Essays

This page catalogues all of the essays written by C.S. Lewis over the course of his life.

• Audio: Most of these essays can be listened to on the “C. S. Lewis Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces” audiobook. The chapter and timestamp is included in the first column. Many of the tracks from this audiobook have been uploaded to the CSLewisEssays YouTube channel. If it is available, the first column has been hyperlinked.

• Publication: The original date of publication

• Essay Title: Links to podcast episodes which discuss these essays are provided after the essay name, principally the Lesser Known Lewis (LKL) podcast, the Wade Center Podcast (WCP), Essential C.S. Lewis (ECSL), The C.S. Lewis Podcast (TCSLP), Inklings Variety Hour (IVH) and Mere C.S. Lewis (MCSL).

• Essay Collection: Many of Lewis’ essays have been published in multiple collections. The final column indicates in which books the essay may be found. A key is found at the bottom of the page.

We also thoroughly recommend the reading of Brenton Dickieson’s article How to Read All of C.S. Lewis’ Essays.

Audio	Publication	Essay Title	Essay Collection
29:52:43 (Ch. 103)	1944	A Dream (LKL)	Comp, EC, EC1, PC
	1939	A Lectionary of Christian Prose from the Second Century to the Twentieth Century	I&I
	1932	A Note on Comus	SMRL
	1954	A Note on Jane Austen	SLE
	1958	A Panegyric for Dorothy L. Sayers	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
	1946	A Reply to Professor Haldane	OS, OOW, OTOW
	1939	A Sacred Poem: Charles Williams, Taliessin Through Logres	I&I
	1956	A Slip of the Tongue (LKL 1 | LKL 2)	EC, EC2, Toast, WoG
	1955	A Tribute to E.R. Eddison	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
	1937	A World for Children: Tolkien, The Hobbit	EC, EC1, I&I, OS, OTOW
	1945	Addison (1945)	SLE
	1945	After priggery… what?	EC, EC2, PC
	1959	After Ten Years	DT, EC, EC1, OOW
	1962	Ajax and others: John Jones, On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy (1962)	I&I
	1953	Alan M.F. Gunn, The Mirror of Love: A Reinterpretation of The Romance of the Rose	I&I
	1943	Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love	I&I
	1944	Answers to Questions on Christianity	Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Timeless, Und
	1960	Arthuriana: Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative Study	I&I
	1929	Arundell Esdaile, The Sources of English Literature	I&I
	1961	Before We Can Communicate	1&TT, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
	1956	Behind the Scenes	Dock+, EC, EC1, Reunion, Und
26:19:09 (Ch. 89)	1944	Blimpophobia (LKL)	EC, EC1, PC
–	1936	Bluspels and Flalanspheres: A Semantic Nightmare (LKL 1 | LKL 2 | MJC-1, MJC-2)	Rehab, SLE
	1961	Boswell’s Bugbear: Sir John Hawkins, The Life of Samuel Johnson	I&I
25:43:51 (Ch. 85)	1941	Bulverism (WCP)	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
	1945	Charles Walter Stasby Williams (1886-1945): An obituary	I&I
	1946	Charles Williams, Taliessin Through Logres	I&I
06:29:46 (Ch. 19)	1945	Christian Apologetics (WCP)	Comp, Dock+, EC, EC2, Timeless, GM, Und
	1944	Christian Reunion	EC, EC2, Reunion
03:01:23 (Ch. 10)	1940	Christianity and Culture (WCP)	CR, EC, EC2, SE
18:07:12 (Ch. 56)	1939	Christianity and Literature (WCP)	CR, EC, EC1, Rehab, SE
33:24:21 (Ch. 118)	1939	Conditions for a Just War (LKL)	Letter
	1963	Cross-Examination	Dock+, EC, EC1, GM, Reunion, Und
13:12:04 (Ch. 35)	1940	Dangers of National Repentance (LKL 1 | LKL 2)	Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Reunion, Und
	1940	Dante’s Similes	SMRL
	1957	Dante’s Statius	SMRL
	1958	De Audiendis Poetis	SMRL
–	1954	De Descriptione Temporum (WCP)	Paper, SLE
29:14:25 (Ch. 102)	1943	De Futilitate (WCP)	CR, EC, EC1, PC
	1957	Delinquents in the Snow	Dock+, EC, EC1, Reunion, Und
	1944	Democratic Education	Comp, EC, EC1, PC
	1940	Denis de Rougemont, Poetry and Society	I&I
	1946	Different Tastes in Literature	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
05:18:54 (Ch. 14)	1943	Dogma and the Universe (TCSLP | WCP)	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1938	Donne and Love Poetry in the Seventeenth Century	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1941	Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker	SLE
	1947	Douglas Bush, Paradise Lost in Our Time: Some Comments	I&I
	1934	E.K. Chambers, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Some Collected Studies (1934)	I&I
	1954	Edmund Spenser, 1552-99	SMRL
29:05:59 (Ch. 101)	1943	Equality (LKL)	Comp, EC, EC1, PC
	1962	Eros on the loose: David Loth, The Erotic in Literature	I&I
	1928	Evelyn Waugh, Rossetti: His Life and Works	I&I
	1941	Evil and God	Dock+, EC, EC2, Reunion, Und
28:29:54 (Ch. 99)	1942	First and Second Things (TCSLP | WCP)	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
	1955	Forward to Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments	I&I
	1966	Forms of Things Unknown	DT, EC, EC1, OOW
	1961	Four-Letter Words	SLE
	1950	G.A.L. Burgeon (=Owen Barfield), This Ever Diverse Pair	I&I
	1936	Genius and Genius	SMRL
	1955	George Orwell	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
	1948	God in the Dock	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1959	Good Work and Good Works	EC, EC2, Toast, WLN
	1929	H.W. Garrod, Collins	I&I
None Available	1942	Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem (ECSL)	Paper, SLE
	1945	Hedonics	Comp, EC, EC1, PC
	1941	Helen M. Barrett, Boethius: Some Aspects of his Times and Work	I&I
	1952	Hero and Leander	SLE
	1939	High and Low Brows	EC, EC1, Rehab, SLE
	1950	Historicism	CR, EC, EC1, FE, SE
05:42:43 (Ch. 15)	1944	Horrid Red Things (ECSL)	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1951	Howard Rollin Patch, The Other World, According to Descriptions in Medieval Literature	I&I
	1928	Hugh Kingsmill, Matthew Arnold	I&I
	Unpublished	Image and Imagination	I&I
	1948	Imagery in the Last Eleven Cantos of Dante’s Comedy	SMRL
	1956	Imagination and Thought in the Middle Ages	SMRL
	1956	Interim Report	EC, EC1, PC
	1963	Introduction from Selections from Lazamon’s Brut	I&I
	1994	Is English Doomed	Comp, EC, EC1, PC
	1957	Is History Bunk?	Comp, EC, EC1, PC
02:25:09 (Ch. 7)	1952	Is theism important? (TCSLP | WCP)	Comp, Dock+, EC, EC2, Timeless, Und
00:21:25 (Ch. 2)	1944	Is theology poetry? (ECSL| TCSLP | LKL 1 | LKL 2)	EC, EC2, Paper, Toast, WoG
	1960	It All Began With A Picture…	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
	1944	J.W.H. Atkins, English Literary Criticism: The Medieval Phase	I&I
	1960	John Vyvyan, Shakespeare and the Rose of Love	I&I
	1948	Kipling’s World	Paper, SLE
25:20:03 (Ch. 84)	1939	Learning in War-time (CSYSK | ECSL | LKL | WCP)	EC, EC1, FE, Trans, WoG
	1938	Leone Ebreo, The Philosophy of Love (Dialoghi d’Amore)	I&I
16:17:21 (Ch. 49)	1955	Lillies That Fester (ESC)	EC, EC2, Paper, Reunion, WLN
	1941	Logan Pearsall Smith, Milton and his Modern Critics	I&I
	?	Lucretius	I&I
	1960	M. Pauline Parker, The Allegory of the Faerie Queene	I&I
	1946	Man or Rabbit?	EC, EC2, Dock, Dock+, GM, Und
26:34:16 (Ch. 91)	1945	Meditation in a Tool Shed (ECSL | TCSLP | WCP | LKL 1 & LKL 2)	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
13:24:01 (Ch. 37)	1941	Meditation on the Third Commandment (ECSL | LKL)	Dock+, EC, EC2, Reunion, Und
14:48:58 (Ch. 42)	1945	Membership (LKL | WCP)	EC, EC2, FE, Trans, WoG
	1960	Metre	SLE
	1958	Ministering Angels	DT, EC, EC1, OOW
	1942	Miracles	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
20:21:27 (Ch. 63)	1946	Miserable Offenders (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	Dock+, EC, EC1, Reunion, Und
	1946	Modern Man and His Categories of Thought	EC, EC1, PC
10:49:29 (Ch. 31)	1959	Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism / Fern-seeds and Elephants (ECSL 1 | ESCL 2)	CR, EC, EC1, FE, SE
	1947	Modern Translations of the Bible	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC1, GM, Und
	1963	Must Our Image of God Go?	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, Und
	1943	My First School	EC, EC1, PC
06:10:10 (Ch. 17)	1944	Myth became fact (ECSL | TCSLP)	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1961	Neoplatonism in the Poetry of Spenser
	1962	Odysseus sails again: The Odyssey	I&I
	1945	Oliver Elton (1861-1945): An obituary	I&I
	1949	On Church Music	CR, EC, EC1, EC2
	1957	On Criticism	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
	1942	On Ethics	CR, EC, EC2, SE
08:08:09 (Ch. 23)	1947	On Forgiveness (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	EC, EC2, FE, WoG
	1958	On Juvenile Tastes	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
16:02:00 (Ch. 48)	1948	On Living in an Atomic Age (LKL | TCSLP | WCP)	Comp, EC, EC2, PC
	1953	On Obstinacy in Belief	EC, EC2, Paper, Toast, WLN
	1955	On Science Fiction	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
21:27:16 (Ch. 70)	1940	On Stories (ESCL 1 | ECSL 2)	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
19:16:58 (Ch. 59)	1945	On the Reading of Old Books (WCP)	1&2T, Dock+, EC, EC1, GM, Und
	1946	On the Transmission of Christianity	1&2T, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
22:10:34 (Ch. 71)	1952	On Three Ways of Writing for Children (ECSL)	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
	1939	Our English Syllabus	I&I, Rehab
21:17:03 (Ch. 69)	1946	Period Criticism (ECSL)	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
08:43:20 (Ch. 25)	1953	Petitionary Prayer: A Problem Without an Answer (LKL)	CR, EC, EC2, SE
	1962	Poetry and Exegesis: Harold Bloom, The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry	I&I
	1947	Preface from Essays Presented to Charles Williams	I&I
	1960	Preface to Austin Farrer, A Faith of Our Own	I&I
	1948	Priestesses in the Church?	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, Und
26:26:26 (Ch. 90)	1944	Private Bates (LKL)	EC, EC1, PC
	1955	Prudery and Philology	Comp, EC, EC1, PC
–	1942	Psycho-Analysis and Literary Criticism (ECSL | LKL 1 & LKL 2)	Paper, SLE
	1958	Rejoinder to Dr. Pittenger	Dock+, Timeless, Und
10:19:15 (Ch. 29)	1958	Religion and Rocketry / Will We Lose God in Outer Space (LKL | IVH | PWJ | IVH)	EC, EC2, FE, WLN
	1945	Religion and Science	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1946	Religion without Dogmas?	Comp, Dock+, Ec, EC2, Timeless, GM, Und
	1941	Religion: Reality or Substitute?	CR, EC, EC2, SE
	1958	Revival or Decay?	1&2T, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
	1963	Rhyme and reason: Dorothy L. Sayers, The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement	I&I
	1934	Ruth Mohl, The Three Estates in Medieval and Renaissance Literature	I&I
15:26:43 (Ch. 44)	1945	Scraps (LKL)	Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Reunion, Und
32:48:10 (Ch. 117)	1959	Screwtape Proposes a Toast (ECSL)	EC, Toast, WLN
	1949	Selected Sermons: A Selection from the Occasional Sermons of Ronald Arbuthnott Knox	I&I
	1962	Sex in Literature	EC, EC1, PC
	1939	Shelley, Dryden, and Mr. Eliot	Rehab, SLE
	1956	Sir Walter Scott	Paper, SLE
31:58:20 (Ch. 112)	1948	Some Thoughts (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	1&2T, Dock+, EC, EC1, GM, Und
23:07:31 (Ch. 74)	1956	Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said (ECSL)	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
	1963	Spenser’s Cruel Cupid	SMRL
	1934	T.R. Henn, Longinus and English Criticism	I&I
	1946	Talking about Bicycles (MWC)	EC, EC1, PC
	1946	Tasso	SMRL
	1935	The Alliterative Metre	Rehab, SLE
–	1962	The Anthropological Approach (TWC)	SLE
	1938	The Dark Tower	DT, EC, EC1
	1944	The Death of Words	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
	1946	The Decline of Religion	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
10:35:42 (Ch. 30)	1959	The Efficacy of Prayer (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	EC, EC2, FE, WLN
	1952	The Empty Universe	EC, EC1, PC
	1963	The English Prose Morte	I&I
	1939	The Fifteenth-Century Heroic Line	SLE
	1943	The Founding of the Oxford Socratic Club	Dock+, EC, EC1, Timeless, Und
	1945	The Funeral of a Great Myth (MWC)	CR, EC, EC2, SE
	1963	The Genesis of a Medieval Book	SMRL
00:00:00 (Ch. 1)	1945	The Grand Miracle (TCSLP | WCP)	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1949	The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
	1939	The Idea of an ‘English School’	I&I, Rehab
31:26:45 (Ch. 110)	1944	The Inner Ring (WCP)	EC, EC1, Paper, Toast, Trans, WoG
11:25:59 (Ch. 32)	1960	The Language of Religion (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	CR, EC, EC2, SE
	1945	The Laws of Nature	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1950	The Literary Impact of the Authorized Version	Paper, SLE
34:01:01 (Ch. 130)	1928	The Man Born Blind (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	DT, EC, EC1
	1960	The Mythopoeic Gift of Rider Haggard / Haggard Rides Again: Morton Cohen, Rider Haggard: His Life and Works	EC, EC1, I&I, OS, OTOW
	1947	The Morte D’Arthur	SMRL
31:17:41 (Ch. 109)	1940	The necessity of Chivalry (ECSL | LKL | MCSL)	EC, EC1, PC
	1940	The Necessity of Chivalry	EC, EC1, PC
	1949	The Novels of Charles Williams	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
	1941	The Oxford Book of Christian Verse	I&I
	1950	The Pains of Animals	Comp, Dock+, Ec, EC2, Timeless, Und
	1944	The Parthenon and the Optative	EC, EC1, OS, OTOW
	1943	The Poison of Subjectivism	CR, EC, EC1, SE
09:40:18 (Ch. 28)	1957	The Psalms (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	CR, EC, EC2, SE
	1937	The Sagas and Modern Life – Morris, Mr. Yeats, and the originals: Dorothy M. Hoare, The Works of Morris and of Yeats in Relation to Early Saga Literature	I&I
02:35:45 (Ch. 8)	1963	The Seeing Eye (ECSL | LKL | WCP)	CR, EC, EC2, SE
	1945	The Sermon and the Lunch	1&2T, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1956	The Shoddy Lands	DT, EC, EC1, OOW
15:51:47 (Ch. 47)	1948	The Trouble with “X” (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
–	1962	The Vision of John Bunyan (ECSL)	SLE
04:14:07 (Ch. 12)	1941	The Weight of Glory (LKL 1 & LKL 2 | LKL 3 | LKL 4 | LKL 5 | TCSLP | WCP)	EC, EC2, Paper, Toast, Trans, WoG
	1951	The World’s Last Night / Christian Hope – Its Meaning for Today	EC, EC2, FE, WLN
	1943	Three Kinds of Men (LKL)	Comp, EC, EC2, PC
	1937 1954 1955	Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings The gods return to earth: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring The Dethronement of Power: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers	EC, EC1, I&I, OS, OTOW
	1962	Tragic Ends: George Steiner, The Death of Tragedy	I&I
11:58:42 (Ch. 33)	1944	Transposition (WCP)	EC, EC2, Paper, Toast, Trans, WoG
	1945	Two Lectures	1&2T, Dock+, EC, EC1, Und
13:19:02 (Ch. 36)	1940	Two Ways with the Self (LKL)	Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Reunion, Und
	1962	Unreal Estates	EC, EC1, OOW, OS, OTOW
	1939	Variation in Shakespeare and Others	Rehab, SLE
	1947	Vivisection	1&2T, Comp, Dock+, EC, EC1, GM, Und
	1928	W.P. Ker, Form and Style in Poetry: Lectures and Notes	I&I
	1963	We Have No ‘Right to Happiness’	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, Und
	1957	Werner Schwarz, Principles and Problems of Biblical Translation	I&I
	1950	What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?	Dock, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1932	What Chaucer Really Did to Il Filostrato	SLE
	1957	What Christmas Means to Me	Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Reunion, Und
	1945	Who gaf me drink?: Owen Barfield, Romanticism Comes of Age	I&I
12:34:04 (Ch. 34)	1940	Why I am not a pacifist (LKL)	Comp, EC, EC2, Timeless, WoG
	1937	William Morris	Rehab, SLE
32:33:40 (Ch. 116)	1958	Willing Slaves of the Welfare State / Is Progress Possible? (ECSL)	Comp, Dock+, EC, EC1, Timeless, Und+
07:04:21 (Ch. 20)	1945	Work and Prayer (LKL 1 & LKL 2)	1&2T, Dock+, EC, EC2, GM, Und
	1954	Xmas and Christmas	1&2T, Cmop, Dock+, EC, Und

Abbreviations

More information about Lewis’ essays can be found at Lewisian.nl.