The Oxford Inklings Audiobook By Colin Duriez cover art

The Oxford Inklings

Lewis, Tolkien and Their Circle

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The Oxford Inklings

By: Colin Duriez
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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The Oxford Inklings tells the story of the friendships, mutual influence, and common purpose of the Inklings - the literary circle which congregated around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Meeting in pubs or Lewis' college rooms, they included an influential array of literary figures. They were, claimed poet and novelist John Wain, bent on "the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life".

Tolkien and Lewis expert Colin Duriez unpacks the Inklings' origins, relationships, and the nature of their collaboration. He shows how they influenced, encouraged, and moulded each other. Duriez also covers the less celebrated Inklings, neglected, he claims, for too long. What did they owe - and offer - to the more acknowledged names? What brought them together? And what, eventually, drove them apart from their initial focus upon each other's writings?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2009 Colin Duriez (P)2020 Oasis Audio Art & Literature Authors European Literary History & Criticism World Literature
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Very well researched book on the circle of writers and thinkers around Tolkien and Lewis.

Great insights into the Inklings

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I adore Tolkien, so I was excited to learn more about the environment that encouraged and fostered his writings.

This was a nice, concise summary of various philosophical and intellectual currents in 30-50s academia. Unfortunately, the author was less skilled at summarizing his biographies. This was an easy listening book, so it didn't prevent me from finishing, but the chronology jumped around and was hard to follow.

Still, it effectively communicated the over sense of who and what the inklings were. Glad I read it!

Fascinating summary

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While I found most of the book interesting and discovered heretofore unknown facts about the main protagonists, CS Lewis and Tolkien, I find the constant repetition of parts of the story very annoying. I frequently wondered if I had somehow inadvertently rewound the audio. Introducing members of the Inklings with their own chapter often meant regurgitating parts of the story already heard. This title could use some serious editing.

interesting but repetitive

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