These early activities led to Lewis's lifelong attraction to fantasy and mythology, often reflected in his writing. The fabulously successful Oxford-based fantasy novelist seems to Lewis to be the key to solving the bizarre murder of a beautiful woman with a mirror. The rest of the book is devoted to the English tradition, closing with a detailed study of Spenser, The Faerie Queene. The thematic trajectory that Lewis traces throughout all of these is the eventual conquest and domestication of courtly love by marriage. It was challenging and fascinating, and his great zeal for myth, language, literature, and the origin of language made it to be a fascinating read rather than merely a dull dry academic work- his academic works are incredibly exciting.

Allegory was used to take a feeling or part of oneself or someone else and give it flesh and a mouth and a brain so we could use it to reason and explore these emotions. This sort of writing, to me, gives a view of a sense of literature studies that we have really done away with in academia. His chapter on "The Faerie Queene" is regarded by some competent scholars as the foundation of modern study of the unfinished epic.Combined with a knowledge of church history, one can see how the courtly love transformed into romance leading to marriage. On the whole, I'm convinced - I plan to add Faerie Queen to my reading list, and count myself fortunate to have had the time and opportunity to read the Allegory of Love. As details of Marina’s past life and connections in Oxford come to light, the circle of suspects widens. HarperCollins has announced another edition, as a Kindle (and, I think, other ebook) for November 2013. Austen's enduring appeal and widespread influence can be found in our previews and reviews of the best novels, nonfiction books, and British period dramas.

The day after Crane's book launch party, reality shatters the celebratory mood when a young Czech barmaid is found dead by the river, savagely murdered with an antique Persian mirror. I think it was especially important to read this book because allegory is on the rise again but this time surfacing in rap and slam poetry. This is a magnificent essay, but I am going to disagree with some of Lewis’s main conclusions, which we will see below. One of the many suspects, Jem Wishart, looked quite familiar but I couldn't quite place him - I just looked up the actor on the IMDB, and Wishart was played by Adrian Lukis, who played Wickham in what is commonly known in my world as the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice.

I read it to mine the nuggets of Lewis wisdom scattered through the dry strata of Latin, Greek, French and Middle English. I've got to say I enjoyed watching Mison stretch his acting chops here - he's definitely an actor to watch IMO. Actually, his character here isn't really improved from his famous turn as Wickham - morally Wishart is just as much of a mess, only meeker. It is probably of interest to note that, according to Lewis himself, the "Chronicles of Narnia" did NOT arise from his studies of allegory, and that their allegorical implications arose spontaneously in his mind.

If your main interest is the poetry, I believe they can be skipped with no diminution of understanding. This work opens a world as different to us as the wildest science fiction or fantasy of Lewis and his friend and colleague Tolkien. The pair were extremely close and they took full advantage of this freedom, learning on their own and frequently enjoying games of make-believe.The Allegory of love ist ein wissenschafliches Werk von ihm als Professor in der Literaturwissenschaft. It is of the very nature of thought and language to represent what is immaterial in picturable terms. For anyone who wants to see another side of Lewis, his scholarship is much different from his theology and fantasy stories.