C. S. Lewis: Writer, Scholar, Seeker

By: Sørina Higgins, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Sørina Higgins

Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Although his career is much richer and more varied than a single series of tales for children, Clive Staples (C. S.) Lewis is perhaps best-known for his beloved fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. Born in Belfast near the end of the 19th century, Lewis had a difficult childhood and lived through the devastation of two world wars. Yet, his work most often celebrates joy, optimism, and spiritual meaning, rather than dwelling on the darkness he had experienced.

In C. S. Lewis: Writer, Scholar, Seeker, Dr. Sørina Higgins will take you on a fascinating expedition through the life and work of this influential author, examining the crucial events and relationships that shaped his personal, literary, and spiritual journeys. As you’ll see, while Lewis holds a special place in the canon of modern fantasy literature—along with his friend and colleague J. R. R. Tolkien—the fantastic was not his only interest. His wide-ranging imagination and constant curiosity led him to write everything from religious essays to science fiction while also pursuing his career as an Oxford fellow and tutor and literary scholar. As you trace Lewis’ life from his unhappy days at boarding school to his final years, Dr. Higgins will spotlight the connections between his lived experience and the creation of his work, illuminating the ways his literary efforts reflected his personal pursuit of meaning and connection.

The story of Lewis’ life and literary achievements is one of both historical specificity and timeless, eternal themes. Though Lewis was certainly a man of his times and subject to many of the biases and restrictions of his era, as Dr. Higgins highlights, he never stopped growing and embracing new ways of thinking. And today, more than half a century after his death, his work lives on, entertaining and enlightening new generations of readers all over the world.

©2023 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2023 Audible Originals, LLC.

A Lot of Insight into Lewis and His Works

I remember with great vividness, the excitement of watching the 1979 animated adaptation of Lewis' great, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when it first came out. My friend was horrified by the adaptation feeling it came nowhere close to the novel, but it led me to read the entire series and lifted C.S. Lewis high in my esteem until the current day. The only other work I've read of his (and multiple times at that) is his brilliant Screwtape Letters. Other than that I knew he was friends with Tolkien and was part of a writing group with him, but that was it. This short Great Courses book by Sorina Higgins fills in a lot of the missing details of Lewis' life and gives insight into his many works of literature and theology. It's well worth reading and it's interested me in going back to the Chronicles of Narnia to read them again after four decades.

Masterful Presentation About Lewis!

I knew the narration by Sørina Higgins would be excellent, as I've heard her speak in-person several times. She does not disappoint in this department, nor in the realm of her content ("story"). In six lectures of 28 minutes or less, she manages to cover all the main points about Lewis's life and give concise (and meaningful) information about his works.
The first two lectures (don't be turned off by the word "lecture," as Sørina has a conversational tone, making it seem like she is talking to just you) provides the key details about Lewis's life and shines the spotlight on Narnia (as this is the most familiar work by Lewis). The remaining four talks primarily addresses his other writings as follows: 1. Christian-themed, 2. Theological Fiction, 3. The Ransom Cycle, and 4. Literary Criticism. Bits of biographical elements are also provided in each of these sections.
Only two very minor criticisms: If it could be longer, then I wish she would cover more of Lewis's shorter works (essays) and having a PDF of the various authors and works she mentioned would have also been nice.

Definitely worth a listen!

Very well written from all parts of his life and career, gave me a view of the man, his time and his writings. Very interesting and enjoyable.

The logical sequence.

I couldn’t believe 2+ hours passed so quickly. I never for a moment felt that this review of Lewis’s work was a chore or job. I was also surprised by how delicately yet unapologetically Lewis’s more controversial and dated ideas and opinions were presented to a potentially very sensitive and polarised audience.

Fantastic overview from a thoughtful scholar of the Inklings!

This was a great overview of Lewis’s life and works! Dr Higgins provided thoughtful analysis with a lively lecture delivery style. My only regret was that I wanted more of it. Perhaps Audible will ask her to do one on Charles Williams or perhaps a series of thorough analysis of key works by Lewis and other Inklings.

Very theatrical performance

I have listened to several of the great courses and they feel like a university course. This felt like a dramatic reading, which made the listen very difficult.

As for the course itself, I like that it was a succinct overview of Lewis’s life and works, but towards the end the author’s personal views seemed to seep into her assessment of him. I have never heard Lewis described as a misogynist, or the views of Screwtape assigned to Lewis himself.

A decent listen! But not the best!

I am old enough to start reading fairy tails again!

This is a wonderful synopsis of some of his best works, and encourages me to read some of those that I did not know. Sorina Higgins is a true delight.

Good listen, but flawed in some ways

A very good listen and from someone who has respect for Lewis works, but some of things She says are debatable about Lewis life and says some things that contradict, what she says about Lewis writings

Not sure where all the negging is coming from

These lectures are an excellent summary of C.S. "Jack" Lewis' life and work. He was a complex man with complex writing. All the negative reviews seem to amount to "a woman professor said something negative about a man of faith, therefore she must be a faithless liberal." They have not read Surprised by Joy, Lewis' autobiography, where she took those "negative" comments from. If anything, she wasn't critical ENOUGH. His theology departs from the standard Anglicanism of his day on several points (crickets). She downplays his tax fraud, overestimates his actual popularity as a professor, and his general "old sourpuss" attitude. They also seem to be confused about what textual criticism is because if anything she is among the most generous and adoring critics of an author's works I've ever listened to. She clearly likes and admires the work of C.S. Lewis. (More importantly, unlike her critics, she has actually read him.)

CSL—Not Chronological Snob. Narrator—The Opposite

the narrator kept referring to CSL’s lack of chronological snobbery; while she, in pointing out his erroneous views, clearly revealed her own inclination as such a snob.