Record Number: 32396

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

(1) 'I wonder what a book called "Letters from Hell" published at 1/- by Macmillan would be like?' (2) 'I have written up for "Letters from Hell" and it ought to be here by the end of the week. I am looking forward to it immensely...' (3) 'And now I must turn to "Letters of (sic) Hell". I suppose I must have looked forward to it too much: at any rate - I will tell the truth - I have failed to read it, have not enjoyed it a bit and have put it away in my drawer unfinished.... I expected beauties of the phantastic type, and in reality it turns out only a novel. For the parts about Hell are after all only a setting for the story of his previous life... supremely commonplace. The characters are all absolutely crude.... The only part I liked was the vision of paradise.... Still, when both you and Macdonald praise the book, I am ready to believe that the fault must be in me and not in it.' (4) 'I am no longer in a position to take your advice about "Letters from Hell" as we had a jumble sale ... and I contributed this.... They tell me it sold for 1/6! I am at present enjoying the malicious pleasure of expecting that the buyer will be as disappointed as I was.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 12 Oct 1916 and 18 Oct 1916

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Clive Staples Lewis

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

29 Nov 1898

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Student

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

Northern Ireland

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Valdemar Adolph Thisted

Title:

Letters from Hell

Genre:

Other religious, Fiction, Didactic epistolary novel

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Translated into English from a German version of the original Danish; Richard Bentley & Son, 1884, reprinted by Macmillan, 1911

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32396

Source:

Print

Author:

C. S. Lewis

Editor:

Walter Hooper

Title:

C. S. Lewis Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

2000

Vol:

1

Page:

215, 232, 236, 256

Additional Comments:

(1) From a letter to Arthur Greeves, 18 July 1916 (2) From a letter to the same, (possibly 12 October 1916) (3) From a letter to the same, 18 October 1916 (4) From a letter to the same, 22 November 1916

Citation:

C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 215, 232, 236, 256, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32396, accessed: 20 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Hooper comments in a footnote to the letter of 18 July: 'This curious book was first published in Denmark in 1866, and later translated into German.... Who knows? the book may have played some part, years later, in the genesis of Lewis's "Screwtape Letters" (1942)'. I doubt this myself. I don't know of any other book which Lewis repudiated so thoroughly. His own account of the origin of "Screwtape" is found in a letter to his brother. He had been to church, and 'Before the service was over - one cd. wish these things came more seasonably - I was struck by an idea for a book wh. I think might be both useful and entertaining. it wd. be called "As one Devil to Another" and would consist of letters from an elderly retired devil to a young devil who had just started work on his first "patient". The idea wd. be to give all the psychology of temptation from the other point of view.' (From a letter to his brother, 20 July 1940, v.2, pp.426/427)