9780062342751
Play Sample

The Great Divorce audiobook

(42 ratings)
33% Cheaper than Audible
Get for $0.00
  • $9.99 per book vs $14.95 at Audible
    Good for any title to download and keep
  • Listen at up to 4.5x speed
    Good for any title to download and keep
  • Fall asleep to your favorite books
    Set a sleep timer while you listen
  • Unlimited listening to our Classics.
    Listen to thousands of classics for no extra cost. Ever
Loading ...
Regular Price: 4.99 USD

The Great Divorce Audiobook Summary

C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.

Other Top Audiobooks

The Great Divorce Audiobook Narrator

Julian Rhind-Tutt is the narrator of The Great Divorce audiobook that was written by C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and have been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podría decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crítica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teología popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo.

About the Author(s) of The Great Divorce

C. S. Lewis is the author of The Great Divorce

Subjects

The publisher of the The Great Divorce is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Christian, Classic & Allegory, Fiction

Additional info

The publisher of the The Great Divorce is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062342751.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Mike (the Paladin)

June 19, 2012

One of my favorite (if not my favorite) C. S. Lewis works (and I am a C. S. Lewis fan). The insight in this book about God and man's relationship with Him is wonderful.I suppose that many who read this will already know that I'm a Christian. I won't belabor it, if you're interested I'm happy to discuss if you don't want to I won't push my thoughts on you.This is a very readable book and while I suppose the Christian aspects will be obvious it is also possible to simply read the book as a novel. There are some overt "teaching sections" but the book is constructed as a fantasy story told from a narrator's point of view. I've read novels from the point of view of other religions and didn't suffer or find myself suborned into some belief against my will, so I don't think non-Christians would necessarily have a problem with the book. As to Christians I believe most will enjoy this book and find an (strangely when some of it is considered) uplifting story that is also thought provoking, enlightening and even instructional. If you are a non-Christian or even irreligious you might try it and see if you can approach it as a fantasy...that is up to each reader of course.On the religious and philosophical front, the title is a response to Blake's, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and though the book isn't a direct answer to this work it provides a contrasting and opposed view. Blake's work was written long before this one (1793) and is not as well know as this book. It's not at all necessary to have read it to enjoy this work. I only include this piece of information because I know some will be curious about the title. Finally (and again), yes this is a Christian book and if you are a Christian and approach it so I believe it's possible to get much from this short read. In studying the Triune-God and wanting, hoping for even a little more understanding about His plan for us and the provision He has made this book was/is (for me) amazing. C.S. Lewis was a wise man and close to God, and he left us an abundance of that wisdom (from God)in his writings.Highest recommendation.

Anne

July 12, 2008

I LOVE reading everything C.S. Lewis. I read this book a few years ago and I couldn't put it down. The section of the book that stands out most to me is when the main character observes a conversation between two people (one who lives in heaven and one who is just visiting to see what it is like). The one who lives in heaven had killed someone while he was living on earth and the person visiting could not believe that the murderer had actually made it to heaven-The visiting man basically decided that he didn't want to go to heaven if this man was going to be there...and so he left and returned to hell. I thought it was very thought provoking especially at that time in my life where I was working through trying to know if I "should" try to forgive a certain someone in our family who had done some things that were, well to say the least, seemingly unforgivable. I have often pondered on this question since I read this book: Do I believe in the atonement enough to believe that even a "murderer" could be forgiven and find a place in heaven at the right hand of God. And if I do believe it, could I forgive that person also for whatever it may be that he might have done, and desire to live there too along side him??? think about it...This is a WONDERFUL book and I recommend it to EVERYONE! Let me know your thoughts...

John

June 17, 2008

This is my favorite work by C.S. Lewis. I’d give it 8 stars, . . if ‘twer possible. In it, Lewis reacts to moral relativism (the Marriage of Heaven and Hell) by suggesting that “you cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey even your right hand and your right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind.” He astutely notes that the “great divorce” of good and evil is utterly voluntarily. And he does so by conjuring up this simple tale of a bus ride from a ghostly, insubstantial hell, to the brilliant, vividly tangible outskirts of heaven. Anyone can take the bus, any one can stay in heaven. But in the end, most sadly return to the grayness below, unable to give up the things preventing them from truly accepting heaven. The bus is loaded with characters full of excuses, foibles and vices. And I think I know everyone on that bus. Some of them I know really well, - too well. I have used this short book in many Sunday school lessons over the years because Lewis’ language is so clever and incisive, and his insights are so pointed. I really love this book, and I cannot recommend it more highly!

Rachel

May 29, 2008

Once again C.S. Lewis shows us how deft he is at cracking open the mysteries of human spirituality and motivation. This book is an allegory for heaven and hell and as he describes each of the characters and how they ultimately choose their eternal reward, we can glimpse a bit of ourselves. My favorite part is when he describes a woman who has chosen heaven but whose husband refuses to give up the little devil sitting on his shoulder and ultimately chooses to return to hell. The narrator asks how is it possible that this woman will able to be happy for eternity when her husband has chosen not to be with her. Shouldn't a part of her be sad? The narrator's escort then gives a brilliant explanation of how if hell had it's way it would hold all the joy in the world hostage. It helped me understand how we can still find peace even though those around us may make bad choices. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the book has a slow start - it takes a little while to get into it. But please persist - you will find that it is worth it.

Sunshine

December 19, 2016

C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce” was puzzling at first. I read and kept waiting for the action. When was the plot going to happen? When is there going to be a turn of events? When is the story going to progress? And all the while I kept thinking about different scenarios and various outcomes the character was going to have to go through or where he would eventually go at the end… but no. This book cannot and should not be predicted. My struggle was my pull to get the story going when it actuality it was the author himself who was trying to slow me down and pay attention to what was truly playing out in front of me. Throughout the book, I had to learn to engage in each meaningful conversation, each intricate character and before I knew it I had stopped trying to move the story along on my own, but I felt good sitting on the floor as C.S. Lewis himself spoke to me. “The Great Divorce” is enjoyable if the reader can turn off their expectations for fiction books and turn on their eyesight for something greater. I mostly enjoyed Lewis’ voice as this narrative became a story, just an allegorical story of one man’s experience through Heaven. The readers then saw the real divide between heaven and hades; the separation that starts in our very own heart. Thank you C.S. Lewis. Though you have passed away in this life years and years ago, you truly came alive to me when I read this book, teaching me about myself, about others and about the second chances God gives to those He loves.

Cori

December 15, 2021

My 2020 Reading Challenge, read all of C.S. Lewis’s published works, is off to a decent start. The Great Divorce is the third book in for this considerable list. I loved this book. Certain quotes in it…I want tattooed on me so I don’t forget them. This review is going to be long, detailed, and full of quotes; so a couple things: I don’t want the books to start running together over the year so I lose track of the specifics I enjoyed of each one. This is a book summary for myself, so don’t read it if you plan on reading this and savoring the details for the first time. And when I say it’s long, I mean it’s LONG. I’m about to find out if Goodreads has a character limit for reviews. So if anyone actually reads through, I would be shocked. Kudos to you. But don't feel obligated by any means. The Great Divorce tells the story of a man in purgatory; I think the author was using himself as the main character. He comes across a bus station taking a group to heaven. The author later describes the place they start in as “The Valley of the Shadow of Death,” so not quite hell. They fly off into space and end up in “The Valley of the Shadow of Life,” so not quite heaven. The main character then witnesses an assortment of passengers respond as they are given the opportunity to remain in heaven or return to hell. Okay, so not completely and theologically sound. But Lewis knew that; it’s meant to be allegorical. Moving on. Passenger Number One is offended when a murderer who knew from his former life meets him and welcomes him. I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God. He’s not happy with the fact that he, someone who lived “a good life” needs forgiveness, the same as the murderer. What rubbish. So he returns to hell where he can be considered better than his neighbors. Passenger Number Two is horrified to learn that his reasoning and intellect won’t be revered here. Questions are made clear, and the firsthand knowledge of God removes the entertainment of speculation Two is used to being praised for. On Hell and Earth, Two could view himself as omniscient like God because he didn’t comprehend God. In heaven, no one would be amazed by his philosophy. Rather than viewing this as a comfort, Two decides to return to Hell where he will continue to be exalted in his intellectual circles. Passenger Number Three is jaded. It’s all a scam. All of it. The end.Passenger Number Four is horrified to learn that she will look different, be perceived as different, and won’t blend in with her old acquaintances as Four adapts to a heavenly appearance. “I wish I’d never been born. What are we born for?” “For infinite happiness,” said the Spirit. “You can step out into it at any moment…” “But I tell you, they’ll see me.” “An hour hence, and you will not care. A day hence and you will laugh at it. Don’t you remember on earth—there were things too hot to touch with your finger but you could drink them all right? Shame is like that. If you will accept it—if you will drink the cup to the bottom—you will find it very nourishing: but try to do anything else with it and it scalds.” At this point, the main character has an intermission of sorts in which he runs into George MacDonald. I had to laugh because only C.S. Lewis would be so transparent that he would put one of his greatest heroes in a story just to have a hypothetical conversation with him (I REALLY need to read Phantastes). Holy Moses, I wish I had this man’s moxie and willingness to be vulnerable and self-deprecating. But his choice to include his favorite author (or one of them) was spot on. The conversation between the two of them is incredible. Case(s) in point. “And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly.” “The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words, ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.’ There is always something they insist on keeping, even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy—that is, to reality. Ye see it easily enough in a spoiled child that would sooner miss its play and its supper than say it was sorry and be friends.”“There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself…as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist! There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ. Man! Ye see it in smaller matters. Did ye never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them? Or an organizer of charities that had lost all love for the poor? It is the subtlest of all snares.” “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done, and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘THY will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires Joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.”George MacDonald then becomes a guide of sorts for the main character. Continuing to observe the passengers, Passenger Number Five was a famous artist and abhors that he will not be given an exalted place in heaven. Passenger Number Six only condescends to agree to come to heaven if she is “given” her husband so she can keep working on him as her project like she did on earth. This was so oddly specific, I can’t help but wonder if Lewis knew a woman like this in real life.Passenger Number Seven is a mother who allowed bitterness and grief to turn her away from her living children and husband when Seven’s son, Michael, died. She sees heaven merely as a way to see her son again. “You’re treating God only as a means to Michael. But the thickening treatment consists in learning to want God for His own sake.” “You wouldn’t talk like that if you were a Mother.” “You mean, if I were ONLY a mother. You exist as Michael’s mother only because you first exist as God’s creature. That relation is older and closer.”Passenger Number Eight comes on the scene with a red lizard sitting on his shoulder. The lizard whispers into Eight’s ear constantly, distracting the man. A Spirit offers to kill the lizard, but Eight says it isn’t so bad, and he can ignore it for the most part. The Spirit persists and, finally, the man agrees. The Spirit kills the lizard which rises from the ash as a beautiful stallion. Eight becomes a being prepared to enter heaven and rides the horse away. The conversation between MacDonald and Lewis explains that the lizard is fleshly desire that isn’t evil when turned over to God. Rather, it can be a source of great joy when we give these desires over for God to work with as He will. Finally, Passenger Number Nine is a small, twisted man leading a tall, thespian man on a chain. Basically, the little man is the true self and the tall, drama king is…well. A drama king. Drama King pretends all sorts of things to control the joy of people around him because he has none of his own. And when his amazing, selfless, Godly wife, who put up with his garbage for years and is already in heaven, tells him that they don’t need one another here…well…he has a meltdown. “Love,” said the Tragedian striking his forehead with his hand: then a few notes deeper, “Love! Do you know the meaning of the word?” “How should I not?” said the Lady. “I am in love. IN love, do you understand? Yes, now I love truly.” “You mean,” said the Tragedian, “you mean—you did NOT love me truly in the old days?” “Only in a poor sort of way,” she answered. “I have asked you to forgive me. There was a little real love in it. But what we called love down there was mostly the craving to be loved. In the main I loved you for my own sake; because I needed you.” “And now!” said the Tragedian with a hackneyed gesture of despair. “Now, you need me no more?” “But of course not!” said the Lady; and her smile made me wonder how both the phantoms could refrain for crying out with joy. “What needs could I have now that I have all? I am full, not empty. I am in Love Himself, not lonely. Strong, not weak. You shall be the same. Come and see. We shall have no NEED for one another now: we can begin to love truly.” In response, Drama-King-Who-Has-A-Compulsion-To-Be-Needed-Rather-Than-Love-Others has a royal meltdown. As he melts down, he literally shrinks in stature. And the Lady has the best response ever. “Stop it at once.” “Stop what?” “Using pity, other peoples’ pity, in the wrong way. We have all done it a bit on earth, you know. Pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery. But it can be used for a kind of blackmailing. Those who choose misery can hold joy up to ransom, by pity. You see, I know now. Even as a child you did it. Instead of saying sorry, you went and sulked in the attic… because you knew that sooner or later one of your sisters would say, ‘I can’t bear to think of him sitting up there alone, crying.’ You used your pity to blackmail them, and they gave in in the end.” The more of a tantrum the man throws, the smaller he grows. But she doesn’t give in. ”If it would help you and if it were possible I would go down with you into Hell; but you cannot bring Hell into me.” I think I reread that line about twenty times. This perfectly summarizes every proper response we should have to sacrificing ourselves for others. Help as much as we can. Definitely. But we don’t have to set ourselves on fire to keep them warm. We can retain our joy without giving in to miserable manipulation. Some of the last snatches of conversation between MacDonald and Lewis solidly ended the book. “All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of THIS world, the Real World. Look at yon butterfly. If it swallowed all Hell, Hell would not be big enough to do it any harm or to have any taste.” “It seems big enough when you’re in it, Sir.” “And yet all loneliness, angers, hatreds, envies and itchings that it contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt by the least in Heaven, would have no weight that could even be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed even in being bad as truly as good is good. If all Hell’s miseries together entered the consciousness of yon wee yellow bird on the bough there, they would be swallowed up without trace, as if one drop of ink had been dropped into that Great Ocean to which your terrestrial Pacific itself is only a molecule.” Amazing book. I’d rate this book a PG.

Werner

September 07, 2013

I've classified this book on my "Christian life and thought" shelf, which is one of my nonfiction shelves. Technically, one might argue that this is a work of fiction, a made-up narrative that uses the device of a dream vision to supposedly describe places to which no earth-bound human has ever been. But here, as with some of Hawthorne's short stories/essays, the fiction is so message-driven that any dividing line separating it from an essay is thin indeed. It's very much a narrative about ideas, and the fictional framework is just a vivid stage for these, with a few props, and the use of dramatic dialogue; here (unlike in his Chronicles of Narnia series or the Space Trilogy) Lewis' didactic purpose so overwhelms the story that it's not fair to evaluate it as fiction.A professor of medieval literature, Lewis was quite familiar with Dante's The Divine Comedy. I am not; but I can recognize the conceptual similarity from general descriptions of the latter. Here too, we have a journey that encompasses Heaven and Hell (which, Lewis suggests, also serves as Purgatory for those who don't choose to stay there); and here, too, the narrator is furnished with a guide in the person of a famous author. (One of my Goodreads friends calls this work a "rip-off" of Dante's classic; perhaps we could more accurately call it a sort of homage, or an extended literary allusion.)Whatever Dante's purpose was, however, Lewis clearly states in the short Preface to this work that it's not intended as a literal speculation as to what the real Heaven and Hell may be like. Rather, he uses his narrator's fictional journey as a literary conceit to make a series of major and minor points about how God relates to human beings, and how we relate to God and each other. A key message here is that God doesn't will any humans to be damned. (This would exclude the idea of Calvinist predestinarianism, despite Lewis' suggestion that the eternal perspective obviates some earthly theological distinctions such as this.) Rather, there are those who exclude themselves from Heaven, because their attitude won't let them embrace it. As the book suggests (and the Goodreads description quotes), there are two kinds of people, those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God ultimately says, in sorrow, "Thy will be done." (We could also characterize them, based on the portrayals here, as those willing to recognize a God outside themselves, and those determined to be the god and center of their own universe.) The author holds up a kind of moral mirror in which readers can see how their own attitudes and actions reflect --and it's one that reveals a lot of human self-centeredness, blaming of others for everything we refuse to take responsibility for, self-deceit and hypocrisy. The type of fictional framework, ostensibly a description of unseen realities but not intended to be taken as literally so, and the quality of the rigorous, uncompromising, spiritually-grounded ethical thought, is reminiscent of the author's (also excellent) The Screwtape Letters.Unlike some Christian works, this one doesn't come across with the "all Christians are moral exemplars, and non-Christians are scumbags" vibe that non-Christians understandably tend to find offensive. Both God's judgment and grace, Lewis suggests, probe much more deeply into the heart and soul than surface religious affiliation; there are professed Christians (even an Anglican bishop!) in his Hell, and we hear of at least one pagan who's found his way to Heaven. However, I'd recommend this more to Christian than to non-Christian readers. That's not to say that some open-minded non-Christians wouldn't be interested in reading it, or couldn't profit from doing so. But I think Lewis presupposes some basic Christian concepts about God and the afterlife that, probably, most non-Christians would find hard to take as starting points. It's more suited, I think, as a stimulus for Christian moral and theological reflection about how we live, think, and relate to God and others. (Nonfiction Lewis works that I'd more readily recommend for non-Christian readers would include Mere Christianity, Miracles, and God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics.)

Kris

October 26, 2021

October 2021 ReviewI am much more comfortable with this one now. It's such a jumble of fascinating ideas thrown together in a dream-like vision: Salvation, sanctification, time and eternity, purgatory, the last judgment. A fictional MacDonald entreats us and the narrator: “Do not ask of a vision in a dream more than a vision in a dream can give” (pg 144). So as an "imaginative supposal" we're not supposed to take it seriously? "Ye cannot know eternal reality by a definition," you say? Yet, Mr. Lewis, by the very act of writing this novel you are creating a definition. I see what you did there.This book is vaguely heretical, but gets away with it in a twist of irony and sarcasm. And I love it.May 2020 ReviewIn this reread much more stuck with me. I could definitely see parallels with Lewis's other works, particularly The Last Battle -- like the Dwarfs that refuse to see the new Narnia, and in Till We Have Faces -- with Orual's possessive love of Psyche. There's a bit of Miracles and Mere Christianity in here too.I realize now that this one really needs to be treated as a dream, or a thought experiment, in a completely different way than his apologetics, devotional works, or other fiction. I think in my first read I tried to take it too literally -- as if he were really trying to teach us solid truths about heaven and hell. And while, yes, it's not as if he's trying to teach untruths, this is more wild speculation than anything. It gets uncomfortable in places because he seems to be talking about universalism, and Pelagianism, and Purgatory, and perhaps some denial of total depravity -- but then toward the end he plays around with time and uproots the whole thing. And then you find this quote:"'These conversations between the Spirits and the Ghosts -- were they only the mimicry of choices that had really been made long ago?''Or might ye not as well say, anticipations of a choice to be made at the end of all things? But ye'd do better to say neither. Ye saw the choices a bit more clearly than ye could see them on Earth: the lens was clearer. But it was still seen through the lens. Do not ask of a vision in a dream more than a vision in a dream can give.'"Other Quotes:'No,' said the other. 'I can promise you none of these things. No sphere of usefulness: you are not needed there at all. No scope for your talents: only forgiveness for having perverted them. No atmosphere of inquiry, for I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.'""That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death.""There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell, choose it."January 2014 ReviewBeautiful, simple, symbolic... I still struggle for words to describe this story. Fictional, metaphorical... supernatural? It was easy enough to understand, but I feel as if I'd need a theological doctor to explain to me what it really means. I look forward to discussion, and maybe coming back to this review. Lewis made certain good points about the nature of heaven and hell, people's reactions to final judgment, and the manifestation of love in relationships. But I feel he left more unsaid than said in this text.

Cindy

April 30, 2020

#theliterarylifepodcast #20for2020reads This review is for the audiobook. My son introduced me this recording; he listens to it on autoplay. Julian Rhind-Tutt is one of the best narrators I have heard and this book is a perfect place for his talents with so many personalities and characters taking the stage. We are talking about this book on The Literary Life Podcast. Join us.

Liz

March 30, 2009

Almost without exception, whatever CS Lewis writes is fine with me. The Great Divorce is my 2nd favorite CS Lewis book (I am not counting the Narnia series), and what I thought was most interesting about it was the people who were in hell did not know they were in hell. This is a familiar concept to me, I remember my dad and his minister friends discussing it. It was also interesting that people didn't get to heaven in the way they thought they would. Obviously, no one has actual answers for these types of questions. But CS Lewis comes close as I can see to having answers, without turning his vision into some Chicken Soup For the Soul self-help bull crap that is corny while being extremely boring to read.

Kailey (Luminous Libro)

April 20, 2015

Oh my goodness, I'm in shock! I feel like I have been hit with a ton of spiritual bricks; not an uncommon feeling after reading any of Lewis' books. How wonderful! The best part is that no matter what the subject or plot, Lewis always turns the focus back to Christ. This book reminds me a bit of his book, "Pilgrim's Regress", and John Bunyan's book too. It follows that sort of pattern- wandering in a strange land, meeting allegorical people, having philosophical conversations with angels and men that illustrate great truths in an easily digestible way. This is a fantasy story of a man who is confronted with the choice between Heaven and Hell, as we all are, and as he watches others make the choice, he realizes that people who go to Hell WANT to be there. They chose it. "Hell is locked from the inside." He also quotes one of my favorite passages from Milton's Paradise Lost; that some think it is "better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." People choose to endure misery rather than submit to Joy. People choose to be proud and suffering rather than admit they were wrong and accept forgiveness. The reason for the title is that the book proves there is no middle ground. You must choose one or the other. There is a complete and total division between Heaven and Hell. Sound theology, beautifully expressed!When George MacDonald showed up as a character, I gave a little holler of happiness! And his dialogue is so delightfully Scotch. Just lovely writing!There are some enchanting descriptions of Heaven, and imaginings of what it could be like there, that brought me some joyful thoughts and a holy longing to be in my True Home. It really lifts the focus onto the things of God!As all of Lewis' writing does, this book gives me the uncomfortable feeling that I'm dealing with concepts way too deep and unknowable for me to even begin to think about; but as I read, I find that I understand his points very well. I can't always hold them in my mind later, but at the moment that I am reading, I can follow his logic perfectly. That is his genius! He speaks to the common man in common language, and unfolds eternity as something we can know because it lives inside us.Maybe the thing I like best about Lewis' writings is that he doesn't let anybody hide behind their intellectualism or false humility or assumed religiosity. He demands complete honesty from the soul, because that is what God demands.There is some shady theology with some stuff about purgatory that I'm not sure I understood, but hey, it's a dream fantasy. I'm not taking it too literally here! haha!I really loved what he wrote near the end about seeing everything through a lens of Time. We can't truly understand the mysteries of God or of our own eternal souls, until we are taken outside of Time. Right now Time is distorting our understanding, although it is certainly useful to protect us for now. Eventually, we won't need it, because we will "see Him as He is." Wonderful thoughts!

Kells Next Read

December 27, 2016

I've finally decided to read through as much C.S. Lewis works as I can and decided to start with The Great Divorce. I was by no means disappointed, in fact my appetite has been aroused and I'm hungry to devour more of this authors works. Actual ratings 4.25

Frequently asked questions

Listening to audiobooks not only easy, it is also very convenient. You can listen to audiobooks on almost every device. From your laptop to your smart phone or even a smart speaker like Apple HomePod or even Alexa. Here’s how you can get started listening to audiobooks.

  • 1. Download your favorite audiobook app such as Speechify.
  • 2. Sign up for an account.
  • 3. Browse the library for the best audiobooks and select the first one for free
  • 4. Download the audiobook file to your device
  • 5. Open the Speechify audiobook app and select the audiobook you want to listen to.
  • 6. Adjust the playback speed and other settings to your preference.
  • 7. Press play and enjoy!

While you can listen to the bestsellers on almost any device, and preferences may vary, generally smart phones are offer the most convenience factor. You could be working out, grocery shopping, or even watching your dog in the dog park on a Saturday morning.
However, most audiobook apps work across multiple devices so you can pick up that riveting new Stephen King book you started at the dog park, back on your laptop when you get back home.

Speechify is one of the best apps for audiobooks. The pricing structure is the most competitive in the market and the app is easy to use. It features the best sellers and award winning authors. Listen to your favorite books or discover new ones and listen to real voice actors read to you. Getting started is easy, the first book is free.

Research showcasing the brain health benefits of reading on a regular basis is wide-ranging and undeniable. However, research comparing the benefits of reading vs listening is much more sparse. According to professor of psychology and author Dr. Kristen Willeumier, though, there is good reason to believe that the reading experience provided by audiobooks offers many of the same brain benefits as reading a physical book.

Audiobooks are recordings of books that are read aloud by a professional voice actor. The recordings are typically available for purchase and download in digital formats such as MP3, WMA, or AAC. They can also be streamed from online services like Speechify, Audible, AppleBooks, or Spotify.
You simply download the app onto your smart phone, create your account, and in Speechify, you can choose your first book, from our vast library of best-sellers and classics, to read for free.

Audiobooks, like real books can add up over time. Here’s where you can listen to audiobooks for free. Speechify let’s you read your first best seller for free. Apart from that, we have a vast selection of free audiobooks that you can enjoy. Get the same rich experience no matter if the book was free or not.

It depends. Yes, there are free audiobooks and paid audiobooks. Speechify offers a blend of both!

It varies. The easiest way depends on a few things. The app and service you use, which device, and platform. Speechify is the easiest way to listen to audiobooks. Downloading the app is quick. It is not a large app and does not eat up space on your iPhone or Android device.
Listening to audiobooks on your smart phone, with Speechify, is the easiest way to listen to audiobooks.

footer-waves