The Art of Writing and the Gifts of Writers

By: C. S. Lewis

Narrated by: Ralph Cosham

This volume of short essays and other pieces by C. S. Lewis is part of a larger collection, C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces. In addition to his many books, letters, and poems, C. S. Lewis wrote a great number of essays and shorter pieces on various subjects. He wrote extensively on Christian theology and the defense of faith but also on ethical issues and the nature of literature and storytelling. Within these pages is a treasure trove of Lewis' reflections on diverse topics.

This volume includes:

• 1. "The Hobbit"
• 2. "Period Criticism"
• 3. "On Stories"
• 4. "On Three Ways of Writing for Children"
• 5. "Prudery and Philology"
• 6. "Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings"
• 7. "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to Be Said"
• 8. "It All Began with a Picture…"
• 9. "Unreal Estates"
• 10. "On Criticism"
• 11. "Cross-Examination"
• 12. "A Tribute to E. R. Eddison"
• 13. "The Mythopoeic Gift of Rider Haggard"
• 14. "George Orwell"
• 15. "A Panegyric for Dorothy L. Sayers"
• 16. "The Novels of Charles Williams"

©1976 Arthur Owen Barfield (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

An intriguing look at an author's critique.

C.S. Lewis takes the reader through the writings of many of his contemporaries and points our how ine might act or more importantly write as an author. Remembering the time that has past from when these words were originally written is key to remember when reading.this text. Overall worth reading.

A Strategy for Collecting Lewis Essays on Audio

Any additional comments?

Collecting Lewis's essays in print as been problematic for a while because they are compiled in so many books that overlap in content. Now it appears that the audio world will follow suit. The good news is that having them at all, and read by such a good voice as Ralph Cosham's, is wonderful. The even better news is that so many of them, surely 85% or more, are now appearing on audio.The bad news is that there is indeed overlap. This new series, of which "The Art of Writing ... etc" is a part, tackles the long out-of-print (is it coming back to print now?) book called "Essay Collection & Other Short Pieces." As of this review, all of the sections of that book have not landed on audio, but I have heard they are all coming. If you do nothing but collect this series, you will be in great shape. There will be no overlap and you will have collected the lion's share (heh) of Lewis's essays. But if you have already, or plan to, buy the very good audio collections "God in the Dock" and/or "Weight of Glory" you will have a lot of repeats. If you go over to Amazon's site and take the time to jot down the tables of contents from the printed forms of God in the Dock, and Weight of Glory, and then go to the REVIEWS of the out-of-print Essay Collection & Other Short Pieces, some kind reader has taken the time to type out all the contents of that book, which are now the contents of this series of audios.But if you want a quick and easy strategy to pick up a great collection of these audios, you can do what I have done:1. Buy God in the Dock on audio. It's a long collection, it's cheap, and it's very good.2. Buy Weight of Glory on audio. It's short, but contains surely his best essay (Weight of Glory) and probably his second best as well (Transposition).3. Buy English and Literature, The Art of Writing and the Gifts of Writers, and The Church from this collection. These are the three parts of the new collection (again, the one taken from Essay Collection & Other Short Stories) which, if my observations are right, contain the least overlap with the other two collections. DISCLAIMER: I have made so many little check mark notations and inked dots and highlighter marks in my printed Lewis essay collections that I've forgotten what some of them mean, so please do poke around in tables of contents to form your own strategy. But just know that A) there is overlap and B) it is absolutely worth the headache to track down a good audio collection of these essays, whether by mixing series or just buying all of this one series. Happy hunting.

Great yet very complex

loved this, but it is harder to follow sometimes if you haven't read some of the works that Lewis cites for his arguments. other than that, amazing as is typical for Lewis!!

fantastic

Lewis is the great communicator that became write.. or vice versa. he is eons beyond anyone else I have become accustomed to and I enjoy his non fiction almost or more that his fiction.