A C. S. Lewis classic born from the conviction that literature exists for the delight of the reader and that books should be judged by the kind of reading they invite.
Clive Lewis argues that "good reading," like moral action or religious experience, involves surrendering to the work in question and a process of fully entering into the opinions of others: "in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself." Central to his idea of judging literature is the commitment to set aside expectations and values external to the work, approaching it with an open mind.
Amidst the complex tangle of current critical theories, C. S. Lewis's wisdom is refreshingly realistic and thought-provoking in the questions it raises about the experience of reading in this classic, An Experiment in Criticism.
