In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis again employs his formidable talent for fable and allegory while taking issue with William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. One of the twentieth century’s most gifted storytellers introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil.
The writer, in a dream, finds himself in a bus which travels between Hell and Heaven, where he finds that anyone who wishes to remain in Heaven can do so. From here, Lewis embarks upon an extraordinary meditation upon good and evil. In Lewis’s own words, “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.”
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was born in Belfast. He was a fellow and tutor in English Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, and was later Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, where he remained until his death. His major contributions in literary criticism, children’s literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim. Lewis’s most distinguished and popular accomplishments include The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, The Four Loves, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.
“... I think it is unlikely that if other books as generally entertaining ... appear this year, they will be as generally instructive.” W.H. Auden, Saturday Review
