The Bottom Line: If you are a lover of words, writing or great quotes you will be very pleased with getting your own copy of this wonderful collection.
tortillaboy's Full Review: Wayne Martindale - The Quotable Lewis
The Quotable Lewis : An Encyclopedia Selection of Quotes from the Complete Published Works of C. S. Lewis.
I pulled this book from my shelf this morning, in hopes of finding some quotes that I can use on a web page. I was given this book as a gift about 8 years ago, and still find myself opening it up and discovering new pearls of wisdom.
The Man
C.S. Lewis (1898 - 1963), one of the 20th century's most amazing authors, is known for his deep and insightful views on life. He was a respected professor and scholar at Oxford University for 29 years and later at Cambridge. Though an atheist in his early life, he found his intellect drawing him to theism and ultimately to Christianity at the age of 33. Lewis has published a large number of works in the fields of science fiction, poetry, children's literature, fantasy, literary criticism, and apologetics. He also wrote a great many sermons, essays and letters, which are published today.
The Book
This 651 page volume contains 1564 quotes from this great man. The quotes are arranged alphabetically by subject and span topics from absolute values to zeal, from anxiety to creative writing and from Jane Austen to war. Each quote is fully documented as to what work it is pulled from chapter, paragraph and page. Each work is then fully listed in the Bibliography. Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root (editors) did a superb job of compiling a large assortment of long and small quotes of such a wide variety of topics. Each topic is listed in the table of contents and the index allows readers to easily look up related quotes by keywords.
One thing worth mentioning about the quotes in this book is that they are of a man who lived in Europe over 40 years ago. While most of them are timeless there are occasions of reference to topics or subject matter that are not common knowledge. He was a college literary professor after all.
This book also includes 12 pages of pictures from the life of C.S. Lewis. Pictures that give a profound measure of reality to the life of a man we usually only read about. Boyhood photos and snapshots of life in Northern Ireland with his family show us this very normal looking boy who would grow to be a literary legend.
Final Thoughts
I simply love this book. I love reading the quotes and I love how the quotes are arranged. I would complain a bit about the size and weight of the book, but considering the alternative, I will refrain. At two inches thick and good half pound this hardcover edition makes an impressive statement.
If you are a lover of words, writing or great quotes you will be very pleased with getting your own copy of this wonderful collection. Below I've included a couple of the shorter quotes to give you a taste.
Quotes
on Jargon:
"Stone walls cannot a prison make half so secure as rigmarole"
on Life:
"Actually it seems to me that one can hardly say anything good or bad enough about life."
on Love & Priorities:
"Because we love something else more than this world we love even this world better than those who know no other."
Preachers, speakers, writers, professors, and students who have wanted to quote C.S. Lewis have had to rely on their memory or flip frantically throug...More at Christianbook.com
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