The Major Writings Of C. S. Lewis Between 1933-1938

The Major Writings Of C. S. Lewis Between 1933-1938
By Duncan Rize

The author C. S. Lewis was born in Northern Ireland in November 1898. He is most well-known for his Christian writings and the very popular series entitled The Chronicles of Narnia featuring the extremely popular novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, there are many other pieces of literature written by C. S. Lewis.

The first novel to be completed by C. S. Lewis after he converted to Christianity is entitled, The Pilgrim’s Regress. The Pilgrim’s Regress was written as an analysis of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

In The Pilgrim’s Regress , the story is told as an allegory of C. S. Lewis not discovering the validity of Christianity until he was much older. In this novel, a boy goes out in search of the ‘ Island in the West’. The ‘ Island in the West’ is thought to represent Christianity. Within this novel, Lewis illustrates how people try all sorts of different things and visit all sorts of different places before arriving at the place where they should be. At the time it was written, the novel was not readily received, as the main theme of the book was a foreign concept to many people. Many of the people who existed at that time were already Christians or had yet to encounter Christianity. From a Christian perspective, Lewis’s writing was ahead of his time.

Bodley Head published the novel entitled Out Of The Silent Planet in September of 1938. It is a member of Lewis’ Space Trilogy novels (the others are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.) On collaboration with J R.R. Tolkien, Lewis decided to write this novel and the others as way to show how they felt that science fiction writing at that time was leading a downward spiral.

In Out Of The Silent Planet , Lewis crafts a tale about a young man called Elwin Ransom who comes upon a cottage in the woods. The cottage turns out to be the home of his friend Devine and accomplice Weston. After sitting down for a drink, Ransom starts to feel sleepy and realizes a sleeping potion was slipped into his drink. When he again wakes up, Ransom realizes that he is traveling through space.

With many references to God and angels, the main theme of Out Of The Silent Planet is greed and how this is all humans can share with other life forms if they do exist on other planets. Lewis chose the title of this book to represent ‘The Silent Planet’ as Earth. The reason is represented as silent is because it is full of evil and greed as depicted in the actions of Devine and Weston.

Duncan Rize loves the writings of C.S. Lewis and works with the marketing group at www.LearningByGrace.org. Learning by Grace manages of a number of internationally known online K-12 academies including www.TheGraceAcademy.org, www.TheJubileeAcademy.org, www.TheMorningStarAcademy.org and www.TheNarniaAcademy.org . This article is © 2005 ELRN, Inc. and may be quoted in whole or part as long as the author (Duncan Rize) and source (www.TheNarniaAcademy.org) are credited.

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