- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New edition edition (3 July 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006281664
- ISBN-13: 978-0006281665
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,178,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)
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Review
‘Thrilling.’ Sir Hugh Walpole
‘Remarkable … a rare power of inventive imagination.’ Times Literary Supplement
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.Review
'Thrilling.' Sir Hugh Walpole 'Remarkable ! a rare power of inventive imagination.' Times Literary Supplement
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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First Sentence
AS I LEFT the railway station at Worchester and set out on the three-mile walk to Ransom's cottage, I reflected that no one on that platform could possibly guess the truth about the man I was going to visit. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
AS I LEFT the railway station at Worchester and set out on the three-mile walk to Ransom's cottage, I reflected that no one on that platform could possibly guess the truth about the man I was going to visit. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ransom takes off for Perelendra (Venus ) with the help of his angelic Oyarsa and lands in an ocean world with floating islands, bubble trees, small tame dragons, and seemingly two other inhabitants. They are human(but green)and one, the man, is missing. The woman is astonishingly innocent.
Ransom's old nemesis, the evil physics professor, lands on Venus soon after Ransom and it is clear that he is possessed of an evil spirit and up to no good. Ransom and he battle over the women's soul and the fate of the planet through long, fascinating dialogue,that illuminates Lewis' theology. Ultimately, the battle becomes physical and deadly.
I enjoyed this book a great deal, not the least because a friend told me that he found himself always agreeing with the evil professor. He does make some compelling arguments.
Ransom's old nemesis, the evil physics professor, lands on Venus soon after Ransom and it is clear that he is possessed of an evil spirit and up to no good. Ransom and he battle over the women's soul and the fate of the planet through long, fascinating dialogue,that illuminates Lewis' theology. Ultimately, the battle becomes physical and deadly.
I enjoyed this book a great deal, not the least because a friend told me that he found himself always agreeing with the evil professor. He does make some compelling arguments.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
C. S. Lewis is said to have found "Perelandra" his favourite among his own books, and an improvement over "Out of the Silent Planet". Though a strong Lewis fan, I'm afraid I cannot agree. OOSP attempts one thing, and achieves it perfectly. Perelandra fails by being too ambitious.
"Out of the Silent Planet" is an almost perfect story. The description of Martian creatures and scenery is delightful, without the author having to ram home how terribly significant it all is; and the evil targeted for attack is limited, believable, and allowed to collapse under its own weight. (Ransom's translation of Weston's speech out of the Shavian-evolutionary into Malacandrian i.e. plain English is one of the funniest things I've read.) In Perelandra, on the other hand, the author is always TELLING you how beautiful everything is, instead of letting you find this out for yourself, and the appeal of every new fruit or creature is swept aside by its being used as the occasion for yet a further sermon on the nature of pleasure.
The central flaw is the problem of any writer in depicting evil: how do you make it obvious enough that it IS evil, but also account for its appeal? It is cheating, and ultimately self-defeating, first to depict the beliefs you dislike, and then to make them more obviously evil by adding a few extra unrelated vices. Weston (the devil figure in this book) is so plausible in his attempts to mislead the new Eve that Ransom does not know how to reply other than by physically removing him from the scene. However, Weston also amuses himself in his spare time by pointlessly mutilating frogs. This is of course explained by a further lecture on the banality of evil and its fundamental hatred of intelligence; but it is a grave tactical mistake, by the author as well as by the devil, as surely all Ransom needed to do was to show a frog to the lady. (In the same way, in That Hideous Strength, the Institute's programme as originally outlined by Devine is already bad enough, without adding gratuitous devil-worship.)
The odd thing is that no one knows these things better than Lewis. For the importance of letting the emotional situation speak for itself, see An Experiment in Criticism; for the blackening of villains by adding an inappropriate vice, see his review of Orwell's 1984. (That, incidentally, is where Brave New World scores heavily: the rulers there are not villains but entirely well-meaning, it is their beliefs that are gently shown to be disastrous.)
OK then, why so many as three stars? The language, as always, is wonderful. Lewis really is, in the words of Beachcomber's spoof review (obviously prophetic of Da Vinci-style tripe), "that rare thing, a writer who can combine breathless excitement with profundity of thought". The Lady's combination of innocence and majesty is perfectly done, and the consideration of the ways in which she does, and does not, need to grow up and of how Ransom's feelings for her are, and are not, sexual is suggestive and moving. The vision at the end is reminiscent of Dante. In showing how each thing in turn, by being utterly different, is in its own way the pivot of creation, it suggests an imaginative solution to the problem of creating a world that is both peaceful and interesting.
Not a book to miss.
"Out of the Silent Planet" is an almost perfect story. The description of Martian creatures and scenery is delightful, without the author having to ram home how terribly significant it all is; and the evil targeted for attack is limited, believable, and allowed to collapse under its own weight. (Ransom's translation of Weston's speech out of the Shavian-evolutionary into Malacandrian i.e. plain English is one of the funniest things I've read.) In Perelandra, on the other hand, the author is always TELLING you how beautiful everything is, instead of letting you find this out for yourself, and the appeal of every new fruit or creature is swept aside by its being used as the occasion for yet a further sermon on the nature of pleasure.
The central flaw is the problem of any writer in depicting evil: how do you make it obvious enough that it IS evil, but also account for its appeal? It is cheating, and ultimately self-defeating, first to depict the beliefs you dislike, and then to make them more obviously evil by adding a few extra unrelated vices. Weston (the devil figure in this book) is so plausible in his attempts to mislead the new Eve that Ransom does not know how to reply other than by physically removing him from the scene. However, Weston also amuses himself in his spare time by pointlessly mutilating frogs. This is of course explained by a further lecture on the banality of evil and its fundamental hatred of intelligence; but it is a grave tactical mistake, by the author as well as by the devil, as surely all Ransom needed to do was to show a frog to the lady. (In the same way, in That Hideous Strength, the Institute's programme as originally outlined by Devine is already bad enough, without adding gratuitous devil-worship.)
The odd thing is that no one knows these things better than Lewis. For the importance of letting the emotional situation speak for itself, see An Experiment in Criticism; for the blackening of villains by adding an inappropriate vice, see his review of Orwell's 1984. (That, incidentally, is where Brave New World scores heavily: the rulers there are not villains but entirely well-meaning, it is their beliefs that are gently shown to be disastrous.)
OK then, why so many as three stars? The language, as always, is wonderful. Lewis really is, in the words of Beachcomber's spoof review (obviously prophetic of Da Vinci-style tripe), "that rare thing, a writer who can combine breathless excitement with profundity of thought". The Lady's combination of innocence and majesty is perfectly done, and the consideration of the ways in which she does, and does not, need to grow up and of how Ransom's feelings for her are, and are not, sexual is suggestive and moving. The vision at the end is reminiscent of Dante. In showing how each thing in turn, by being utterly different, is in its own way the pivot of creation, it suggests an imaginative solution to the problem of creating a world that is both peaceful and interesting.
Not a book to miss.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's a great book although a little more philosophical than 'Out of the Silent Planet'but that is part of the charm of C S Lewis.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Confused theology in a science fiction setting
I first read this book many years ago as a born-again, fundamentalist Christian. I recently re-read it as a Pagan. The language is beautiful, the story potentially interesting. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Aquilonian
splendid christianized scifi
This is a really wonderful book, in which Ransom flies to Venus to intervene on behalf of a multi-colored Adam and Eve. Read more
Published 9 months ago by rob crawford
A heavy read from Lewis
Rating this book is hard. I feel like it was a good book (Lewis certainly has a fine grasp of language and does not throw obscure words at you to show off) but as a novel I think... Read more
Published 22 months ago by I. Cummings-knight
CS Lewis lost the plot slightly
This book is the sequel to 'Out of the Silent Planet', one of the best unacclaimed Sci Fi books of the 20th Century, and I was eager to read the sequel. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2009 by M. Harr
Brilliant
C S Lewis had a great grasp of theology and mythology and here his science fiction writing employs his knowledge to the full. Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2009 by C. M. Brown
Lewis' books
This book has been very difficult to find. Thanks to Amazon I could complete the Lewis' Space Trilogy
Published on 10 April 2009 by FlaviaMuroni
Great
This is the second book in C.S. Lewis's amazing Space Trilogy. This book was written as a sequel to the immensely popular Out of the Silent Planet but Lewis also wrote it so that... Read more
Published on 2 April 2008 by Steven R. McEvoy
The solution is violence and subjugation of women
Honestly, I was expecting a lot better from C.S.Lewis. Yes, he has a mastery of language, a way of describing Perelandra that makes you long to be there, but the rest... Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2002 by Johan Gustavsson
a fantastic tale of what could of happened
Perelandra is Adam and Eve all over again. And once again C S Lewis doesn't let us down. His genious overwhelms me. Read more
Published on 4 April 2001
Amazing, definitely an instant favorite.
Perelandra is an amazing book. After having just finished it, and digesting it, I came to the conclusion that the word "beautiful" seems shallow and crude in describing... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2001
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