his tone is speculative in these parts, not conclusive, cautioning readers to draw their own conclusions rather than put too much weight on his. One thing Jacobs helps to do is balance the view that many have of Lewis as a rationalist with his more passionate side. Lewis highly valued reason and logic in making sense of his beliefs and his "mere Christianity" but passion and imagination also seem to have played an important and necessary part in realizing those beliefs for his own life and in living them out.
Reason & Imagination August 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Books about Lewis are a dime a dozen, and it hard to know where to begin when trying to find a concise but accurate biography that is not soaked with naive adulation or excessively absorbed detail. InterVarsity Press alone has published 10 titles in the last 5 years on various topics ranging from his philosophical arguments to his literary work to his mystical imagination. Several biographies have already been written by authoritative eye witnesses such as Walter Hooper, George Sawyer, and the son of Lewis' late wife Douglas Gresham. Why would the world need yet another Lewis biography? A.N. Wilson gave it a try by attempting give a more "honest" account of Lewis' defects, but was met with scorn by those who knew him best. Jacobs has the advantage of writing with a generation of time's distance from the vantage point of a twenty-first century literary scholar, where at Wheaton College, he had access to the largest collection of original and extant copies of Lewis' writings to date.
The most interesting part of Jacob's biography is the division of Lewis' mind into two poles: the rational philosopher and the imaginative storyteller. Lewis often lived between this tension with some conflict, but embodied them with quite a bit of unity. He came to reject his atheism on the basis of the logical need to postulate a kind of assumption, a first cause if you will, but his conversion to Christianity was a more "storied" affair that was informed to a large degree by the poetry of Tolkien.
That life is more than what we can see and that there is a reality that is bigger than we can perceive is fundamental to Lewis' thought. This may be obvious to the most nominal reader, but the depth of how profound Lewis thought it to be is awe-inspiring. Delight and wonder fill the mind of the Narnian as well as reason and orthodoxy. So it should be with everyone who calls themselves Christian.
 A book that needs heavy handed editing May 24, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It is a shame that someone whose style of writing is as fine as Jacobs should nevertheless produce a book of sloppy scholarship and questionable pronouncements. On the plus side, Jacobs writing style is lively, he creates fine links between Lewis's written works and people/events from Lewis's life, and he gives interesting interpretations of Lewis's works in all the various literary genres in which he wrote.
However, this book receives a two-star rating for several reasons. First, the scholarship is sloppy: numerous factual errors are sprinkled throughout the book, everything from incorrectly labeled photos to wrong dates to incorrect medical information. (One can't help but think that the proofreaders at HarperSanFrancisco were sleeping on the job.) Second, Jacobs seems to be of the A.N. Wilson school of thought in which a biography is an attempt to psychoanalyze the dead by rummaging around through their literary productions and making pronouncements on the inner life (that are not uncommonly contrary to what the biographical subject claimed while alive). Third, while some of Jacobs' theological pronouncements were sound, there were others that seemed naive or just plain muddle-headed. More than anything, it was apparent that while the author has been reading Lewis for a long time, he hasn't read as widely as someone writing a biography should, for several of his opinions would be altered if he knew more about the subject (e.g., Jacobs writes, "The Pilgrim's Regress was C.S. Lewis's least successful book as he himself knew"; but in fact, Lewis did not acknowledge this to be the case; moreover, while some people thought the book unsuccessful, others thought well of it, including folks such as Norman Pittenger, A.N. Wilson, or J.I. Packer, the latter of whom thought it was the single best thing Lewis ever wrote. Certainly it was not the least successful of Lewis's books in terms of either sales or public opinion.)
Between the numerous factual errors, the lack of sufficient research, the theological absurdities, and the amateurish psychoanalysis, this book would have greatly benefited from some rather heavy-handed editing. The best I could say about it is that it is a decent-though-heavily-flawed book. Bottom line: if you want a reliable account of Lewis's writings, go with Walter Hooper's superb "C.S. Lewis Companion and Guide" or "The C.S. Lewis Readers' Encyclopedia" (ed. by Schultz and West); if you want a fine biography, read George Sayer's "Jack: C.S. Lewis and his Times". While Jacobs does do many things well, I'm afraid my pronouncement of "The Narnian" is a statement of Samuel Johnson's: "It is more from carelessness about truth than intentional lying that there is so much falsehood in the world."
 Narnia for all September 14, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
There are many books about magic worlds, some even excellent. I love the works of E Nesbit, Edward Eager, J. K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien and others, and enjoy rereading them from time to time. It's very pleasant to hang out with old friends and reground for an hour or two; but ah, there's nothing like the thrill of falling back into Narnia. As "The Wind in the Willows" was for C. S. Lewis, Narnia has always been a refuge for me. I wore out the public library's copies of the Chronicles of Narnia before I was ten, and having been banned from checking them out again, have since gone through three sets of my own. I'm substantially older than ten now and find the books just as fresh now on the two thousandth reading as the first.
I believe that much of whatever is good in my character comes from the difficult lessons Edmund and Eustace learned, the resolution of Diggory's dilemma when he was tempted to steal a Narnian apple to heal his dying Mother and Aslan's repeated admonition of "No one is told any story but their own". When my parents died, the journey to Aslan's country in "The Last Battle" gave me enormous comfort, and still does. I say all this both as a long overdue "thank you" to C. S. Lewis, and because I suspect others feel the same.
Yes, Lewis was a formidable scholar, intellect, and Christian apologist; prolific writer, gifted teacher, loyal friend and all around neat guy, but the charm and accessiblity of the Narnia books is his greatest contribution to nontheologians and nonacademicians. In other words, most of us.
The Chronicles of Narnia were not written until Lewis was in his fifties, and Dr. Jacobs has done an admirable job of explaining why they couldn't have been written any earlier. The death of Lewis' mother, his emotionally unavailable father, painful school experiences, the horrors of WWI, his amazing scope of reading while pursuing multiple Oxford degrees, the often brutal world of academic politics, the influence of the Inklings, and a somewhat unconventional domestic life are all frequently discussed landmarks on the way to Lantern Waste, and are well-told here, but unlike any other Lewis biography I've read, Dr. Jacobs documents how the spiritual journey that began with Lewis' conversion to "mere Christianity" in his thirties, with its accompanying generosity of spirit, graciousness, and belief in miracles and joy all contributed to the gift that is Narnia. The reader is not required to take Dr. Jacobs' word for it--the evidence is there, in letters written and received before and after 1928.
What a monumental task it must have been to write a balanced biography of C. S. Lewis. It's hard enough to write a review. "The Narnian" is not dry, nor cute, nor sycophantic. It is respectful, fair, and a rewarding read. It neither ignores the more inexplicable parts of Lewis' life (which are no one's business anyway) nor his critics, disappointingly Philip Pullman--to whom I'd just like to say, "Bless me, what DO they teach them at these schools"--the very last way you'd describe Lewis is as having a "mean, narrow little mind".
For those of us who discovered Lewis through Narnia and were driven to explore his other works in hopes of finding a way through the wardrobe, this is our book. "The Narnian" comes as close as anyone can to the essence of Narnia and C. S. Lewis. As a child, I frequently looked for a physical door opening into Narnia and for an intellectual door as an adult. That door is well illuminated by Dr. Jacobs.
Wonderful!!! August 2, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
An excellent book! I have recently become a fan of the Narnian Chronicles and have also read them repeatedly to my third grade class since that time. That and Stanford Gibson's review of the Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis has lead me to purchase this book.
Jacobs has done well presenting the people and events that helped shaped Lewis' writings. His relationships with his father, his mother and her early death, his brother Warnie, Professor Kirk, Prof. Tolkien, the mysterious Minto, and Joy Gresham all have influenced in varying degrees his works, and Jacobs has done an excellent job connecting them to Lewis' writings. It was a very delightful and moving read as one gains some insight into a man whom many have admired since he began publishing his works. This book brings about a deeper respect for Lewis, his works in theology and apologetics, and his work in adult and children's literature. It is a must read for any student of Lewis, and any true friend of Narnia.
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