The Great Divorce

C.S. Lewis' dazzling afterlife fantasy is one of his most compelling tales. The title is a reference to William Blake's work "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", in which the visionary poet depicted the necessary and ultimate reconciliation of Good (limiting order) and Evil (exuberant dynamism). Contra Blake, Lewis asserts that an enduring chasm - the Divorce - prevails between these cosmic polarities. The anonymous narrator begins in Hell, which resembles our own world in its sinister banality, and catches an outward bound bus along with a motley collection of fellow passengers. Their encounters with the inhabitants of a gorgeously tangible Heaven demonstrate that those who remain in Hell choose to do so, while the way to God - "further up and further in" - is always open to those who would take it, no matter how wretched their condition. THE GREAT DIVORCE remains in the mind like a vivid dream - whimsical, wry, yet profoundly serious. At a time when books about "real life" visits to Heaven (and Hell!) contend for the reader's attention, Lewis' engaging vision of our eternal abode stands out as a wonderful example of fictive imagery used in the service of greater truths.128 pages, from Harper Collins.

Publisher Description

C.S. Lewis's dazzling allegory about heaven and hell and the chasm fixed between them, is one of his most brilliantly imaginative tales, as he takes issue with the ideas in William Blakes's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In a dream, the narrator finds himself in the grey limbo of Hell, where the disgruntled and ghostly inhabitants take a bus-ride to the plains of Heaven, where they meet angels and the souls of those already in Heaven. This striking fable portrays Hell as small and shrunken, less substantial than Heaven, which is bright and solid and the ultimate Reality. The occupants of Hell can never become part of Heaven, for their spiritual blindness prevents them from entering into its glorious reality. They prefer their own shrunken version of reality, to the joy which could be theirs. This powerful, exquisitely written fantasy is one of C.S. Lewis's most enduring works of fiction. As ever, Lewis communicates deep spiritual truths through the sheer power of the fantastic.