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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wise, Entertaining, Beautifully Written, 13 Oct 2000
I have loved this book for the better part of thirty years - - and not simply because it is the autobiography of one of my favorite authors. I would revere this book if it was the only work by C. S. Lewis that had ever been published.Lewis himself said that the best part of many long novels, such as Dickens's, is the beginning - - the childhood years. As an autobiographer Lewis excels here, too, with his account of his imaginative formation in a big old Belfast house and as a junior member of a family that included some eccentrics indeed. We read on to an account of his school-days miseries that rivals George Orwell's notorious essay "'Such, Such Were the Joys'." (One of Lewis's masters was institutionalized as insane within a year or so of Lewis's leaving the school.) Later, we read of his wartime experiences. (He did not have to serve in World War I, by the way, as Irish-born.) Are you a Tolkien fan? You'll enjoy Lewis's account of his wary meeting with a "Papist" philologist. The account of his conversion is, of course, a classic, one that people may, I believe, be reading for decades, even centuries, to come; many people have found it useful in understanding their own spiritual experiences. The book is generous, poetic, and fresh. Dale Nelson English Department Mayville State University, USA
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