The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2

I’m finally reviewing my favorite book of 2021. Volume One of the Letters of C.S. Lewis covers his early life and ends with his conversion. In Volume Two (1931-1949), we see how he grows in his faith and begins writing his fiction and his apologetical books. I was drawn in from the very first letter and was kept interested by the variety of his correspondents and his overwhelming kindness and humility. I was taken aback initially by a bawdy joke he included in a letter to his brother, but chortled at his nickname for a project in which he was unwillingly involved (The Oxford History of English Literature) that he referred to as “O Hell!”

There is much to savor in this volume: details of his friendship with Tolkien, his unbelievable patience with Jane (a cantankerous woman who was Lewis’ houseguest until the end of her life), his gentle, wise responses to people who asked him questions about his faith, and the endless list of books he was reading.

In spite of his brilliance as a thinker and writer, his letters are infused with a guilelessness that is disarming. He wrote to a Catholic nun on August 9, 1939, Though I’m forty years old as a man, I’m only about twelve as a Christian, so it would be a maternal act if you found time to sometimes mention me in your prayers.

In another letter written in April of 1935, he is renewing an old acquaintance and sums up his life simply, My father is dead and my brother has retired from the army and now lives with us…. I am going bald. I am a Christian. Professionally I am chiefly a medievalist.

As his fame grew, he was answering seven letters a day year-round and his brother, Warnie, began helping. Thank goodness hundreds and hundreds of those letters have been preserved for posterity. This book was a thousand pages and I loved every one of them.  

I was fortunate to pick this up when it was being offered for a few dollars on Kindle. When I investigated the possibility of purchasing hard covers for my permanent library, I found they are way out of my price range. Happily, the Kindle prices, though still high, are more accessible. Volume 1 and Volume 3 may be my big splurges for 2022.

Blessings,

Anthony Trollope: An Autobiography

I have to agree with my sister that Trollope's Autobiography is for diehard fans. Having read 23 of his novels, I put myself in that category, and, still, this book was an occasional slog. The early chapters were painfully sad memories of his poverty-stricken childhood and how he eked out an education at Harrow where he was regularly beaten. At nineteen, he left school and came home to find his father fleeing to Belgium and his mother dismantling the household in order to pay the creditors. The whole family joined the father in Europe, and since almost all of them were dying of consumption, his mother took on the full support of the family with her novel writing. Trollope's admiration for her knows no bounds:

The doctor’s vials and the ink-bottle held equal places in my mother’s rooms. I have written many novels under many circumstances, but I doubt much whether I could write one when my whole heart was by the bedside of a dying son. Her power of dividing herself into two parts, and keeping her intellect by itself clear from the troubles of the world, and fit for the duty it had to do, I never saw equaled. I do not think that the writing of novel is the most difficult task which a man may be called upon to do, but it is a task that may be supposed to demand a spirit fairly at ease…. My mother went through it unscathed in strength, though she performed all the work of day-nurse and night-nurse to a sick household – for there were soon three of them dying. 

Soon he was summoned to work as a clerk in the London Post office. He gives detailed descriptions of his post office duties through the years and how he managed to begin his own career as a novelist; he recalls his different books and how long they took to write and how much he got paid for them. Sometimes he compares how he felt about them with what the public felt about them.  (He didn’t give a hang about public opinion.) Regarding TheSmall House at Allington, he wrote, In it appeared Lily Dale, one of the characters which readers of my novels have liked the best. In the love with which she has been greeted I have hardly joined with much enthusiasm, feeling that she is somewhat of a prig. 

Chapter Thirteen was a commentary on fellow Victorian novelists and includes Trollope’s fascinating predictions of who would last and who would fade away. His “keepers” are Thackeray and George Eliot. He acknowledges Dicken’s popularity, but vehemently disagrees with it. His predictions for the “losers” were mostly right. He predicted that the novels of Charles Read, Henry Bulwer, Annie Thackeray, Rhoda Broughton, Charles Lever and Charlotte Brontë (!) would sink into oblivion.   

Although parts of this book were tedious, I was sad when it was over. The narrator, Bernard Mayes (with his grandfatherly British voice), did such a good job that I felt like I had just had a long conversation with a good friend that suddenly came to an end.

I will close with a favorite quote from Clifton Fadiman: Above all give me Trollope, from whom I have received so much pleasure that I would willingly call him another St. Anthony; his half a hundred novels are good for five years of bedside reading. Of those who minister to the tired, night-welcoming mind, Trollope is king. He never fails to interest, but not too much; to soothe, but not too much. Trollope is the perfect novelist for the bedside.

Blessings,

Reading Goals for 2022

My goals are loosely set, but these are some books that have been coming to my mind lately. I'll probably do a few on the Lit Life Challenge, but prefer to follow my own whims for the most part.

The Chronicles of Narnia (It's been ten years since the last time.)

More Lord Peter Wimsey (I read books 1-5 in 2021)

Finish the Betsy-Tacy series (I read books 1-4 about five years ago!)

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (already on my Kindle)

Everthing Sad is Untrue by Nayeri (free via Hoopla)

I've also had a hankering to re-read the Miss Buncle books.

Also something by the wonderful Elizabeth Goudge. (I own Green Dolphin Street and The White Witch.)

What about you? Any opinions on this list? Any reading goals for the year?

May your new year be replete with good food, good books, good company, and God's blessing.

Blessings,

Reading Year in Review - 2021

Thank heavens that I came out of the pandemic-induced reading slump of 2020! This year got off to a roaring start because of the Literary Life Podcast group since their reading challenge caused me to attack my most daunting books right off the bat: Kristin Lavransdatter and Anna Karenina! Towards the end of the year I was reading much lighter fare, while dipping into Dante's Divine Comedy three times a week (via the 100 Days of Dante reading project.) It was a great year! (All 90 books, good and bad, are listed on my Goodreads challenge.) 

Here's the rundown of favorites: 

Most work, but worth the effort: Kristin Lavransdatter (reviewed here) After this, Anna Karenina was a cinch!

Best light fiction: A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery (reviewed here)

Most fun: All Creatures Great and Small by Herriot (reviewed here), and the first five Lord Peter Wimsey Novels by Sayers (reviewed here)

Favorite audio: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick & Pied Piper by Shute

Favorite re-read: Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury (with the Lit Life group)

Favorite classic: Mansfield Park by Austen (with the Lit Life group)

Unexpectedly knocked my socks off: The Inferno by Dante/Ciardi (To be honest, this was only after listening to the videos explaining each canto.)

Favorite non-fiction: Christian Faith in the Old Testament by Cockerill

My two top picks for the year were  C.S. Lewis' Letters, Vol. 2 (1,000 pages) and Six Centuries of Great Poetry (600 pages). My daily sips into their contents brought me constant delight. I felt bereft when I finally reached the end of Lewis' letters.

What about you? Have you read any of these? Did you have a favorite book of the year? 

Blessings,

Christmas Poem by Christopher Smart

A wonderful poem that is also a hymn:

Where is this stupendous Stranger?

Prophets, shepherds, kings, advise!

Lead me to my Master's manger,

Show me where my Savior lies.

O most Mighty, o most Holy,

Far beyond the seraph's thought,

Are you then so mean and lowly

As unheeded prophets thought?

Oh, the magnitude of meekness!

Worth from worth immortal sprung!

Oh, the strength of infant weakness,

If eternal is so young!

God all bounteous, all creative,

Whom our sins could not dissuade,

You have come to be a native

Of the very world you made.

(Full poem here.)

Blessings,

Thoughts on The Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon is one of those books that caused me great embarrassment as a young Christian for its glorification of physical attraction and its awkward expressions of admiration such as the bride's hair being "like a flock of goats and her teeth like a flock of shorn ewes."

As I matured in my faith I learned to appreciate the book's place in the biblical canon because it debunks the myth that God is a cosmic killjoy and that physical intimacy is sinful. (Of course, it has to be read in the context of the rest of Scripture!)  

In Matthew Henry's commentary, he prefers to treat the entire book as a spiritual analogy, reflecting Christ's love for His bride. While I agreed with all of his conclusions, I did not see how he reached them from certain verses (the ones in my first paragraph, for example.) Some applications seemed incredibly forced. The other resource I used for this study was Kay Arthur's Walking With God in Every Season, which took the Song of Solomon more at face value (a love poem with potential spiritual applications). I found it interesting that one of the assignments in Kay's book was to make lists of the compliments the couple give to each other, noting which ones had to do with their characters and which had to do with their appearance. Only by really stretching my imagination, could I come up with one non-physical accolade for the bride and the groom, which amazed me. 

Although I loved Matthew Henry's eloquence and fervent love for God, I was occasionally miffed at his heavy-handed applications. Kay Arthur's probing questions left more room for prayerful reflection. As I meditated on repeated themes and phrases, I found myself longing to think of Christ as "the one whom my soul loves." I'm happy I took some time to go through this book more carefully.  

Blessings,

Lord Peter Wimsey Novels 1-5

One of my goals for 2021 was to read through Dorothy Sayer's novels about aristocrat-turned-detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. I've loved the books so far, but haven't felt the need to review each one separately. Here are my thoughts on the first five.

Whose Body? - Sayers introduces her fascinating amateur detective with his perfect sidekick: Bunter, the butler. To make things more interesting, Lord Peter suffers from PTSD due to his participation in WWI.

Clouds of Witness (I'm sorry the Kindle version has a horrible cover.) A murder mystery involving Peter's brother and sister. The wonderful detective Parker begins to fall in love with one of the principal characters in the book. 

Unnatural Death - The story takes place in 1927, but my copy came with a "biography" written by Wimsey's uncle that goes through 1935 and included spoilers. Still, I appreciated some of the background info because it helped to explain why Wimsey's brother was such a cad in the previous book. This was my favorite so far because we know early on who did it, but it takes ages to discover HOW. And Miss Climpson is adorable. At right is my favorite quote when Wimsey finds her a little worse for wear.

Lord Peter Views the Body - A delightful collection of short stories, showing Lord Peter from many different angles. I especially enjoyed the mystery he solved with his 10-year old nephew tagging along.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - This murder mystery had some really delightful twists. I enjoyed the brief but hilarious discussion about whether sinfulness was actually a glandular problem.

Please note that there is light swearing throughout these books, but it never seems gratuitous. Also, several of these titles are quite pricey, so I hope you are able to get them through your local library like I did.

Blessings,