The Personal Heresy. A Controversy.

Bookseller Notes

A scholarly tussle engendered by Lewis's response to Tillyard's 1930 work on Milton. Lewis objected to Tillyard's central tenet that 'Paradise Lost' was 'really about [...] the true state of Milton's mind when he wrote it' (Tillyard, 'Milton', p. 237); in Lewis's own copy of the book he classifies this remark of Tillyard's as 'the arch error', whilst a similar assertion two pages later receives terse damnation - 'fatal'. Expanding on his disapproval with an essay 'The Personal Heresy in Criticism', Lewis drew a rejoinder from Tillyard, and these along with two further articles and responses between the two men are collected in this volume 'The Personal Heresy: A Controversy'. Lewis relished the battle and maintained a mocking affection for his opponent - 'he's the nicest donkey you can imagine', he wrote in a letter from 1944.The copy of Oxford philosopher, Basil Mitchell, dating from his time at Keble College, where he was a tutor from 1947; he had previously attended Queen's College, Oxford and was later appointed Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oxford University and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Mitchell was a member of the Socratic Club at the same time as Lewis, and succeeded him as its President.