The Narnian

Another gem from the shelves of the Athenaeum Library. I have read quite a lot about C. S. Lewis but I'd never come across The Narnian. It's not an exhaustive biography, because Alan Jacobs focuses above all on the development and expression of Lewis's inner life -- his ideas and imagination. As a Professor of English and university director of Faith and Learning, Jacobs is particularly interested in Lewis's Christianity, which was of course the central foundation of his work. 

I have to confess I've never read any of Lewis's apologetics or even his adult novels (though I have a dim memory of attempting The Screwtape Letters in high school), but Jacobs does a good job of outlining his arguments. I think Jacobs is right when he says that Lewis's great strength was not actually in debate or philosophy (even though 'no one could best him'), but in depiction -- he shows us a world where goodness and virtue become rich and delightful, and makes us want to live in that world. Could there be a better description of Narnia? Jacobs emphasises Lewis's 'willingness to be enchanted,' for which I am prepared to forgive his dated attitudes.

One aspect of Lewis's personal life which struck me particularly after reading Wifedom was his long devotion to Mrs Moore, his friend's mother, about which Lewis's brother Warnie was apoplectic with fury, seeing his busy, gifted brother running around filling hot water bottles, taking out the dog et etc instead of getting on with his work. For a start, it seems clear that Lewis and Mrs Moore at least at one time were sexual partners, and no one would bat an eyelid if the gender roles were reversed, and a younger wife were caring with equal tenderness to an older, demanding husband, no matter how creatively gifted she might be, and how much her work suffered in consequence -- not that that would be an ideal situation, either, but part of Warnie's horror surely stems from the perceived 'unnaturalness' of Lewis's position. Anyway, it doesn't seem that Lewis's work actually did suffer all that much, and as Jacobs points out, this experience probably taught him much about suffering, and patience, and love, and duty, which helped him toward greater depth of wisdom and compassion in the long run.