The Discarded Image
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| The Discarded Image | |
First edition cover |
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| Author | C. S. Lewis |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Literary criticism |
| Genre(s) | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Publication date | 1964 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 242 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature is non-fiction and the last book written by C. S. Lewis. Multilayered, it is on one level a work that deals with medieval cosmology and the Ptolemaic universe, the "model" of the world used by the medievals - "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe."[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Themes
The central themes of the book include the structure of the medieval universe, the nature of its inhabitants, the notion of a finite universe, ordered and maintained by a celestial hierarchy, and the ideas of nature. At the same time, Lewis takes his reader on a tour of some of the pinnacles of medieval thought (some of them inherited from Classical Paganism) that have survived into the modern cultural and theological landscape.
[edit] Selected reviews
Several reviews of the book were positive, for example,
- "Wise, illuminating, companionable, it may well come to be seen as Lewis’ s best book." The Observer[citation needed]
- "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind."[citation needed]
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- Burrow, John (1965). "The Model Universe". Essays in Criticism XV (2): 207–211. Oxford University Press. doi:.
- Mader, Eric (2005). The Discarded Image: C.S. Lewis' Short Course on the Middle Ages. Necessary Prose.
- J. A. Burrow (Winter, 1979). "The Alterity of Medieval Literature - Medieval Literature and Contemporary Theory". New Literary History 10 (2): 385–390.

