The Narnian
The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis
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Narrated by:
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Alan Jacobs
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By:
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Alan Jacobs
About this listen
One of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential religious writer of his day, Lewis was also an Oxford don and a scholar of medieval literature who loved to debate philosophy at his local pub. Yet one of the most intriguing aspects of Clive Staples Lewis remains unanswered. How did a bachelor professor, nearly 50, and living in a wholly adult world, turn to the writing of stories for children, stories that would become among the most popular and beloved ever written?
Alan Jacobs masterfully tells the story of C.S. Lewis. From his childhood days in Ireland to his horrific experiences in the trenches of the First World War, to his friendship with J.R.R. Tolkein (and other members of the "Inklings") and his remarkable late-life marriage to Joy Davidman, Jacobs traces the events and people that shaped Lewis's philosophy, theology, and fiction. The story of a profound mind and extraordinary imagination, The Narnian is a remarkable tale of a man who knew great loss and great delight, but who knew above all that the world holds far more richness and meaning than the average eye can see.
©2005 Alan Jacobs (P)2005 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear the Allies would win the Second World War. Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic thought the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. These Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others - sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world.
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At the Existentialist Café
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- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
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Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"
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Consistent look at incoherent philosophy
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To Show and to Tell
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- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
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Distinguished author Phillip Lopate, editor of the celebrated anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, is universally acclaimed as “one of our best personal essayists” ( Dallas Morning News). Here, combining more than 40 years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, he brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone, and immense gift for storytelling.
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Not a guide on writing personal essays
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By: Phillip Lopate
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A Wicked Company
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- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The flourishing of radical philosophy in Baron Thierry Holbach’s Paris salon from the 1750s to the 1770s stands as a seminal event in Western history. Holbach’s house was an international epicenter of revolutionary ideas and intellectual daring, bringing together such original minds as Denis Diderot, Laurence Sterne, David Hume, Adam Smith, Ferdinando Galiani, Horace Walpole, Benjamin Franklin, Guillaume Raynal, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In A Wicked Company, acclaimed historian Philipp Blom retraces the fortunes of this exceptional group of friends.
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Excellent Book on Radical Enlightenment
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Metaphysical Animals
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- Narrated by: Alex Dunmore
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The history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In Metaphysical Animals, a pioneering group biography, Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman offer a compelling alternative. In the mid-twentieth century Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch were philosophy students at Oxford when most male undergraduates and many tutors were conscripted away to fight in the Second World War. Together, these young women, all friends, developed a philosophy that could respond to the war’s darkest revelations.
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Book about nothing
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Charlotte Brontë
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Charlotte Brontë's life contained all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired. Like Jane Eyre, she was raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors and sent away to a brutally strict boarding school at a young age. Charlotte grew up and watched helplessly as, one by one, her five beloved siblings sickened and died; by the end of her short life, she was the only child of the Brontë clan remaining.
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Clear-Eyed Bio of Literature's Most Elusive Figure
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The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
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In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know
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Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways these men surface in their work. Through these stories of fathers and sons, Tóibín recounts the resistance to English cultural domination, the birth of modern Irish cultural identity, and the extraordinary contributions of these complex and masterful authors.
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Eminently re-readable
- By Ellen-A on 01-02-19
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Angels and Ages
- A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life
- By: Adam Gopnik
- Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
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Written 200 years after Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln shared a birthday on February 12, 1809, this insightful account sheds new light on two men who changed the way we think about the meaning of life and death. Award-winning journalist Adam Gopnik's unique perspective, combined with previously unexplored stories and figures, reveals two men planted firmly at the roots of modern views and liberal values.
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Connecting Darwin and Lincoln
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I Am Dynamite!
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Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
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Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
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The Western Canon
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Harold Bloom explores our Western literary tradition by concentrating on the works of twenty-six authors central to the Canon. He argues against ideology in literary criticism; he laments the loss of intellectual and aesthetic standards; he deplores multiculturalism, Marxism, feminism, neoconservatism, Afrocentrism, and the New Historicism. Insisting instead upon "the autonomy of aesthetic," Bloom places Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon.....
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A personal and opinionated book on the Canon
- By Steffen on 07-23-12
By: Harold Bloom
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C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
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If You Love Literature...
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Phantastes
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The classic fantasy that influenced C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, considered one of George MacDonald's most important works, is the story of the young man, Anodos, and his adventures in fairyland which ultimately reveal the human condition. "I write, not for children," wrote George MacDonald, "but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or 50, or 75." All-at-once written with an innocent whimsy and soulful yearning, the heart of Anodos' journey through fairyland reveals a spiritual quest that requires a surrender of the self.
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Finally
- By Aaron Elrod on 04-12-21
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Planet Narnia
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For over half a century, scholars have labored to show that C. S. Lewis' famed but apparently disorganized Chronicles of Narnia have an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser's Faerie Queene. None of these explanations has won general acceptance, and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery.
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Fascinating
- By Charles on 07-29-19
By: Michael Ward
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The Discarded Image
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The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval worldview, providing the historical and cultural background to the literature of the middle ages and renaissance. It describes the 'image' discarded by later years as "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science, and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe". This, Lewis' last book, has been hailed as "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind".
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I hope more of Lewis's scholastic stuff is coming
- By James on 04-01-21
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As a celebrated cultural critic and a writer for national publications like The Atlantic and Harper's, Alan Jacobs has spent his adult life belonging to communities that often clash in America's culture wars. And in his years of confronting the big issues that divide us - political, social, religious - Jacobs has learned that many of our fiercest disputes occur not because we're doomed to be divided, but because the people involved simply aren't thinking.
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What listeners say about The Narnian
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- angieD
- 12-30-22
One of the best!
I am a huge C.S Lewis fan and read a few biographies already. This one is very special it covers more than other writers wrote. Narrator was excellent. highly recommend.
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- Ruth
- 04-11-21
A must for CSLewis fans.
What an excellent biography of CS Lewis. He was an amazing individual— so well read. As one who loves The Chronicles of Narnia I highly recommend it.
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- T. Hooker
- 01-01-23
Great insights on a much-covered author
I most appreciated the author’s literary insights into Lewis’ thinking. Also, the critiques of other Lewis biographies were quite helpful. However, I’m not sure why Professor Jacob’s left out so much of his original text of The Narnian. Perhaps this should be listed as an “abridged” version of the book?
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-22-21
A brilliant and poignant narrative, well read
Alan Jacobs is a treasure! I turn to him first now regarding literary matters. He writes as a careful scholar and as a man who is devoted to his subject with respect and affection.
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- Heather Gill
- 08-03-21
A Positive Vision
This book sobered and impacted me deeply. I would highly recommend diving in this story.
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- Wayne H.
- 01-17-16
The Real CS Lewis
Any additional comments?
CS Lewis gave us the best he had to offer. i have often returned to Narnia as an adult to learn about GOD. Aslan is not safe. He is a wild Lion. But, He is good. and so it is about GOD. GOD is not safe, but, He is good.
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Overall
- connie
- 12-20-09
portrait of a very human Lewis
While not a simplistic bio of Lewis, it's not overly academic either. Neither is it (thankfully) an interpretation key for Chronicles of Narnia. Although Jacobs' thesis is that Lewis expressed his imaginative world best (consciously or unconsciously) through Narnia, he covers all Lewis' work. Jacobs creates a skilful and entertaining biography, weaving together smoothly discussion of Lewis' fiction and nonfiction with bio details and some interpretation of those life experiences.
Occasionally, however, the book sounds like C.S. Lewis for Dummies--Jacobs will cite a passage of Lewis (quite well expressed by itself) then explain it in his own words. Jacobs assumes the listener is unfamiliar with early/mid century British culture and details the school system etc. that would be familiar to even occasional readers of Brit lit. There are also short digressions about Chesterton, Housemen and others who influenced Lewis--not enough to bore someone familiar with them, but enough to situate a reader who isn't. It's very much a conversion story and an exposition of Lewis' attacks on moral relativism, instumentalism and conformity, but the bio ends with the older, wiser Lewis transcending the words and doctrines of the middle-aged apologist with images.
Overall an enjoyable listen, neither heavy nor lightweight, a bio skilfully and lovingly written and narrated by Jacobs so as to surprise with joy even a tepid fan of CS Lewis like me.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Paul H. Vanderklay
- 02-21-18
Outstanding!
It is a bit abridged from the book but not diminished I think. Well read. Well told. One of the best books on Lewis I know. Pvk
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- RoamingChile
- 01-20-06
C.S. Lewis, lover of fairy tales
"The Narnian" gives a glimpse into why C.S. Lewis, Oxford scholar and Christian apologist, wrote fairy tales. It is a fairly complete biography, starting in childhood and ending in Lewis's death in 1963. It also looks into the effects of World War I, the Inklings and more.
At the start, Alan Jacobs deviates a bit too much from biography toward analysis of the Narnia books (containing spoilers). However, the analysis stems from Jacobs desire to take clues about Lewis's life from his writings. The exercise is often quite revealing.
Jacobs also touches on how Aslan came to be the hero of Narnia... stating that the Christian allegory -- in at least "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" -- came forth during the writing process and not by C.S. Lewis's conscious design. Lewis was just trying to tell a good story -- a great fairy tale -- that would grab children's attention.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Wayne
- 12-12-05
Great Subject, Great Listen
A thoughtful, informative, balanced and well-written bio of Lewis read by the author. Jacobs's pleasant voice makes this an enjoyable audio book. The closing anecdote is brilliantly summative of Lewis and quite moving to anyone who has just listened to the entire book.
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6 people found this helpful