C.S. Lewis: A Biography

by A.N. Wilson

Book Overview

"An accomplished biography...Wilson is a very clever, fluent, and engaging writer, with many of the traits that he attributes to his subject: a 'constantly intelligent conversational quality,' 'a flair for the quick, sharp character sketch, and a 'bedrock of common sense.'" THE NEW REPUBLIC A.N. Wilson shows in this brilliant new biography, that C.S. Lewis, the man, was every bit as multifaceted as C.S. Lewis the writer. Gregerious friend, bullying...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393028135
• ISBN13: 9780393028133
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Superb book

After years of hearing that Wilson's book was a 'hatchet job', I was surprised and delighted by how detailed, thoughtful and entertaining this biography really is. But I fear it will do little to halt the "ghettoization" of C.S. Lewis studies by the small, narrow conclave of so-called Christians who insist on turning the man into a saint.

A fascinating read

Some of the reviews here are quite disturbing. Lewis in the dock? Filth? - Those people must be talking about a different book, surely. Wilson clearly admires Lewis and loves and knows his works. Most of the claims attributed to his biography by other reviewers are not actually made in the book. It seems to me that many people find it hard to accept that Lewis's lifestyle differed from the one accepted among American Evangelicals... Wilson never accuses Lewis of not being politically correct, on the contrary, he points to the times he lived in to make us understand. It's a pity many fans of Lewis will be deterred from reading this book by some of the other reviews here; this is a fair and compassionate biography which helps the reader understand Lewis and his world; above all, however, it is excellently written, and I found it hard to put it down once I had got started.

A very believable and human portrait

Wilson, who clearly finds his subject fascinating but refuses to worship him the way some now do, writes a very readable, well-researched and engaging biography that portrays Lewis as a good but complex and even tortured man. This work greatly helped me to understand the driving force behind Lewis's many contributions to literary scholarship, literature, and religion.