Charles Williams

Charles Williams: Poet of Theology, by Glen Cavaliero.

After a short look at his life, this book is mainly an analysis of his works, his plays, poetry, novels, critical writings, and theology. Williams is the most enigmatic and problematic of the Inklings. He was only part of the circle for a short time during the war when his job as an editor at the Oxford University Press took him to the college. His theology was colored by many mystical ideas; for a while he was “a member of the Salvator Mundi Temple of the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross.” Tolkien disliked his dabbling in the occult (and even called him “the witch doctor”), and one member of the Inklings “maintained that conversation with Williams enabled him to understand how inquisitors had felt it right to burn people.” Lewis however was extremely taken with his spiritual insights and what he saw as the ‘holiness of his person’. He said Williams was “as ugly as a chimpanzee but so radiant (he emanates more love than any man I have ever known) that as soon as he begins talking … he is transfigured and looks like an angel.” “Williams was an unswerving and devoted member of the Church of England ... Although Williams attracted the attention and admiration of some of the most notable writers of his day, including T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden, his greatest admirer was probably C. S. Lewis.” – Wikipedia. The man created disciples wherever he went. Anyway, this book is (briefly) about his life and mostly about his work. I take the occasion here as a brief introduction to Williams. An Eerdman book.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Biography/Criticism. Hardback.

He Came Down From Heaven and The Forgiveness of Sins, Witchcraft, and The Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church, by Charles Williams.

Some of Williams’s works of theology (yes, even ‘Witchcraft’, because it talks about sins against God that lead to such perversions). I like these books, though they are full of what Hugo Dyson called Williams’ ‘clotted glory’ – one emerges from them as if awakening from listening to a piece of music with rapt attention, with a glorious feeling but no distinct memory of any passage of music, or how they linked together to produce that feeling. Their effect is more like a good sermon than apologetics or history, though there is plenty of both in the books. ‘Heaven’ and ‘Witchcraft’ are part of an Inklings Heritage Series from Apocryphile Press; they seem to focus mainly on Williams and offer many books I would like to get.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Theology. History. Softcovers.

Taliessin through Logres, The Region of the Summer Stars, Arthurian Torso, by Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis.

Williams, on his death, left two works unfinished. One was his ‘song cycle on The Matter of Britain’, two books of which had been published (‘Taliessin’ and ‘Region’). The other was a proposed study about ‘The Matter of Britain’, to be called “The Figure of Arthur”. Since it was never completed, Lewis, as editor, presents it as ‘The Arthurian Torso’ and adds his analysis and notes about Williams and the work that is left. “The lyrical cycle is a difficult work which, if left without a commentary, might soon become another such battlefield for competing interpretations as Blake's Prophetic Book. Since I had heard nearly all of it read aloud and expounded by the author and had questioned him closely on his meaning I felt that I might be able to comment on it, though imperfectly, yet usefully.” – Lewis. This Eerdman edition is in good shape for its age (1974). That title, “The Region of the Summer Stars”! I built one of my own poems around that line, though the subject matter was more inspired by Tolkien. The poetry in the book is difficult, dense, heavy with allusion (some to Williams’ own personal mythological imagery, like Po’lu), no rhyme or set meter but with flashing images that chime with each other and phrases that tease forth meaning, incantations rather than verses that weave their spell to call forth responses from the reader. As such the work has never been an easy favorite with me, although I can see there is treasure hidden in this barrow. I started reading it in the college library; got this copy within the last ten years.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Poetry. Essay. Softcover.

Collected Plays, by Charles Williams.

The first play in the book, “Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury”, was a Canterbury Festival play the year after T. S. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral”. The next-to-last play, “Terror of Light”, I think the best; the apostles, Mary, Saul of Tarsus, and the ghost of Judas Iscariot are gathered at Pentecost on the brink of a great change in the Church.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Plays. Softcover.

All Hallows’ Eve, by Charles Williams. Introduction by T. S. Eliot.

Possibly the best of Williams’ seven novels. For years I had a battered old black softcover of the book; I was glad to replace it with this ex-library Hardback. The girls Lester and Evelyn slowly come to the realization they are dead; they wander the city of London, wondering what comes next. Lester’s husband, an artist, has become drawn close to the circle of Simon Magus, a magician and an Anti-Christ, whose plans to take over the world will come to fruition on All Hallows’ Eve. Lester’s dawning understanding of the true meaning of love, especially the substitutionary power of God’s love, saves both her husband and helps destroy Magus’s power.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Novel. Supernatural Thriller. Hardback.

“Shadows of Ecstasy. 1933. – A humanistic adept has discovered that by focusing his energies inward he can extend his life almost indefinitely. He undertakes an experiment using African lore to die and resurrect his own body thereby assuring his immortality. His followers begin a revolutionary movement to supplant European civilisation. The first of Williams's novels to be written, though not the first published.” -Wikipedia. The first copy I ever found as well. Not his best book.

“Many Dimensions. 1931. – An evil antiquarian illegally purchases the fabled Stone of Suleiman (Williams uses this Muslim form rather than the more familiar King Solomon) from its Islamic guardian in Baghdad and returns to England to discover not only that the Stone can multiply itself infinitely without diminishing the original, but that it also allows its possessor to transcend the barriers of space and time.’ – Wikipedia

“Descent into Hell. 1937. – Generally thought to be Williams's best novel, Descent deals with various forms of selfishness, and how the cycle of sin brings about the necessity for redemptive acts. In it, an academic becomes so far removed from the world that he fetishizes a woman to the extent that his perversion takes the form of a succubus. Other characters include a doppelgänger, the ghost of a suicidal laborer, and a playwright modelled in some ways on the author. Illustrates Williams's belief in the replacement of sin and substitutional love.” – Wikipedia. Some squeamish former owner has used ink to correct ‘Hell’ into ‘Heck’ on the front cover.

“The Place of the Lion (1931). Platonic archetypes begin to appear around an English country town, wreaking havoc and drawing to the surface the spiritual strengths and flaws of individual characters.” – Wikipedia. The novel that led to the introduction of C. S. Lewis to Charles Williams.

“The Greater Trumps. 1932. – The original Tarot deck is used to unlock enormous metaphysical powers by allowing the possessors to see across space and time, create matter, and raise powerful natural storms.” – Wikipedia.

“War in Heaven. 1930. – The Holy Grail surfaces in an obscure country parish and becomes variously a sacramental object to protect or a vessel of power to exploit.” – Wikipedia.

Six more of his ‘Supernatural Thrillers’, all Eerdman’s editions, though the first three are older and have more abstract covers, and the second three have more representational art.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Supernatural Thrillers. Novels. Softcovers.