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The Great Divorce

4.26 of 5 stars 4.26 · rating details · 38,615 ratings · 2,230 reviews

The Great Divorce is C.S. Lewis's Divine Comedy: the narrator bears strong resemblance to Lewis (by way of Dante); his Virgil is the fantasy writer George MacDonald; and upon boarding a bus in a nondescript neighborhood, the narrator is taken to Heaven and Hell. The book's primary message is presented with almost oblique tidiness--"There are only two kinds of people in the...more

Paperback, 146 pages

Published February 4th 2002 by HarperCollins (first published 1945)

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Jun 19, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, classics

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....more 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.

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Sep 13, 2007 Gabriel rated it 3 of 5 stars

As a story, this isn’t that amazing, as very little “happens.” As a collection of images about theology, and especially about sin and how it can keep one away from union with God, it is very insightful. Lewis, in my view, provides the best explanations of how heaven works, or more specifically how it can be that a loving God and hell can coexist. The “dwarves in the stable” from The Last Battle are the best depiction of this; reading them I first understood how one could ever choose to reject Go...more As a story, this isn’t that amazing, as very little “happens.” As a collection of images about theology, and especially about sin and how it can keep one away from union with God, it is very insightful. Lewis, in my view, provides the best explanations of how heaven works, or more specifically how it can be that a loving God and hell can coexist. The “dwarves in the stable” from The Last Battle are the best depiction of this; reading them I first understood how one could ever choose to reject God, even when honestly given a choice in light of the possibility of truly seeing God as God is. What happens is that when one is presented with God, one says: “That’s not God! I know what God looks like, and that’s not it! No thanks.” In any case, in the Great Divorce the various encounters illustrate ways people can put other things in the way of God, ways to deceive oneself or preoccupy oneself away from God, away from what is most important. True idolatry, and quite real even today.

There is a definite clarity to Lewis’s vision of things; the truth is to be had by anyone who will listen, yet the problem is that folks over- or under-think it, and manage to miss out. I wonder if it really is that simple. Lewis writes at a time when the certainly of the Enlightenment framework has fallen apart, and Lewis fits into the group which insists that the correct response is to move back, to return to what theology had already figured out, to shake off the “gains” of the “enlightened mind.” This position remains very attractive today: that all the fancy theories and of course chaos of recent years are simply a symptom of abandoning the truth that has always been securely held by faith; the only thing novel these days are new ways to avoid that truth and to seem very smart yet smarmy in doing so.

But there is another alternative, one that is truly on the other side of modernity, that isn’t so quick to throw away the penetrating gains of the modern mindset, only its onetime certainty. And it is from this perspective that I suspect Lewis makes it too simple, that Lewis calls us back to a universe that never really did hold it all together, even if it did once exist.

But yes, the Lizard image is quite wonderful. And apt. What I would give for a nice stallion!
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Feb 04, 2013 Laurele rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2009, books-read-in-2010, audible, books-read-in-2013, kindle

In this brief and beautiful allegory, Lewis takes us on a tour of heaven and hell, where we learn about our powers to choose between self and salvation. Breathtaking! I'm reading it again to discuss with a Facebook friend who is coming to see me on Saturday.

This was a great book to read in conjunction with Milton's Paradise Lost.

2013: also a great book to lay alongside Dante's Divine Comedy.

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Jul 14, 2008 Myth Girl rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone!!!!

I just listened to the audio of "The Great Divorce." It was my first reading of this book, and I know there will be many re-readings in my future. I feel a first reading was really just a glimpse of what it will be like to delve into it again and again. First of all, I must say that I adore Lewis's writing style and that his stories really resonate with me. And I know I'm just beginning to touch the surface. I have read Narnia a couple times and I read "The Problem with Pain" last year. I'm eage...more

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Jul 12, 2008 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

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...more

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May 29, 2008 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

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...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Rudi rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. "Once you were a child. Once you knew what inquiry was made for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them. Become that child again: even now... Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth." p. 41

'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...more "Once you were a child. Once you knew what inquiry was made for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them. Become that child again: even now... Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth." p. 41

'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.' p. 61

'...Both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all their earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on Earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. 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 of sinful pleasure 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. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness.' - p. 69

'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.' p. 75

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Mar 30, 2009 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 the...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, religion

I'm a bit of a C.S. Lewis junkie. His way of explaining the basic tenets of Christian faith and, especially, how to recognize and overcome the human shortcomings and failings that will prevent us from progressing, never fails to strike a chord with me. I see far too much of myself in some of these allegorical characters and Lewis's words spur me to change.

* "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...more I'm a bit of a C.S. Lewis junkie. His way of explaining the basic tenets of Christian faith and, especially, how to recognize and overcome the human shortcomings and failings that will prevent us from progressing, never fails to strike a chord with me. I see far too much of myself in some of these allegorical characters and Lewis's words spur me to change.

* "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. Ye call it the Sulks. But in adult life it has a hundred fine names--Achilles' wrath and Coriolanus' grandeur, Revenge and Injured Merit and Self-Respect and Tragic Greatness and Proper Pride."

* "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."

* "There is no such thing as being only a mother. You exist as Michael's mother only because you first exist as God's creature. That relation is older and closer...He also loves. He also has suffered. He also has waited a long time."

* "Son, son, it must be one way or the other. Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it: or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves. I know it has a grand sound to say ye'll accept no salvation which leaves even one creature in the dark outside. But watch that sophistry or ye'll make a Dog in a Manger the tyrant of the universe."

For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.(less)

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Jan 26, 2011 Jake Kilroy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, fantasy, religious, novella, book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. BOOK CLUB SELECTION.

I read this book as a non-religious and non-spiritual person and it lead to me to a three-hour conversation about religion with my friend Dave. Dave's a faithful Christian and we had some time to kill in Mexico. He was reading a Stephen Hawking book and I was finishing The Great Divorce. Somehow, we got into our afternoon-long conversation, discussing all that encompassed western religion and I must have quoted The Great Divorce at least a dozen times. Seriously, by the end,...more

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Jun 17, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: religion

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,...more

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Nov 30, 2010 Jesse Broussard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic, excellent

Having re-read this, I cannot wait for the movie (N.D. Wilson is writing the screenplay or something like that). And George MacDonald!!! Yes! Referred to simply as "the teacher" in many places, the noble Scotsman permeates the second half of the book.

Tragic, lovely, heartbreaking and glorious, this book is a theological treatise on the afterlife in the way that Chesterton's Orthodoxy is a description of the Roman Catholic Church, which is to say, not even remotely. It is rather more like a semi-...more

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Jan 13, 2008 Zachary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I'm not quite sure what I had in mind when I picked this book up, but a full length analogical story definitely was not in my mind when I started. But that really didn't matter, because that's exactly what Lewis wrote in "The Great Divorce".

In it, Lewis used a rather interesting vision of what heaven and hell are (not) like. I say "(not) like" because Lewis admits in his introduction that this was intended from the first to be a moral story, not an exploration of what might be. He explains his p...more

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Apr 29, 2008 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not my usual read. In fact, this is the first C.S. Lewis book I have ever read other than "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." Of course, being LDS, I have read and heard innumerable quotes of his from articles and talks. We are a C.S. Lewis loving society. I read this because this book was chosen for the bookgroup I belong to this month. Dread is much too strong of a word but I admit that I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book. And it isn't because I choose to read fluff eithe...more Not my usual read. In fact, this is the first C.S. Lewis book I have ever read other than "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." Of course, being LDS, I have read and heard innumerable quotes of his from articles and talks. We are a C.S. Lewis loving society. I read this because this book was chosen for the bookgroup I belong to this month. Dread is much too strong of a word but I admit that I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book. And it isn't because I choose to read fluff either. I like a deep novel. Perhaps intimidated is the closet description of what I felt. After all, if general authorities quote him, how readable could it be?

Overall, I really liked this book. The text was easy to read and the story flowed. That surprised me. Not that I wasn't expecting Lewis to be a great author but this book is definitely not limited to advanced readers. It begins with an unnamed man in line for a bus ride to somewhere unmentioned. His fellow passengers don't seem to be the kind of people anyone would enjoy being seated next too -- each with an obvious character flaw. The bus takes them to what is described at first as obviously Heaven but we later learn is just the "Valley in the Shadow of Life" or kind of the intro to Heaven. The grass is too hard to walk on for the newbie feet and each who has arrived is greeted by an angel who pretty much tries to convince them to follow them into the mountains where the real Heaven lies. In Lewis's afterworld, there are many who see what Heaven is like and decide not to be there. It is too hard or too different than what they want it to be like. They don't want to be different from who there were on earth and can't understand why they must let go of certain characteristics.

I think my favorite paragraph in this book is when this unnamed man's angel tells him, "...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."

Isn't that great? There were many moments in this story that I wanted to get out my highlighter pen and get busy. It was a very quick read: it only took a little over 2 hours to read. Of course, if you want to get serious and really ponder it would take much longer. But I read it like a novel...wanting to get a sense of the whole story. In that way, it was a bit disappointing. He doesn't do much creating a whole story as he does put a narrator in to eavesdrop on different peoples' first experiences with Heaven. When that person was clearly past convincing he moved on to the next "ghost" struggling. In the end, the book floundered a bit (I can't believe I am actually using that word in critiquing the great C.S. Lewis but then again....it is my blog!). His angel leads him on and eventually he sees a big chess table and suddenly real experience, time, space and all that is into question. Just for the last chapter, mind you. I found myself being a bit Sethesque and thinking, "what the..." something about lenses and visions and dreams and eventually he woke up. So we never were able to see what Lewis's deeper Heaven was like. And he scolded him to not report this experience as anything more than a dream. His angel says, "....see ye make it very plain. Give no poor fool the pretext to think ye are claiming knowledge of what no mortal knows. I'll have no Swedenborgs and no Vale Owens among my children....He has forbidden it" I guess in Christian theology, there have been experiences where visions were to go untold. It just didn't sit well with me. And that was the end. He woke up. To what end for this man? Did it make him better? More ready for the glory of God? I don't feel that unanswered question was necessary for the story.(less)

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Mar 08, 2007 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some concepts:
- leaning on a teacher to grow till we can be on our own.
- defective love

Quotes & Excerpts from C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce:

You cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey, even your right hand or right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind.

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore gradually draw nearer and finally meet at the center: rather in a world where e...more

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Jun 25, 2008 Jon rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Great Divorce follows the journey of the narrator (Lewis himself?) as he travels from Hell to Heaven. Guided by his Teacher, the narrator witnesses conversations between spirits, ghosts, and angels he meets along the way; conversations that reveal Lewis' insights into various aspects of Christian theology. Like The Screwtape Letters, Lewis' most famous contemplation on Christianity, it's simply a creative means of philosophizing religiously, and also, like that classic work, it requires you...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Alice rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The last thing I wish is to arouse factual curiousity about the details of the after-world," says C.S. Lewis in the preface to this book. So I will skip over the plotline of the bus trip taken by departed spirits to Heaven. This is not science fiction. It is rather a parable.

The heavenly country itself, in its beautiful weighty brilliance, reveals that the spiritual world is actually more real than the temporal world.

And the choices made by the different ghosts are designed to throw light on t...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Amelia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Amelia by: Melinda

Shelves: 2012, religion, c-s-lewis, 2013

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 08, 2008 Kenneth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A great story and a powerful allegory, The Great Divorce serves as both. Lewis, in his characteristically sharp and pointed prose, writes about many pitfalls in Christian living which can lead to the choice of ultimate isolation, Hell.

His voice is hopeful, yet realistic, daring yet reverent. There are problems with the story, but there are bound to be when speaking of things beyond time and understanding. It is easy to see the wisdom developing which would shine through in his later years and wr...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Pdiver rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great book. A Dante-light book for all those fans of the Divine Comedy.

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Jul 15, 2008 Matt Evans rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is story is about a bus trip from hell to heaven. The passengers are allowed to stay, and all but one of them chooses to go home. I'd never before thought that people might choose to leave heaven, but Lewis depicts very well the types of pride that might lure one into preferring a reign in hell over servitude in heaven. Hell is depicted here as a very lonely place, a haven of solipsists. People who wouldn't want to be in heaven if it's a place where God forgives people like [insert here som...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Jacob Aitken added it · review of another edition

(or how to obtain infinite joy by abandoning your-self)

This book is truly one of Lewis’ masterpieces. Lewis tells a parable of a bus ride from heaven to hell in order to show us why people choose hell. Lewis is not saying that somebody, once in hell, have a chance for “do-overs.” Lewis is showing us why some people, even suffering in hell, when (hypothetically) offered a chance to get out, would still choose hell over heaven.

In this book Lewis comes very close to the ancient Eastern view of the...more
(or how to obtain infinite joy by abandoning your-self)

This book is truly one of Lewis’ masterpieces. Lewis tells a parable of a bus ride from heaven to hell in order to show us why people choose hell. Lewis is not saying that somebody, once in hell, have a chance for “do-overs.” Lewis is showing us why some people, even suffering in hell, when (hypothetically) offered a chance to get out, would still choose hell over heaven.

In this book Lewis comes very close to the ancient Eastern view of the eschaton suggested by St. Gregory of Nyssa. All men are raised up on the last day (1 Corinthians 15), and all men will experience God: some will experience his divine energies as light and life; others as fire and loss. Of course, Lewis doesn’t explicitly say that, but he does note, quite rightly I think, that hell is God saying to us, “Thy will be done,” and heaven is our saying to God, “Thy will be done.”

Lewis lists a number of scenarios where men and women are offered eternal joy but refuse it because they cannot let go of their-selfves. The self has become an idol, but it is a subtle idol. It can be self-respect, our understandings of the world, love, and the market.

There is a particularly interesting scene where a man meets up with his wife and through his refusal to accept God’s love, he becomes smaller and smaller, until he is unable to be seen. This fits in with the ancient view of sin and evil as a privation of being. Hell is not a real fire pit that God dug with a real metal shovel. Hell is a shadow of reality (which implies eternal loss; Lewis is not a universalist).

Lewis offers a disturbing halt on hyper free-market economic reasoning. An angel tells one ghost that there is no longer a difference between meum and teum. Communion is not the competition of goods and services, but the expression of love for the Other. It is abandoning self for the sake of the Other (be it God or my neighbor).

The book is a masterpiece. It makes one long for heaven and eternal joy.
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Apr 03, 2009 Cora rated it 5 of 5 stars

This short book by one of the finest minds of the twentieth century is a thought provoking look at the distance between heaven and hell; moreover, it demands personal introspection on the part of the serious reader in looking at the truly evil acts that people perform while believing that they are quite good. Just on of the ideas that will stir a fire in many is the idea of freedom. Especially in America, freedom has increasingly been thought of as an absolute. When confronted with the idea of l...more

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May 17, 2013 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bible-study-christian-living, christianity, classic, england, favorite-author, favorite-favorite, must-read, religion, want-to-read-again

Read for Book Group. I'm answering some discussion questions here in advance to help my memory when it comes time to discuss with the group.

Compare the functions of light in the three main settings: the gray town, heaven, and the chess table.
**There was very little light in the Gray Town. This kept the town dreary and dull and depressing and caused tension.
**The brightness of heaven was seen as wondrous and wild and promising. It was full of hope and beauty. And, it wasn't even the full light o...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Mary Overton added it · review of another edition

"[T]he damned have holidays - excursions," where they may choose to take a shuttle bus from Hell to Heaven. It allows the damned a sort of second chance, a space in which to reconsider the fundamental choice that determines a person's relationship with eternity.

Our narrator is a curious tourist who speaks with, among others, the ghost of George MacDonald, Scottish fantasy novelist and Christian:
"'Son,' [MacDonald] said, 'ye cannot in your present state understand eternity: when Anodos [protagoni...more "[T]he damned have holidays - excursions," where they may choose to take a shuttle bus from Hell to Heaven. It allows the damned a sort of second chance, a space in which to reconsider the fundamental choice that determines a person's relationship with eternity.

Our narrator is a curious tourist who speaks with, among others, the ghost of George MacDonald, Scottish fantasy novelist and Christian:
"'Son,' [MacDonald] said, 'ye cannot in your present state understand eternity: when Anodos [protagonist of MacDonald's book PHANTASTES] looked through the door of the Timeless he brought no message back. But ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all their earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on Earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. 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 of 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. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. 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.'" pg. 69

Getting off at the bus-stop in Heaven: "The light and coolness that drenched me were like those of summer morning, early morning a minute or two before the sunrise [this dawn before the sun rise is one's last opportunity to choose Heaven], only that there was a certain difference. I had the sense of being in a larger space, perhaps even a larger SORT of space, than I had ever known before: as if the sky were further off and the extent of the green plain wider than they could be on this little ball of earth. I had got 'out' in some sense which made the Solar System itself seem an indoor affair. It gave me a feeling of freedom, but also of exposure, possibly of danger, which continued to accompany me through all that followed....
".... It was the light, the grass, the trees that were different; made of some different substance, so much solider than things in our country that men were ghosts by comparison. Moved by a sudden thought, I bent down and tried to pluck the daisy which was growing at my feet. The stalk wouldn't break.... The little flower was hard, not like wood or even like iron, but like diamond.... I noticed that I could see the grass not only between my feet but THROUGH them. I also was a phantom. Who will give me words to express the terror of that discovery?" pp. 19-21

"[A]t the end of all things," those who have chosen the solid, light-filled eternity of Heaven must let go of the damned and allow them their Hell. Otherwise, "the loveless and the self-imprisoned" will "be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to VETO Heaven." pg. 135(less)

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Apr 02, 2013 Shelby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: completed-reads-of-2013

I am once again lost in pure, blissful, organic, amazement. I have never read more truth in an "analogy". (More or less, in my opinion.)
When I was a child, my father would read me Bible verses, and my tiny brain would bubble to the brim with a million questions bouncing around in the anticipation of being popped. But perhaps my biggest question was "How do you get into heaven?" I can still remember how my child-like mind painted portraits of huge golden gates and delicate marble-faced women in...more I am once again lost in pure, blissful, organic, amazement. I have never read more truth in an "analogy". (More or less, in my opinion.)
When I was a child, my father would read me Bible verses, and my tiny brain would bubble to the brim with a million questions bouncing around in the anticipation of being popped. But perhaps my biggest question was "How do you get into heaven?" I can still remember how my child-like mind painted portraits of huge golden gates and delicate marble-faced women in white dancing around them. "I must know how to get there!" I thought. I never really felt like any answer I was given, was good enough though. "Follow the ten commandments" my father would tell me. But then of course, I'd have about a million or more questions about each and every one of them. Grown-ups just don't have all day to answer a little girls biblical philosophies though, now do they? No. That's when I came up with my own. Yes. I came up with my route to heaven. And though I was naive, I can't necessarily say I was wrong. My seven year old self declared that, if you always told the truth, said you were sorry, didn't cheat, told your family you loved them everyday, were always nice to everyone, no matter how mean they were to you, did everyone favors, shared what you had, and asked for forgiveness every night before bed, then, those pearly gates would open for you someday! But seven turns into seventeen, and, alas! Here I am at 20. Though, I can't say my beliefs have much changed. I still believe in a selfless life, but not as an admission ticket. Because I believe you really do choose your own fate. If you believe in (topics i choose not to ramble about) and live thorough the eyes of God selflessly, you are granted. If you live for desire and earthly pleasures, no matter how much you feel you've earned a right to that which lies above, you haven't really chosen it have you? Not until you give up your love of pleasure for the love of LOVE.

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: Those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those 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 "(less)

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Feb 26, 2013 Abbershcmael rated it 5 of 5 stars

I highly recommend The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. Like many of his books, the main theme is religion. The novel is short but very enlightening. It is easy to read and while it does start a tad confusing, it becomes much clearer towards the end. The basic plot of the story is the narrator’s journey in Heaven and his interactions with his Spirit Guide while he watches others from Hell and their interactions with their Spirit Guide.

This book is very enjoyable mainly because it makes you reflect...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio

Interesting concept. This is a book that if I ever read again I will buy a copy so I can mark it up and write in the margins.

“Son,'he said,' ye cannot in your present state understand eternity...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 of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": li...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in December 2001.

One of the fruits of Blake's unorthodox theology was the series of engravings entitled The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which (according to the arguments accompanying the plates) depict Swedenborgian universalist ideas - the salvation of every human being. Lewis, on the other hand, wrote The Great Divorce to illustrate how different heaven and hell are in his more orthodox Protestant theology, and to say something about the ways in which he b...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Matt Bianco rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce is an allegory of heaven and hell. Well, it might not qualify as an allegory, since it does come across as if he is actually describing heaven and hell. But, since we cannot know that in this life, one might say this must be an allegory.

His description comes as the story of a man who travels from Hell to Heaven, where he meets beings from both places and learns a little about both. There are some rather interesting ideas about both places, ideas that have been repe...more

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About 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 th...more

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Books by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia #1-7)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3)

The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

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Quotes from The Great Divorce

“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. Those who knock it is opened. ” — 889 people liked it

“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” — 329 people liked it

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