A Grief Observed

( 96 )

Overview

Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C. S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man — or at any rate a man like me — out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under ...

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More About This Book

Overview

Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C. S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man — or at any rate a man like me — out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is a beautiful and unflinchingly homest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
Written as he mourned the loss of his wife, C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed is an elegant and honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith. This intensely personal memoir has helped countless others find courage and hope.
John Updike
I read Lewis for comfort and pleasure many years ago, and a glance into the books revives my old admiratation.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780060652388
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 3/28/2009
  • Series: C. S. Lewis Signature Classics Series
  • Pages: 112
  • Sales rank: 51552
  • Product dimensions: 5.31 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 0.25 (d)

Meet the Author

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. 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 Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. 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. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over one hundred million copies and have been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podría decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crítica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teología popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo.

Biography

C. S. Lewis was famous both as a fiction writer and as a Christian thinker, and his biographers and critics sometimes divide his personality in two: the storyteller and the moral educator, the "dreamer" and the "mentor." Yet a large part of Lewis's appeal, for both his audiences, lay in his ability to fuse imagination with instruction. "Let the pictures tell you their own moral," he once advised writers of children's stories. "But if they don't show you any moral, don't put one in. ... The only moral that is of any value is that which arises inevitably from the whole cast of the author's mind."

Storytelling came naturally to Lewis, who spent the rainy days of his childhood in Ireland writing about an imaginary world he called Boxen. His first published novel, Out of the Silent Planet, tells the story of a journey to Mars; its hero was loosely modeled on his friend and fellow Cambridge scholar J.R.R. Tolkien. Lewis enjoyed some popularity for his Space Trilogy (which continues in Perelandra and That Hideous Strength), but nothing compared to that which greeted his next imaginative journey, to an invented world of fauns, dwarfs, and talking animals -- a world now familiar to millions of readers as Narnia.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book of the seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia, began as "a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood," according to Lewis. Years after that image first formed in his mind, others bubbled up to join it, producing what Kate Jackson, writing in Salon, called "a fascinating attempt to compress an almost druidic reverence for wild nature, Arthurian romance, Germanic folklore, the courtly poetry of Renaissance England and the fantastic beasts of Greek and Norse mythology into an entirely reimagined version of what's tritely called 'the greatest story ever told.'"

The Chronicles of Narnia was for decades the world's bestselling fantasy series for children. Although it was eventually superseded by Harry Potter, the series still holds a firm place in children's literature and the culture at large. (Narnia even crops up as a motif in Jonathan Franzen's 2001 novel The Corrections). Its last volume appeared in 1955; in that same year, Lewis published a personal account of his religious conversion in Surprised by Joy. The autobiography joined his other nonfiction books, including Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce, as an exploration of faith, joy and the meaning of human existence.

Lewis's final work of fiction, Till We Have Faces, came out in 1956. Its chilly critical reception and poor early sales disappointed Lewis, but the book's reputation has slowly grown; Lionel Adey called it the "wisest and best" of Lewis's stories for adults. Lewis continued to write about Christianity, as well as literature and literary criticism, for several more years. After his death in 1963, The New Yorker opined, "If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels."

Good To Know

The imposing wardrobe Lewis and his brother played in as children is now in Wheaton, Illinois, at the Wade Center of Wheaton College, which also houses the world's largest collection of Lewis-related documents, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

The 1994 movie, Shadowlands, based on the play of the same name, cast Anthony Hopkins as Lewis. It tells the story of his friendship with, and then marriage to, an American divorcee named Joy Davidman (played by Debra Winger), who died of cancer four years after their marriage. Lewis's own book about coping with that loss, A Grief Observed, was initially published under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk.

Several poems, stories, and a novel fragment published after Lewis's death have come under scrutiny as possible forgeries. On one side of the controversy is Walter Hooper, a trustee of Lewis's estate and editor of most of his posthumous works; on the other is Kathryn Lindskoog, a Lewis scholar who began publicizing her suspicions in 1988. Scandal or kooky conspiracy theory? The verdict's still out among readers.

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    1. Also Known As:
      Clive Staples Lewis (real name); Clive Hamilton, N.W. Clerk, Nat Whilk; called "Jack" by his friends
    1. Date of Birth:
      Tue Nov 29 00:00:00 EST 1898
    2. Place of Birth:
      Belfast, Nothern Ireland
    1. Date of Death:
      Fri Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 1963
    2. Place of Death:
      Headington, England

Read an Excerpt

A Grief Observed

Chapter One

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.

At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.

There are moments, most unexpectedly, when something inside me tries to assure me that I don't really mind so much, not so very much, after all. Love is not the whole of a man's life. I was happy before I ever met H. I've plenty of what are called 'resources.' People get over these things. Come, I shan't do so badly. One is ashamed to listen to this voice but it seems for a little to be making out a good case. Then comes a sudden jab of red-hot memory — and all this 'commonsense' vanishes like an ant in the mouth of a furnace.

On the rebound one passes into tears and pathos. Maudlin tears. I almost prefer the moments of agony. These are at least clean and honest. But the bath of self-pity, the wallow, the loathsome sticky-sweet pleasure of indulging it — that disgusts me. And even while I'm doing it I know it leads me to misrepresent H. herself. Give that mood its head and in a few minutes I shall have substituted for the real woman a mere doll to be blubbered over. Thank God the memory of her is still too strong (will it always be too strong?)to let me get away with it.

For H. wasn't like that at all. Her mind was lithe and quick and muscular as a leopard. Passion, tenderness, and pain were all equally unable to disarm it. It scented the first whiff of cant or slush; then sprang, and knocked you over before you knew what was happening. How many bubbles of mine she pricked! I soon learned not to talk rot to her unless I did it for the sheer pleasure — and there's another red-hot jab — of being exposed and laughed at. I was never less silly than as H.'s lover.

And no one ever told me about the laziness of grief. Except at my job — where the machine seems to run on much as usual — I loathe the slightest effort. Not only writing but even reading a letter is too much. Even shaving. What does it matter now whether my cheek is rough or smooth? They say an unhappy man wants distractions — something to take him out of himself. Only as a dog-tired man wants an extra blanket on a cold night; he'd rather lie there shivering than get up and find one. It's easy to see why the lonely become untidy, finally, dirty and disgusting.

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be — or so it feels — welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once. And that seeming was as strong as this. What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?

I tried to put some of these thoughts to C. this afternoon. He reminded me that the same thing seems to have happened to Christ: 'Why hast thou forsaken me?' I know. Does that make it easier to understand?

Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not 'So there's no God after all,' but 'So this is what God's really like. Deceive yourself no longer.'

Our elders submitted and said, 'Thy will be done.' How often had bitter resentment been stifled through sheer terror and an act of love — yes, in every sense, an act — put on to hide the operation?

Of course it's easy enough to say that God seems absent at our greatest need because He is absent — non-existent. But then why does He seem so present when, to put it quite frankly, we don't ask for Him?

One thing, however, marriage has done for me. I can never again believe that religion is manufactured out of our unconscious, starved desires and is a substitute for sex. For those few years H. and I feasted on love, every mode of it — solemn and merry, romantic and realistic, sometimes as dramatic as a thunderstorm, sometimes as comfortable and unemphatic as putting on your soft slippers. No cranny of heart or body remained unsatisfied. If God were a substitute for love we ought to have lost all interest in Him. Who'd bother about substitutes when he has the thing itself? But that isn't what happens. We both knew we wanted something besides one another — quite a different kind of something, a quite different kind of want...

A Grief Observed. Copyright (c) by C. Lewis . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 96 )
Rating Distribution

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 96 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed May 30 00:00:00 EDT 2007

    A great comfort in grief

    C.S. Lewis put into the writing the very things I felt, but could not express, in my own grief. I felt less alone - less hopeless after getting a glimpse into another Christian's pain and suffering. It is a short book - a collection of random thoughts he jotted down after his wife died of cancer. Easy for someone grieving to read, as concentrating is often difficult at such times. I underlined half the book, I found it so relevant to my own situation.

    13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Jun 27 00:00:00 EDT 2000

    C.S. Lewis tells it like it is

    I found my husband and son murdered, most books on grief I tried to read were useless and trite. This is the only one that even came close to describing the pain I felt and how totally lost I was.

    12 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Mar 27 00:00:00 EST 2006

    Classy and Heartbreaking

    C. S. Lewis was a great thinker, but in this book, he is entirely human. Unafraid to face the baffling questions we face when dealing with grief, Lewis goes on a heartfelt search for a faith that can withstand the deepest travails. A very fast read, but a life affirming one. I have found it difficult to find books that really speak to the journey of grieving, but this one is up to the task.

    8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 2009

    Wonderful

    C.S. Lewis captures the process of grieving in such an amazing way. The culmination of his experience where he learns he must move his loss of his wife from his head to his heart is certain to provoke others on a similar journey to make this life altering change.

    7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed Mar 17 00:00:00 EDT 2010

    I Also Recommend:

    Problem of Pain

    An honest look at how Grief challenges our beliefs

    Prior to reading this short book, I read the Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis, which addressed the intellectual, philosophical aspects. But as he notes in the introduction to that book, "[W]hen pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all." In Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis writes with brutal honesty the subjective experience of pain that he feels at the loss of his wife. And by the end, I got the sense that he really understood, really experienced what it meant to love God through our pain. I believe that this book will be helpful to those who may be experiencing suffering in their lives. It may also help those who are trying to help those who are suffering.

    6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Jul 19 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    Beautiful

    A Grief Observed was originally written under a pseudonym (N.W. Clerk) and is a chronicle in journal form of the emotions experienced by Lewis after the death of his wife from bone cancer. It is haunting and beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. If you've lost a loved one, there is something in this book that you can identify with.

    It's a fairly quick read, if you read it straight through. I think I spent a total of about 45 minutes on the entirety. However, this isn't a book that you read once, straight through and put away. I will be keeping this one on my shelf and pulling it out for days (and years) to come. I can already tell it's going to be like his others - books that I enjoy over and over again and gain something from every time I pick them up.

    I particularly appreciated (enjoyed isn't a word you'd want to use to describe this type of book, although it is so beautiful it's hard to say I didn't enjoy it) the way we see Lewis progress through his doubt. If you weren't aware, Lewis was a Christian and this book chronicles how he reconciles a loving God with the suffering and death of his dear wife. The book is divided into four parts, and Lewis progresses through anger at God, questioning of his faith, and the hurt from well-meaning friends quoting cliches in an effort to comfort him.

    The foreward by Madeleine L'Engle perfectly describes the book. She writes about how your experience with grief may not be the same as Lewis's, but you can identify with what he writes no matter how your experience differs. A Grief Observed is intensely personal, and makes no effort to document the human experience of grief or make any broad statements about the state of grief. Rather, it details one person's experience with the loss of his beloved. It is beautiful and touching and I promise you will not be sorry you read it.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Mon Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    Great for Grieving Individuals & Fans of Lewis

    Through the use of journals, A Grief Observed invites the reader into the mind of a grieving C.S. Lewis as he struggles in dealing with the tragic death of his wife. The four separate entries all portray the various stages of anguish that Lewis endures; as well as his constantly changing mindset as he draws certain beliefs into question. At the beginning of the book, the reader is met with a harsh criticism of religion and faith as Lewis criticizes God himself. He accuses God of being cruel and abandoning people when they need him the most. However, as the journals progress, the effects that grief has on Lewis's mind become more evident. Lewis slowly becomes a, "saner man" as his sorrow begins to fade. His thoughts become more reasonable throughout the story, and he even regrets making some of the harsh accusations he made previously in the journal. Ultimately, by the end of the book, the reader is able to sympathize with Lewis in his difficult struggle in dealing with his wife's tragic death from cancer.
    A Grief Observed isn't written like a traditional piece of nonfiction literature. As a matter of fact, the basic and simplified manner in which it is written actually adds to the experience of the reader. It gives the audience a clearer and more realistic view of some of the different emotions that Lewis was feeling during his grieving process. Personally, I read the book in one sitting and found it to be an easy read. As a fan of C.S. Lewis's fiction material, such as The Chronicles of Narnia, it was very interesting to see the author deal with a real-life situation, and read his mixed thoughts and feelings regarding the tragedy. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the reading the book. However, while most of the text was relatively easy to read, I did find that a few passages proved to be repetitive at times. For instance, in certain passages, Lewis repeats many of his same thoughts and tends to ramble on, but it is hard to criticize him for writing his honest feelings. Ultimately, I would recommend this book to anyone who has recently suffered from the loss of a loved one as I found this book to be comforting to read.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Sat Mar 12 00:00:00 EST 2011

    Honest!

    C. S. Lewis dares to rant, rave, question and complain. I loved it!

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Feb 02 00:00:00 EST 2000

    Comfort In Grief

    I read this a month after my own wife's death. I found Lewis's sharing of his grief to be comforting.I found his honesty to be refreshing. You do not needto be a Christian or religious to benefit from this book. I also enjoyed the afterword by Walsh. It helped to put Lewis's book into the context of his life.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    Every line was exactly what I was trying to get out, to explain,

    Every line was exactly what I was trying to get out, to explain, to understand myself.  I felt someone was in my mind, accurately getting my thoughts and feelings and observations out on paper.  It was such a relief to read...knowing I had not gone crazy, and was not alone!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    Very powerful

    C.S. Lewis expresses his grief no-holds-barred. Very realistic in expressing the despair, anger, and huge questions regarding suffering and why. His conclusions are not crystal clear as is the mystery of life itself not comprehendible, but it is a comfort to know someone has written so powerfully regarding loss.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Feb 22 00:00:00 EST 2013

    A Must-Read for the grief stricken

    This book is an achingly honest, raw, and heart-felt cry of pain that mirrors the experience of anyone struggling with grief and loss. The writing is lyrical, the emotions beautifully expressed. While he pulls no punches, the conclusion is utterly satisfying. Written by one of the greatest minds in history, it was a great comfort to me when I needed it the most.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Thu Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Honest and healing

    An honest look at grief and shows that he is "real". Really helped me deal and take a look at how I really feel about my grief and to be honest about it. A book for those grieving and ready to work on it

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    A Chase After Wind
    Bread Upon The Water

    A Moving Reflection

    CS Lewis' reflections and thoughts are beautifully and insightfully drawn. This work is more than a starting point for the hardship of gripping with what comes after death. Insightful.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 EDT 2009

    Answers for those who want to listen.

    The works of C.S. Lewis are remarkable in their volume as much as their depth. Lewis is not afraid to explore the difficult and reason within his faith for solutions. His discussions and prepositions are remarkably candid, taking so much in to introspect while not shrinking from faith or foundations. The read is more than helpful for life, whether one is dealing with grief or not. The truths are universal and applicable to life and death. His writing is as timeless as it is provocative. Few times in his in works is his heart more exposed.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Mon Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2009

    In times of grief

    Just what my husband needed when his mother passed away. What else can I say?

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    Suicidal

    ...

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    Request

    Kill Eternal Spectre please.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Mar 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Bios

    Hogwarts

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    Infernofrost

    I watch her leave, and l wait a few moments before disappearing.+Infernofrost

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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