Letters from a senior devil to a junior. A review of C. S. Lewis’ satirical The Screwtape Letters.
Review Number: 5
Review Date: 5 April 2015
Title: The Screwtape Letters
Author: C. S. Lewis
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: 1942
Genres: Epistolary Novel / Satire
Let me lead you into temptation.
C. S. Lewis’ concise and captivating The Screwtape Letters is a fiendishly clever concept. The story consists of a series of letters from a senior devil Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a “Junior Tempter”. The uncle offers witty and wily advice to Wormwood as the latter attempts to secure the damnation of a British man known only as “the Patient”.
It is part satire and part discussion of Christian theological issues. For an atheist like myself it has held a charm since I first read it about 35 years ago. I don’t waste my time on the ancient and dying superstitions that religion cling to – I merely enjoy the book for its brilliant analysis of the human condition.
What is most surprising about rereading Lewis’ work is how dark and cynical his mind could really be:
“When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother’s eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy – if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As he cannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed.”
This is all from an individual who also produced the entertaining but moralistic The Chronicles of Narnia and the stolid Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength).
Over the course of 31 letters Lewis uses Screwtape as a conduit to examine theology, sex, love, pride, gluttony and war. Let’s not forget it was written in the midst of the very real Second World War, which receives occasional mentions in the fictional Hell:
“It is a little disappointing to expect a detailed report on your work and to receive instead such a vague rhapsody as your last letter. You say you are ‘delirious with joy’ because the European humans have started another of their wars. I see very well what has happened to you. You are not delirious; you are only drunk.”
The Screwtape Letters spawned various literary sequels. Many writers were so taken with the work, they had to pay tribute. But Lewis’ novel will never be surpassed for its originality and ferocious display of intelligence.
The Satanic versus…? Well, humanity frankly. But after reading this book you might end up rooting for the Devil.