Summary of Sheldon Vanauken's A Severe Mercy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The country road stretched ahead, deserted. A single car, an MG-TD two-seater, was creeping along with its lights off and its top down. The driver looked intently at every tree and contour. The few houses were dark and silent, for it was long past midnight.

#2 He stood on the bridge and looked at the house. It was large and white and spacious, exactly like he remembered it. He wondered what it would be like to live there. He did not go any farther.

#3 He thought of the house he had known as a child, and the people who had lived there. He thought of his father, who had been the permanent mayor of his town.

#4 The author’s father, a ghost watcher, was a deep influence on him. He had always wanted to go to Oxford, and when in the end he went up, it seemed both right and inevitable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822543850

IRB Media

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Insights on Sheldon Vanauken's A Severe Mercy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The country road stretched ahead, deserted. A single car, an MG-TD two-seater, was creeping along with its lights off and its top down. The driver looked intently at every tree and contour. The few houses were dark and silent, for it was long past midnight.

#2

He stood on the bridge and looked at the house. It was large and white and spacious, exactly like he remembered it. He wondered what it would be like to live there. He did not go any farther.

#3

He thought of the house he had known as a child, and the people who had lived there. He thought of his father, who had been the permanent mayor of his town.

#4

The author’s father, a ghost watcher, was a deep influence on him. He had always wanted to go to Oxford, and when in the end he went up, it seemed both right and inevitable.

#5

The author went back up to his room and imagined himself there on a rainy day, reading a book. He thought of his mother, who would always have been there for him, and the other Glenmerle dogs, running through the grass.

#6

He had had the love, and the joy that came with it. And he had had the sorrow that came with it. But the joy was worth the pain. He had chosen the heights and depths over a safe, cautious middle way.

#7

The house of honor was also the house of mourning. His parents were two of the most honorable people he knew, and he was extremely grateful for that. But his mother and father instilled what was honorable without speaking about it.

#8

He thought about Lewis, who had been his mainstay during this half-year of mourning. He thought about the house on the hill and Narnia. He had been secretly married to Davy before the