“C.S. Lewis’s Oxford” by Simon Horobin

The university city of Oxford will likely forever be linked with two authors – C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. It was where they studied as undergraduates, made their academic careers, lived most of their lives, and wrote their most famous works. Lewis would spend his final academic years teaching at Cambridge University, but he commuted back to Oxford on weekends. Oxford holds a special connection to both authors, and a special connection for their fans, admirers, and readers. 

Simon Horobin, a professor of English Language and Literature and a Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College, Oxford, has drawn a fine portrait of Oxford and what it meant in the life of Lewis in, appropriately enough entitled, C.S. Lewis’s Oxford, published, also appropriately enough, by Bodleian Library Publishing. If you’re a fan of Lewis and hi writings, or even a fan of Tolkien, this book is a treasure of information, insight, and illlustrations.

 

Horobin describes the buildings and institutions associated with Lewis in Oxford and what they were like at the time Lewis knew them. He studied and received his degree at University College. He taught for decades at Magdalen College. He lived and attended church in suburban Headington, where fans still make pilgrimages to see his home The Kilns and Holy Trinity Church, where he worshipped and is buried in the cemetery. The Eagle and Child pub is forever associated with Lewis, Tolkien, and the other members of the Inklings as the place where works in progress like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia were first read aloud. 

 

Simon Horobin

The Eastgate Hotel on High Street near Merton College was where Lewis and Tolkien often ate and drank together, and where Lewis first met Joy Davidman in person. For many years, Lewis was president of Somerville College for women, organizing lectures and programs. St. Mary’s Passage, which runs alongside the University Church of St. Mary’s and Brasenose College, has a credible claim for inspiring the streetlamp scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Horobin includes chapters on Cambridge, which is almost an “Oxford without Lewis,” discussion, and on “Global Lews,” about the collections of Lewis manuscripts, papers, and atrifacts in such places as the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago and the C.S. Lewis Foundation in Redlands, California. 

 

And accompanying the text are 31 color plates and numerous photographs and maps.

 

Horobin, a grsduate of the Universty of Sheffield, has written numerous books and articles on such subjects as Chaucer and his language, early English, spelling, the importance of philology for Tolkien and Lewis, medieval literature, scribes and guilds, Piers Plowman, and many other related topics. He’s also served as the honorary secretary for the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature.

 

If you’re a fan or Lewis, or even only of Oxford, this book is a delight.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“Your Friend, Wendell”: A 90^th Birthday Tribute to Wendell Berry – Library of America. 

 

Late Victorian London in Photos – A London Inheritance. 

 

‘Blasphemers on Pogo Sticks’ and the Art of Making People Laugh – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

 

8 Books You Didn’t Know Were Originally Self-Published – Ellen Gutoskey at Mental Floss.