The Inklings
C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends
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The Inklings
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Narrated by:
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Bernard Mayes
About this listen
During the 1930s at Oxford, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams - remarkable friends, writers, and scholars - met regularly to discuss philosophy and literature and to read aloud from their own works in progress. Calling themselves the Inklings, their circle grew. It was in this company that such classics as The Lord of the Rings, The Screwtape Letters, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first found an audience.
Author Humphrey Carpenter was born in Oxford and was acquainted with Tolkien, Hugo Dyson, and several other Inklings. In this remarkable reconstruction of their meetings and momentous friendships, Carpenter brings to life those warm and enchanting evenings in Lewis' rooms at Magdalen College, when their imaginations ran wild. His account offers exciting insights into the influence these brilliant individuals had on each other's developing ideas and writing.
©1990 Humphrey Carpenter (P)1990 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Inklings
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris Casey
- 23-07-22
Insightful account of the Inklings
Carpenter gives a number of key insights that gave me a good understanding of the flow if thinking that threw up such a lively spirituality.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Susanne Kirwan
- 14-03-22
a pleasant historic story well told,
I would fecommend it for the English, but also the story. I learned a lot and enjoyed the glinpse into academia in old England.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-07-18
fascinating
A really fascinating and informative biography and analysis of some great 20th century writers. We listened in rapt attention right to the end.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Miriam W.
- 02-11-19
Unsympathetic to Christianity
I was very interested in this book, which was well read and pleasant to listen to. The facts of these men’s lives and their stories are fascinating. However, Humphrey Carpenter appears sympathetic with all of his characters except Lewis, whom he seems to feel himself on a mission to ‘reveal’ as less worthy than other biographies have painted him. His supposed revelations are unsympathetic, unperceptive and occasionally ridiculous- as for example his wholly unnecessary and clearly untrue suggestion that Lewis’s marriage might not have been consummated. Worse, he is blind to God and things of the spirit, and almost all of his assumptions about Christianity - and therefore Lewis’s beliefs - are wrong-headed.
I still value this book for its biographical evocation of an era and an elite society within that era, but I gradually had to learn to disregard many of its supposed insights.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Xander
- 05-05-18
Comprehensive with a strong argument
A well written study of the Inkings where the argument is made and justified that C.S. Lewis was the reason for their formation and essentially the glue that held them together. With making this argument, the book at times turns more into a biography of Lewis, touching moderately on Charles Williams and sparingly on Tolkien. Overall, a comprehensive study essential to anyone interested in Lewis, Tolkien, Williams or the Inklings as a group.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mike Dunn
- 06-03-24
Interesting insights
This book shines an interesting (if at times a bit of a scholarly or literary) light on several interlinked personalities involved in what can only be considered one of the most impactful literary milieux of the 20th century, the effects of their individual efforts in varying degrees still reaching us today.
The book has a heavy focus on CS Lewis and in lesser degree on Charles Williams, even less so on Tolkien, but the overall effect is a thoroughly insightful look into how these men did (and didn't) impact eachothers creative processes and personal philosophies, the take away one has is that we should feel a great deal of gratitude for their continued friendships and encouragement of one anothers genius, without this at times chaotic intermarriage of minds so many of the works we love or may still come to discover may never have seen print.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- lafemmefrugal
- 29-04-24
I Was Sorry To Come To The End
It has been wonderful to get a glimpse of the world of C S Lewis & J R R Tolkein. Excellent all round.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 06-08-23
A chore
A few things about this, my own humble opinion:
1: The narrator doesn’t hold your attention. He speaks so slowly and is quite monotone that there were many times I drifted off thinking about something else. Found listening to speed 1.7 helped. Also, it doesn’t help that this is not a new recording. This is from a taped recording from 1990 and it sounds like it.
2: I had been looking forward to a book about the Inklings for a few years. Unfortunately, this isn’t about the Inklings really, but mainly about Lewis.
3: Around halfway through the book it dips into pure fiction in a chapter that’s well over an hour listen, and that, for me, was the point where I almost decided to ditch this thing.
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