Present Concerns: Essays from 1940-1945 [Paperback]

To aid readers, in this review I've listed the works in this collection, with notes indicating other collections they have appeared in. Where a work has appeared under more than one title, I give both titles separated by a slash.

Table of Contents:

"The Necessity of Chivalry" / "The Importance of an Ideal" (1)

"Equality" (1), (2)

"Three Kinds of Men" (1), (2)

"My First School" (1)

"Is English Doomed?" (1), (2)

"Democratic Education" (1), (2)

"A Dream" (1), (2)

"Blimpophobia" (1)

"Private Bates" (1)

"Hedonics" (1), (2)

"After Priggery - What?" (1)

"Modern Man and His Categories of Thought" (1)

"Talking About Bicycles" (1)

"On Living in the Atomic Age" (1), (2)

"The Empty Universe" (1)

"Prudery and Philology" (1), (2)

"Interim Report" (1)

"Is History Bunk" (1), (2)

"Sex in Literature" (1)

Notes:

(1) also published in "Essay Collection & Other Short Pieces"

(2) also published in "Compelling Reason"

Recommendations:

The current collection is an odd one - generally, Lewis's shorter writings can be classed by subject as either Christian or Literary, but this collection is of Lewis's topical writings, which do not fall easily into either category. Given that their topicality has now aged about half a century, this is hardly the most valuable set of writings Lewis has left us. Most readers of Lewis can safely pass.

For those Lewis readers who can't get enough, this collection does have merit, but I would suggest that such folk instead get "Essay Collection & Other Short Pieces", which, as of the time of this writing, is available from Amazon UK but not Amazon US. That collection consists of about 130 short works by Lewis. It includes everything in this collection as well as almost all of his Christian writings (Lewis's Literary writings are, however, sadly under-represented in that collection).

If you love Lewis but your budget does not run to "Essay Collection & Other Short Pieces", then you can go ahead and get this collection. Its only other overlap is with "Compelling Reason", a collection that nobody should get.

Each chapter is an isolated essay, but all revolve around the themes established in "Abolition of Man." These include the elimination of absolute values, the effects of literature on character education, and so forth.

Intermixed with these heavy and pressing topics, however, are two essays, "Hedonics" and "Talking About Bicycles." There are about mere pleasures and the simple delights of existence. You can taste and feel his sense of life and his sense of delightful please in common day things. Lewis is no curmudgeon, but something else-a mixture of rugged Elijah and tender Elisha.

Lewis, as a literati, amateur historian, and an ex-pagan, has a good eye for decadence. Indeed, his was a warning voice that SHOULD have been headed. We are so far downstream that it would take several C. S. Lewises to effect a turnabout. This may be impossible, but at least we can start with ourselves.

This is not the best book for Lewis neophytes. Start with the anthology "A Mind Awake," and stick with the "Five Classics," and "Abolition of Man." Then work your way through "Weight Of Glory" and "God In The Dock."