Record Number: 32409

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

(1) 'I am reading at present, what do you think? Our own friend "Pilgrim's Progress". It is one of those books that are usually read too early to appreciate, and perhaps don't come back to. I am very glad however to have discovered it. The allegory of course is obvious and even childish, but just as a romance it is unsurpassed, and also as a specimen of real English. Try a bit of your Ruskin or Macaulay after it, and see the difference between diamonds and tinsel.' (2) 'It is funny that we should both have the same idea about the Temple Classics. I was almost sure they were out of print and only wrote on the off chance for the "Pilgrim's Progress" (did I mention it? I have read it again and am awfully bucked) and then for the "Grael".'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Nov 1916 and 15 Nov 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:

John Bunyan

Title:

Pilgrim's Progress

Genre:

Other religious, Fiction, Allegory, satirical realism

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

London: J. M. Dent & Co, 1898 (Temple Classics Series)

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32409

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:

247, 254

Additional Comments:

(1) From a letter to his father, 3 November 1916 (2) From a letter to Arthur Greeves, 15 November 1916

Citation:

C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 247, 254, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32409, accessed: 03 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

Lewis writes to Greeves that he has read 'Pilgrim's Progress' 'again', and mentions the edition he has bought. This is one of the few books he also discussed with his father; I think his former reading of it would have taken place in the family home in Belfast, using a copy in his father's library. There are no further descriptions in Lewis's correspondence of 'reading experiences' of this book, but he refers to it frequently throughout his life, for example: 'What a nice word neighbour is - don't you like 'Well, neighbour So-and-So in Bunyan' (Letter to Greeves, 5 September 1931, v.1, p.968) and 'I am (like the pilgrim in Bunyan) travelling across "a plain called Ease"' (Letter to Sister Penelope, 5 June 1951, v.3, p.123). It became so much a part of his mental landscape that when, after his own conversion, Lewis wanted to write an account of it, he did so by re-writing 'Pilgrim's Progress', recasting it with the politics, philosophy and aesthetic principles of his own time, and calling it 'The Pilgrim's Regress'.