Product Description

On its first appearance, The Screwtape Letters was immediately recognized as a milestone in the history of popular theology and has since sold more than a quarter of a million editions. Now stunningly repackaged and rebranded as part of the Signature Classics range. A masterpiece of satire, this classic has entertained and enlightened readers the world overwith its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to 'Our Father Below'. At once wildly comic, deadly serious and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the worldly wise old devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man. Dedicated to Lewis's friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien, The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation -- and triumph over it -- ever written.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5288 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'The book is sparkling yet truly reverent, in fact a perfect joy, and should become a classic.' Guardian 'Excellent, hard-hitting, challenging, provoking.' Observer

About the Author
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English literature at Oxford University until 1954 when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. His major contributions in literary criticism, children's literature, fantasy literature and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year.

Customer Reviews

Demons make the best moralists
This is an imaginative tour de force, full of humour and goodness. For a book of informal moral psychology, teaching on human vice and virtue and their part in human well-being, the form is very original. We have before us a series of letters from one senior devil to his nephew, a tempter lower in the infernal lowerarchy, written with subtlety but with crystalline lucidity as well.
The subject of the book is not only morality in the sense of good and evil, but the 'moral' in the sense of the human person, its integrity and well-being. And because of this one does not need to read this work beside Lewis' 'Mere Christianity' (as believers really should), but can enjoy the fiction or allegory while at the same time revelling in wonderfully rendered insights into the human soul or mind.
This work not only teaches but it entertains, and it does both simultaneously without letting the one impinge on the other. It is Lewis' answer to Chesterfield's letters. A joy to read.

Lewis' Morality Play
This book was assigned reading when I was in 8th grade at a Catholic school. I remember I had no appreciation for it whatsoever at the time. I couldn't relate to the protagonist or his travails in wartime England.

Perhaps one needs a little time in this world to appreciate the delicious simplicity of Lewis' allegory. Having read it recently I was struck by the wisdom, strength and genuine spiritualism this book exudes.

One needn't, as commented upon elsewhere, be a believer to appreciate this work. Lewis never tries to foist any doctrinaire agenda upon the reader. Neither is he didactic. All that comes across (to this reader, at least) is a sense of hard-won wisdom. It offers some hints about how we might find a bit of peace and happiness on this earth if we are willing to think a little less selfishly and are able to set our powerful egos aside for awhile.

I wish that those readers who wasted their money on The Celestine Prophecy and thought it provided wonderful spiritual insight would turn their attention Lewis' way. Here is the matter simply stated, without some wayward attempts at new-age jingoism.

Screwy Screwtape
C.S. Lewis has a gift for making complex concepts of God and man and making them understandable, this is an absolute must for anyone looking to expand their mind in the area of Christian life.

But it is also a really entertaining read for any person who doesn't object to engaging their mind just a little bit.

Read and enjoy.