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The Place of the Lion
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$ 15.56
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| Retail Value |
$ 19.95 |
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$ 4.39 (22%) |
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| Item Number |
118282 |
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Item Description...
Product Description
Charles Williams had a genius for choosing strange and exciting themes for his novels and making them believable and profoundly suggestive of spiritual truths. Beneath the brilliant and imaginative surface of his "supernatural thrillers" lies a concealed and meticulously thought-out Christian message.
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Item Specifications...
Pages 244
Dimensions: Length: 7.96" Width: 5.28" Height: 0.62"
Weight: 0.61 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Publisher Regent College Publishing
ISBN 1573831085
EAN 9781573831086
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Availability 100 units.
Availability accurate as of May 23, 2012 04:39.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Thinking outside the box Oct 9, 2008 |
Catagorized as science fiction/fantasy, this book is really about the forces of good and evil juxtiposed with Christianity. Incredibily written to challenge the scholar, it dances with the imagination and takes the reader to nearly horrific heights of dark evil. The book is short and that is good, as the imagery and narative make you ready to be done reading it. Don't take that comment as a negative, take it as a nod to the power of the book. One tip, the action is complicated and it is far better to read it in one or two sittings than reading chapters here and there, time permitting. Once you get in the cadence of it, it's hard to put down. | | | | A Delight To Read Sep 11, 2008 |
| I have only recently become acquainted with Charles Williams, a contemporary and friend af J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose books I have been reading for decades. This is a wonderful book, in the sense that it is full of wonder. It is not for everyone, but if you are one who contemplates the greater meaning of things, or enjoy reading about the interaction of the natural with the supernatural, you will enjoy this book. | | |  | Too Platonic? Jan 6, 2008 |
Williams has a narrative gift that reminds you of Chesterton, and when he's telling the story and unfolding events, it's an exciting read. But in his intellectual zeal, the old principle about "show, don't tell" is cast aside--much of the time is taken up in raptured abstraction and grandly obscure history and philosophizing that quickly become tedious (because unclear) and repetitive. He is given to sudden visionary scene shifts that make heavy picture-drawing demands of the reader's mind, made all the harder going by his breathless clauses upon clauses, which as a technique are supposed to gather the soul up into heights undreamed of, but actually read as purple and overwrought.
Williams has an odd way of both under- and over-explaining, taking for granted he's defined his historical or philosophical terms in a precise and usable way for the purposes of the narrative while loudly "tour-guiding" symbols the reader can easily recognize (such as that, for random example, the burning house is the burning bush). His characters are forever stopping the action for a bit of postgrad seminar instead of letting the action unfold the message, perhaps due to lack of trust in the reader.
This is a difficult book, but it's not because Williams ideas are difficult to grasp--they aren't--or rather, they wouldn't be if he expressed them better. It's difficult because the author won't stick to his last and tell a story. The characters are undeveloped except in the most unfair deus ex machina way; the action stops and starts like a lurching bus, always having to slam on the brakes as some verbiage crosses the road; the plot is almost an afterthought, with loose ends everywhere untied. The ideas that animate this book are interesting, and there's certainly nothing wrong with Williams' mind or erudition; but as a novelist, Williams has a hard time moving from the Idea to the Thing and staying with it.
I would recommend this book as a group read, because there's plenty to talk about, but it's nowhere near Lewis, Tolkien, or Chesterton when it comes to throwing a rope around the archetypal and numinous and bringing it home to modern man. | | | | Apocalypse Where? Dec 30, 2005 |
Once again, Mr. Williams fantasizes the eruption of eschatological events into the ordinary life of the provincial British bourgeoisie. The result is something like the literary offspring of the mating of P.G. Wodehouse with the Book of Revelations. One thing that is rarely discussed, though, is the strange brand of comedy that ensues. For example, picture a young woman sitting at her breakfast table and pondering the remarkable events of the previous evening: A giant pterodactyl, which seems to incarnate the essence of her own self-centeredness and bears something of a resemblance to Peter Abelard, has attempted to assault her by smashing through her bedroom window, ultimately destroying the upper stories of her house while virtually obliterating her father in the process. In the nick of time, she is saved from complete physical and spiritual annihilation by the arrival of her boyfriend riding a unicorn and with an enormous eagle resting on his shoulder. Little wonder she seems distracted as she butters her toast!
I'd agree with my fellow reviewer who notes that a passing familiarity with Plato's Ideals is really all the philosophical preparation a reader needs to jump into this novel. However, a little extra reading regarding Abelard's take on "universals" might add a little extra spice - since Abelard is the subject of the heroine's (the pterodactyl girl) doctoral dissertation. I'd suggest the article "The Medieval Problem of Universals" in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
| | |  | Best Williams So Far... Sep 3, 2005 |
| Working through Williams's seven novels I come to "Place of the Lion" fourth (after "Shadows of Ecstasy", "War in Heaven", and "Many Dimensions"). "...Lion" is in some ways the most simple to read of these four, with the most cohesive narrative and fewest extraneous characters. Conceptually, it may be the most difficult of the four, but a simple, definitional understanding of Platonic Ideals is all that is required to open it up to everyone. With that caveat, I find "Place of the Lion" the best of the four novels mentioned. True to Williams's norm, the fantastical pops into the book within the first half-dozen pages and never retreats. Also of the four, "...Lion" is most clearly applicable to life, with particularly valuable insights into the transcendence of love - most overtly of eros and friendship, but of charity and affection as well (see CS Lewis - "The Four Loves" for an excellent non-fiction treatment of the same topics). All-in-all...very good and highly recommended. | | | Write your own review about The Place of the Lion
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