A Grief Observed
Written by C. S. Lewis
Narrated by Ralph Cosham
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
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 English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement.
More audiobooks from C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Divorce Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Abolition of Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weight of Glory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miracles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Grief Observed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Problem of Pain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5George MacDonald Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Grief Observed
Related audiobooks
A Grief Observed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Centering Jesus: How the Lamb of God Transforms Our Communities, Ethics, and Spiritual Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWherever I Am, I'm Fine: Letters About Living While Dying Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith without Losing It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After Suicide: There's Hope for Them and for You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSubversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Afterlives: Reinventing Death in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Will Not Be Silenced: Responding Courageously to Our Culture's Assault on Christianity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Myth of a Christian Religion: How Believers Must Rebel to Advance the Kingdom of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Reason to Hide: Standing for Christ in a Collapsing Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stuck in Reverse: Finding Joy in the Middle of Weird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDo You Pray? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Subversive Jesus: An Adventure in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness in a Broken World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aging: Growing Old in Church Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not a Tame Lion: The Life, Teachings, and Legacy of C.S. Lewis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Seven Wounds of Christ: Where Skeptics, Cynics and Seekers Find Unexpected Healing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Master's Indwelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aging in Grace: Letters to Those in the Autumn of Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gift of Thorns: Jesus, the Flesh, and the War for Our Wants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suffering Is Never for Nothing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Journey of the Soul: A Practical Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Growth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us From Drowning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard: Great Philosophers & Their Inspiring Thoughts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Religion & Spirituality For You
Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spritual Growth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Enoch the Prophet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward after Loss and Heartache Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Problem of Pain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letter to a Christian Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection through Embodied Living Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blood of the Lamb: The Conquering Weapon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Awe of God: The Astounding Way a Healthy Fear of God Transforms Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power to Change: Mastering the Habits That Matter Most Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wake Up With Purpose!: What I’ve Learned in my First Hundred Years Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for A Grief Observed
912 ratings41 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Wow, I never realized how pompous and narcissistic C. S. Lewis and his crowd were, including his wife and son; they created a huge rhetorical apparatus about how cultured and elite they were. The marriage sounds like it was mostly for show (though I'm sure they were friends), and therefore the bereavement paean seemed over-wrought and tiresome. Not recommended if you want to hear a real experience with death and dying.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A punch in the stomach.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Honest, hopeful in even the bleakest of times, another glimpse of Lewis' brilliance.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I know this is a classic per se, but I didn't like the book. It was hard to get into the book for me, and I found Lewis' writings distant. The book is about how C.S. Lewis deals with the tragedy of his wife's death; however, the forward lets you know that his wife had a terminal illness when he married her. I would've rather read Lewis' thoughts on that matter instead.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great travel through Lewis' suffering of loss and grief. It really helped me face some of the issues I'm going through right now with dad's death.Not a normal book with any clear sense or structure. Just random thoughts and notes. Real gems come through every so many pages. It really gives a sense of the emotional and intellectual struggles of someone grieving.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This short book, written in the first flush of grief by Lewis, packs quite a punch as he describes, no, records his grief and anger at the loss of his wife. I read it while reading Julian Barnes "Levels of Life", another author's attempt to write out his grief at losing his beloved. One author a Christian, the other an atheist, both books are illuminating, honest and powerful. I believe Barnes has more in common with Lewis than he might think.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's hard to rate something like this book. The text itself acknowledges the truth of the title: it is a single grief observed, not grief in general. Interest in C. S. Lewis and his life, or his point of view on faith, or interest in this book through recent grief of your own, is the best portal into this book.
I haven't lost anyone as near and dear to me as H. to Jack. I lost my grandmother recently, and I recognise some of the feelings he describes -- and oh, how much do I fear feeling them for myself in full force, one day.
He is analytical about his grief, thinking it through in stages, asking questions of God and trying to answer them for himself. Thus, it's not quite as painful to read as it could be. His son's introduction is quite painful, when he speaks of 'Jack' and his pain, so familiarly, so tenderly.
I hate the reviews of this that say it's all mind and no heart. Probably because I'm an analytical, 'cold-hearted' person myself -- I see myself in C. S. Lewis' observed grief -- and yes, I feel pain as much as anyone else, I just address it differently. Everyone grieves in different ways; no two griefs are alike.
Truly cheerful stuff to read on one's birthday. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In this slender volume, C.S. Lewis shares his personal experience with grief following the death of his wife. This is a grief that has him questioning his belief in God and exposing the raw, painful, angry emotions that accompany his grieving process. There are many ways to grieve, but one thing is certain - it has to be faced, and Lewis has done just that in this book. The harsh reality that everyone who lives will die means that we must all face grief at some time if we haven't already done so. His experiences with grief are not unique, but he is to be applauded for sharing his palpable pain in a way that may help others who suffer a loss of such magnitude.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Started this book and was expecting it to be somewhat comforting. .. haven't found it to be so yet, but I'm not even half way through. It's not a long book though.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent excellent excellent. The afterword was alright, but Lewis' actual text was phenomenal. This is actually the journals that he wrote after the death of his wife Joy. Seeing him feeling and then examining his grief, and the implications it had on his faith, was so intriguing.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book draws the reader in and through its brief snippets you can feel the pain, taste the profound grief Lewis suffered when "H." died. Don't look for tidy answers to why God allows suffering and grief. Rather look for the calm sense that even though we don't see God's purpose we can sense his presence and trust his promises. This is a wonderful read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In "A Grief Observed," C.S. Lewis allows the reader to walk with him on his journey through grief. He was a brilliant scholar and Oxford professor whom people looked to for answers and meaning when suddenly his world was turned upside down by the loss of his wife Joy, who died of cancer in her 40s. In the book, he explores honestly the depth of his anguish and his search to find comfort and hope in the midst of the despair of loss.Lewis describes many of the multitude of emotions that grief can bring, and also the seemingly endless barrage of unanswered questions he found himself asking. Ultimately he finds comfort and hope in his faith, but not before journey through a time of anguish and questioning God- even expressing his anger and shock at the loss.If you have lost a close loved one, or know someone who has, this book may be a great source of comfort in the midst of grief. I facilitate a grief support group, and a number of people have found it to be very helpful in coping with the loss of a family member or close friend. I have also found it to be a helpful source of comfort and hope in facing some of the losses in my life.I would highly recommend it to anyone facing grief and loss, as well as for caregivers, clergy and counselors who work with the bereaved.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For someone who has suffered a similarly deep loss as Lewis, this book is a comfort. When I read this book, I often find myself underlining something that I have thought or felt or wondered as I've made my way through my own grief. If you've never experienced grief, this is the most realistic account I've ever read. "A Grief Observed" is a gut-wrenching book to read, but I find it utterly amazing every time I read it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Painfully honest account of Lewis's reaction to his wife's death. I do not enjoy it or find it comforting, but I respect it greatly.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lewis' "Pain" and "Grief" should be read together. Grief is Lewis' personal experience of natural evil in the world. In it Lewis absolutely rails against God for the death of his wife, and the injustice of it all.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A wonderful short piece of work. I greatly enjoyed to hear honest questions being answered and appreciated that he took them very seriously. I belief time of doubt is so necessary but is often not talked about. I welcome it, however, and love when books like this and Disappointment with God by Philip Yancey tackle questions head on.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5C.S. Lewis joined the human race when his wife, Joy Gresham, died of cancer. Lewis, the Oxford don whose Christian apologetics make it seem like he's got an answer for everything, experienced crushing doubt for the first time after his wife's tragic death. A Grief Observed contains his epigrammatic reflections on that period: "Your bid--for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity--will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high," Lewis writes. "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."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read this back in high school (as many of Lewis' books) and couldn't put it down. How he changes talking about his grief and forming that into a love for Christ is nothing short of brilliant!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5C.S. Lewis joined the human race when his wife, Joy Gresham, died of cancer. Lewis, the Oxford don whose Christian apologetics make it seem like he's got an answer for everything, experienced crushing doubt for the first time after his wife's tragic death. A Grief Observed contains his epigrammatic reflections on that period... This is the book that inspired the film Shadowlands, but it is more wrenching, more revelatory, and more real than the movie. It 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a brief look into the journal Lewis wrote in when he lost his wife, Joy, after 4 intensely happy years together. In this book he freely confesses "his doubts, his rage, and his awareness of human frailty". He is very open and honest about his feelings and his thoughts towards others and his God during this time.The second half of this book is an "Afterword" by Chad Walsh. This part of the book was very interesting because it gave me a look at C.S. Lewis' life and work before the death of his wife. I am glad I took the time to read more about this man and the love and grief he expresses after losing someone he dearly loved.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've been an atheist all my 64 years, but I recently lost my wife of many years to cancer. Having that in common with Lewis, got me between the covers of this slim book. Being able to relate so strongly to someone that I'd never enjoyed before, was an interesting experience. His raw writings on his loss and grief were very similar to my own journal writings of late. I felt closer to his angry words about a cruel god, than his return to his faith at the book's end, but we're all different when it comes to whatever faith we may have. I'm glad to have read his words. The drive to read the words of someone else who has suffered a similar pain is a strong force.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've read this book now two or three times, sometimes finding new kernels of information and other times reminders of lessons learned in the past.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As Madeleine L'Engle says in her introduction, “each experience of grief is unique,” and Lewis was a quirky sort of fellow. His grieving for his wife, so dearly cherished during their far-too-brief marriage, is explored through the format of passionate journal entries. As with others of his works, I find that our thoughts on the issue of theodicy – the problem of pain and a benevolent, all-powerful God – aren't quite the same. Still, his experience of the progression of loss and pain, of struggle to reconcile belief and emotion, of fear of the loss of memories, etc., have elements which much surely be nearly universal, and his honesty is comforting.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is one of the most remarkable books I've ever known. It is, in my experience, the best work of short nonfiction in Christian literary history. Regardless, it is certainly one of the most poignant. I feel inadequate to explain further, but being so brief a book, I see no reason why you shouldn't read it.For those of you who struggle with completing nonfiction, I will tell you that you likely will have no such problem with "A Grief Observed". It's emotionally, psychologically, philosophically, and theologically compelling, applicable to personal experience, and fascinating down to each and every vivid sentence. I for one make it my intent, with delight, to read it many times again.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I first heard of this book on the “What are We Reading: Religion” thread on LT. It describes Lewis’ journey through grief after the death of his wife (“H”) from cancer. He writes very honestly of his anguish and loneliness and how surprisingly little consolation he finds in other people or his religion in the first days after H’s death."It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? . . . I thought I trusted the rope until it mattered to me whether it would bear me. Now it matters, and I find I didn’t."Lewis’ initial goal in writing this book was to describe the “state” of sorrow but he discovers that it’s more of a process and by the end of the book, while he is still on his journey, he’s made alot of progress and, when he turns “to God, my mind no longer meets that locked door.”I haven’t experienced the kind of grief that Lewis describes nor am I religious so I was surprised to like this book as much as I did. I think it was a combination of how good a writer Lewis is and how honest he was about what he was going through that attracted me the most. In comparison to how detailed Lewis is about his initial grief, I was somewhat disappointed that it wasn’t clearer how he was finally able to move on to a better place. As he says, “there was no sudden, striking and emotional transition. Like the warming of a room or the coming of daylight. When you first notice them they have already been going on for some time.”
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good book, apart from the preface by Madelaine L'Engle which was nonsense and detracted in some ways from the work.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5to be able to see inside someone's head and read their thoughts as an event is unfolding is incredibly interesting. c.s. lewis write about his grief over the loss of his wife to illness, while he goes thru it. enlightening, truthful, and emotional. WOW!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This slender book--only 76 pages in four chapters--is both raw and powerful. I do understand why one reviewer spoke of feeling distaste that something so personal was published. I think that's its strength though. Yes, I almost wanted to look away. I've felt conflicted at times about Lewis' work. I admire him as a writer, but disagree strongly with many aspects of his worldview. For one, I'm no believer in any aspect of the supernatural, am no Christian, and Christianity defines him and his works. But I think particularly because I've read so much by Lewis, I can't help but see him as a sort of friend. And not even knowing he died before I was born keeps me from flinching from the pain on the page. But I also admire his willingness to expose that pain. And this is a book not just about pain, about loss--but about love. About his love for his lost wife, who obviously greatly enriched his life, and yes, in the end his love for God that Lewis tries so hard to find again in the face of feeling shut out when he needs God most. He talks about his faith being like this rope that seemed strong and secure when it only needed to bind a box, but doesn't seem so secure when he was using it to hang above an abyss. I think there's something so very brave, nay heroic, in spending a long career as a Christian apologist and then be willing to bare not just your pain, but your doubt. And because Lewis is a superb writer, there were so many lines here that resonated--particularly the line, "Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state, but a process."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A powerful look at grief.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have listened to this book several times on CD since the death of my husband. So far it comes the closest to describing what I find to be indescribable, the grief felt when one loses their soul mate and the inability to put the loss into perspective for those on the outside. I recommend this for anyone who has lost someone close or to someone who is trying to understand someone elses grief.