This is worth sending to William O'Flaherty, whose collected misquotes - supposedly by Lewis.

He's on Facebook
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This is worth sending to William O'Flaherty, whose collected misquotes - supposedly by Lewis.

I suspect someone has already shown it to him. Or if they haven't yet, they will soon.

So-o-o, I just received this book as a Christmas present. That quote was glaring me in the face almost as soon as I opened it! While I have been curious about Becoming Mrs. Lewis, there are some significant red flags going up ... this quote being one of them. Another flag is that I do not see any recognized Lewis scholars endorsing at the front of the book.

I'm going to read it sometime in the New Year, but I am already apprehensive about the author related to this particular subject matter.

How far have you read, Col Klink?

Indeed, William O'Flaherty is the man. His book, The Misquotable C.S. Lewis: What He Didn’t Say, What He Actually Said, and Why It Matters is in our Lewis library, and is quite fascinating. And disturbing. Sure glad he has written such a book.

I wasn't really planning to read the book, Johobbit. I'm not that interested in biographies or romance novels. But I'm a fan of Till We Have Faces which was dedicated to Joy Davidman. So when I happened on the book in a bookstore, I thought I'd glance at it. I was in a hurry though so I only read a couple of pages.

It'd be interesting to see if the book talks about Till We Have Faces and any connections between her life and it. I hope you enjoy the book. Or if you don't, I hope you can enjoy making fun of it. Feel free to do so on this forum so I can join you.

It's a deal.

I have no interest in romance novels, but biography is my favourite genre. However, this seems much more like the former, from the brief glance I have had. And it is written in 1st person, which I usually don't enjoy.

I'll keep an eye open for any references to Till We Have Faces.

I must admit I am not going into reading it with a very positive impression.

;))
I must admit I am not going into reading it with a very positive impression.

Did you read it? Thoughts? Someone said I should get it but we thought it was an actual biography. I did not even look at it yet.

I have not yet, fledge1. There are so many books ahead of it that I would rather read. But I will sometime, and post here after I do. Might be a year or so from now though. I prefer bios to novels, and this one is the latter, so I keep putting off picking it up.

I flipped through it at Hobby Lobby this weekend. (The misquote at the beginning made me remember this thread.) Mind you, I didn't read it thoroughly, but what I did see made me think it was a little... forced. Callahan was basically trying to fictionalize Jack and Joy's relationship, with a lot of made-up dialogue interjected between paraphrases of Lewis quotes. Their letters were there, but I wasn't sure if they were real ones or not. One or two sounded like passages from Mere Christianity. But that could just be because Lewis was the author of both the letters and the book.
Overall my impression was somewhat negative. But maybe you'll like it anyway.

Wow, that is some misquote. You would think writer's would try to get their facts straight before they publish. Or at least their editors would try and do some research, they are editors after all. I'm curious to know what the book is about. I didn't ever hear of it. Though I don't know if I'd actually pay money for it, with a misquote like that it doesn't sound very promising.

If you ever get around to reading it, Jo, please share what you thought. (If that's not asking too much)

And it's amazing how much poor C.S. Lewis gets misquoted

I suppose I should say that the main character is supposed to be Joy Davidman, not C. S. Lewis. So it would have been worse if they misquoted her.

If the author called her Joy Davidman, that wasn't correct, as she was still Joy Gresham.

We've been talking to the publisher. This misquote will be removed from the 2020 paperback edition.

That's good to hear; were they doing it anyway, or did you persuade them?

I agree, good to hear!

On the topic of Becoming Mrs Lewis, I was wondering, has anyone here read it? I read a favourable review of it online and was intrigued, but I'm wondering whether it would be worth the read — it could be a wonderful imagined insight into a truly great relationship, or a load of invented tosh, or anything in between, after all.

If any NarniaWebbers have read it, what did you think, and would you recommend it to others?