An Experiment in Criticism
C. S. LewisOverview
Why do we read literature and how do we judge it? C. S. Lewis's classic An Experiment in Criticism springs from the conviction that literature exists for the joy of the reader and that books should be judged by the kind of reading they invite. He argues that 'good reading', like moral action or religious experience, involves surrender to the work in hand and a process of entering fully into the opinions of others: 'in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself'. Crucial to his notion of judging literature is a commitment to laying aside expectations and values extraneous to the work, in order to approach it with an open mind. Amid the complex welter of current critical theories, C. S. Lewis's wisdom is valuably down-to-earth, refreshing and stimulating in the questions it raises about the experience of reading.
Books in the series
CANTO CLASSICS
- The Two Cultures?: The Significance of C. P. Snow
- The Golem: What You Should Know About Science
- The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century
- Morality: An Introduction to Ethics
- What Was History?: The Art of History in Early Modern Europe
- English as a Global Language
- Think On My Words: Exploring Shakespeare's Language
- The British Isles: A History of Four Nations
- The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe
- The Conquests of Alexander the Great
- Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes Our Past
- Medieval Women
- The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth
- The Theft of History
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