The Literary Life Podcast Episode 47: The Great Divorce, Preface & Ch. 1
Front Matter Matters
- Pay attention to a book's front matter, including the title page and any preface or introduction written by the author.
- These sections often contain important clues about how to interpret the book and the author's intentions.
Complete Separation
- C.S. Lewis uses George MacDonald's quote in the epigraph to signal the book's central theme: the necessary separation of heaven and hell.
- True salvation requires complete relinquishment of sin, not a partial embrace of it.
Distilled Wisdom
- "The Great Divorce" acts as a distilled guide to complex medieval thinkers like Prudentius and Boethius.
- Lewis makes their ideas accessible through a more digestible narrative format.
On The Literary Life podcast today, Cindy Rollins, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks begin their series on The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. Today you are going to get a crash-course in Medievalism through Lewis' story, and we hope you will enjoy this book as much as our hosts do. Angelina kicks off the discussion even while sharing her commonplace quote, sharing some information about the epigraph and front matter. She gives us some historical context, both for where this books comes in Lewis' own timeline, as well as some ideas of the journey of the soul and medieval dream literature.
Thomas gives some background on Prudentius and his allegorical work The Psychomachia. Angelina goes into some comparisons between The Great Divorce and Dante's Divine Comedy. Thomas talks about Nathanial Hawthorne's short story The Celestial Railroad as a satire of Pilgrim's Progress. Also, if you haven't read and listened to E. M. Forster's Celestial Omnibus, see Episode 17. As they get into discussing the Preface, Thomas give us some information on William Blake. We will be back next week with a discussion on Chapters 2-6.
Listen to The Literary Life: Commonplace Quotes:We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them. Man cannot discover them by his own powers and if he sets out to seek for them he will find in their place counterfeits of which he will be unable to discern the falsity.
Simone WeilNo, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it–no plan to retain this of that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather.
George MacDonaldA poet is not a man who says "look at me", but rather a man who points at something and says "look at that."
C. S. Lewis MCMXIVby Philip Larkin
Those long uneven lines Standing as patiently As if they were stretched outside The Oval or Villa Park, The crowns of hats, the sun On moustached archaic faces Grinning as if it were all An August Bank Holiday lark;
And the shut shops, the bleached Established names on the sunblinds, The farthings and sovereigns, And dark-clothed children at play Called after kings and queens, The tin advertisements For cocoa and twist, and the pubs Wide open all day–
And the countryside not caring: The place names all hazed over With flowering grasses, and fields Shadowing Domesday lines Under wheat's restless silence; The differently-dressed servants With tiny rooms in huge houses, The dust behind limousines;
Never such innocence, Never before or since, As changed itself to past Without a word–the men Leaving the gardens tidy, The thousands of marriages, Lasting a little while longer: Never such innocence again.
Book List:Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.
The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
The Personal Heresy by C. S. Lewis and E. M. Tillyard
The Aeneid by Virgil
The Divine Comedy by Dante
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
The Holy War by John Bunyan
Ourselves by Charlotte Mason
A Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis
The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis
Thanks to Our Sponsor:This episode is brought to you by New College Franklin. We want to encourage you to check out their 2020 Spring Preview Days happening online via Zoom conferencing.
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