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A Grief Observed

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A Grief Observed

Written by: C. S. Lewis
Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
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Written after his wife’s tragic death as a way of surviving the “mad midnight moments,” A Grief Observed is C. S. Lewis’ honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: “Nothing will shake a man—or at any rate a man like me—out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.”

This is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.

©1961 , restored 1996 C. S. Lewis Pte., Ltd. (P)2006 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Christian Living Christianity Death & Dying Death & Grief Family Relationships Religious Figures Religious Studies Self-Help Sociology
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Critic Reviews

“Reading A Grief Observed is to share not only in C. S. Lewis’ grief, but in his understanding of love, and that is richness indeed.”

(Madeline L’Engle, from the foreword)

“[A Grief Observed] is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.”

(Michael Joseph Gross)

“A very personal, anguished, luminous little book about the meaning of death, marriage, and religion.”

(Publishers Weekly)

“Grief exhibits Lewis’ ability to capture the ear…Ralph Cosham gives a fluid and evenhanded reading to this soul-baring expose of emotion itself and the man who wrote about it.”

(AudioFile)
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In this masterful work, C.S Lewis lays bare the most vulnerable aspects of his deeply personal grief as if it challenges his well-informed faith in Christ. He considers grief as a never-ending valley of twists and turns with surprising yet horrifying landscapes at some bends. Lewis wonders whether his wallowing is justified in God's presence. He also ponders whether his questions to God are nonsensical. The mystery of his dead wife's present condition (if we can say so, for such realms are devoid of time) overwhelms him so much so that his passionate desire to be with his beloved one more time haunts him.

Lewis feels amputated, for he has lost his soul mate. He argues that perhaps God is not testing his faith in this time of grieving. Instead, Lewis gets to know its depths in undesirable and painful circumstances. He believes that only in a life-and-death situation can one's faithfulness to God be fully affirmed. Maybe that is why he has to go through his pain focused on the suffering of Christ and not get over it or outgrow it as if to say, "The past doesn't matter anymore."

A Lament

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