The Discarded Image

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The Discarded Image

First edition cover
Author C. S. Lewis
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject(s) Literary criticism
Genre(s) Non-fiction
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Publication date 1964
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 242 pp
ISBN NA

The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature is non-fiction and the last book written by C. S. Lewis. Multilayered, it is on one level a work that deals with medieval cosmology and the Ptolemaic universe, the "model" of the world used by the medievals - "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe."[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Themes

The central themes of the book include the structure of the medieval universe, the nature of its inhabitants, the notion of a finite universe, ordered and maintained by a celestial hierarchy, and the ideas of nature. At the same time, Lewis takes his reader on a tour of some of the pinnacles of medieval thought (some of them inherited from Classical Paganism) that have survived into the modern cultural and theological landscape.

[edit] Selected reviews

Several reviews of the book were positive, for example,

  • "Wise, illuminating, companionable, it may well come to be seen as Lewis’ s best book." The Observer[citation needed]
  • "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind."[citation needed]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

[edit] See also