C.S. Lewis, Poetry, and the Great War 1914-1918 [Paperback]

This important book is a much-needed analysis of C.S. Lewiss youth, experiences in the Great War, and early poetry. It is clear-sighted and vigorously written, and a welcome corrective to assumptions that have crept into some writing about this period in Lewiss life. Bremers premise that Lewis was a poet influenced by war but not a war-poet is a sound one, well supported by comparisons to Graves and Sassoon. ?While not affording Spirits in Bondage more importance than its proper due as a young mans ambitious first attempt at a poetry cycle, Bremers thorough discussion of each poem grants us great insight into the pre-conversion Lewiss character, so different from the mature fantasist and Christian apologist with whom so many readers are familiar.This is a fresh reading of C. S. Lewiss service in WWI as well as a helpful discussion of the poetry Lewis wrote during this time.This book's title is an accurate guide to its contents, but Brenner also includes brief biographies of Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, and an account of Lewis's adulterous affair. Bremer's account of the poetry Lewis wrote during this dark period in English history is excellent. Besides his commentary on the poetry, the author provides interesting insights into the English Public School system and why its necessarily homosexual atmosphere seems to have been such an important factor in the lives of its students. The discussion of Lewis's pre-conversion years, his atheism, and his first volume of poetry, Spirits in Bondage (1919), is excellent. (Spirits in Bondage is not war poetry and now mostly forgotten.) The author's intent is to show that Lewis was a good man despite contrary evidence. Lewis's atheism may have been connected to the problem of evil in the world. His literary ambition never left him, but he did become a popular apologist for Christianity. Good bibliography. Well written and well researched. Summing Up: Recommended.Bremers book overall is a valuable study of Lewlc,