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The Abolition of Man & The Great Divorce

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The Abolition of Man & The Great Divorce

By: C. S. Lewis
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Here are two classics of moral philosophy from one of the most revered Christian voices of our time.

In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis reflects on society and nature and the challenges of how best to educate our children. He describes what public education should be and how far from this standard modern education has fallen. Lewis eloquently argues that, as a society, we need to underpin reading and writing lessons with moral education.

In The Great Divorce, Lewis presents his vision of the afterworld. A fictional narrator boards a bus on a drizzly English afternoon and embarks on an incredible voyage through Heaven and Hell, where he meets a host of supernatural beings and comes to some significant realizations about the nature of good and evil.

Click here to see all the titles in our C.S. Lewis collection.©1945 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks Christianity Education Religious Studies Spirituality Thought-Provoking Divorce Classics

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Critic reviews

"These two short works by Lewis are a fine introduction to his eloquent writing, as well as his thought....Robert Whitfield's disciplined and well-modulated voice has an appealingly confident quality." ( AudioFile)
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the Abolition of Man is a difficult work, but rewards those who commit to trying to understand the importance of formal education as a key feature towards the moral education of the individual. And how that system can be used as a tool to instil a love towards Objective Values, such as The Good, The True, and the Beautiful, or can be used as a method of political or philosophical, and psychological conditioning, where essential humans conquest over nature, turns out to be some men in control of other men, conditioning them from the youngest age, even at the genetic level, to be what the conditioners decide. this is a startling, frank, sober, and prophetic in its insight into cultural trends, and the consequences entailed in rejecting Objective Values.

A Powerful argument in defense of Objective Value.

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Can’t believe it took me this long to get to reading/listening to this! I think I assumed it was non-fiction. An interesting fiction/dream to explore some difficult concepts. Lots to ruminate on. Brilliant story and well narrated.

Thought provoking

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Would you listen to The Abolition of Man & The Great Divorce again? Why?

Possibly.. it took me quite a while to get into the main Audiobook called "The Great Divorce", which is an allegory about the ghosts of people who had died, and who had to decide whether they were willing to let go of bitterness, hatred. resentment, unwillingness to believe in the possibility of there being a much better life-after-death with a Creator God who loved us them and cares very deeply for them. Or whether they thought it was all a load of rubbish, and that they will carry on living the type of existence they lived before they died, just doing their own thing, hurting other people and basically doing whatever they felt made "Me" happy. Hence "The Great Divorce" between those who believed in a much better After Life with a Creator God that deeply loves them and desires an intimate relationship with them AND THOSE who believe that once they died NOTHING exciting happened and they're no better off or worse off before they died."The Abolition of Man" is a long lecture that basically believes that we need to be at peace with nature and not try to damage or deface it, that there's a General & Spiritual Law in operation that governs the whole universe, and us trying to go against it or defacing nature WILL ONLY IN THE END RESULT in "The Abolition of Man [i.e. Human Beings], as we do NEED NATURE (I.e. Trees, Animals, Flowers, Bees etc ) as much as it needs us AND we are all interdependent on one another - A VERY HEAVY GOING DISCOURSE!!

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Abolition of Man & The Great Divorce?

In "The Abolition of Man", I was very pleasantly surprised when I realised that all the people that tried to board a bus and also those who boarded it were the ghosts of people who had died (although a number of them were unaware they were dead until much later!)

Which scene did you most enjoy?

"The Great Divorce": The scene where a ghost was in the Halfway Place to Paradise, was unwilling to let go of his pet sins and habits, did NOT want to go up to Paradise BUT was determined to pick and take back down to his Grey World [in this allegory, HELL was a mindset that people had imprisoned themselves in and could not and would not get out of it because they'd got used to it and it gave them FAISE SECURITY that all was well] a delicious fruit from the Halfway World, even if it killed him in the process. [though theoretically he could not die, but would ONLY puff and strain trying to get the delicious fruit to his world!].

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

"The Great Divorce" - I was quite moved by the scene of an unknown lady from the other world (i.e. a lady who had died and was not a particular famous or outstanding personality in any way in our world)) known as Sarah Smith who had lived in Golders Green and was NOW IN THE HALFWAY PLACE, where she was an extremely radiant, BEAUTIFUL LADY & ROYALTY, who was being attended by a wonderful array of talking birds, animals and trees going before and after her, singing about her and HOW SHE HAD OVERCOME GREAT ADVERSITY AND ILLNESSES AND HEARTACHES and could no longer be touched by such things as illnesses & sorrow even IF THEY WANTED TO. because she KNEW SHE BELONGED TO The Creator God WHO loved her so much, cared for her so much, forgave all her "past sins" and misdeavours and SET HER FREE TO TRULY LIVE.

Fairly enjoyable

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I truly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. The ability to look deep into human nature and question our reasonings was great.

great listen

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The Abolition of Man works as a good antidote to Postmodernist fraud that has hegemony in universities across the world.

A joy to read & listen to

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I give the Abolition of Man 5 stars, while 3 stars to the great divorce.

Two books

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The Abolition of Man will probably forever be one of my favourite essays. So much to contemplate in such a short piece.

two bangers!

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I really enjoyed listening to "The Great Divorce". I had read this book many years ago so thought that I'd give this a listen and it didn't disappoint. Once you get into it the characters are very interesting and offer an insight into what really is important - the harmony of life and how humanity and each part of nature fits together to form a rich tapestry of encounter, evidence of a greater reality, valuing others and true love.

Fascinating insight into the afterlife

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Both parts of the work are very good.

I'm a big fan of CS Lewis and all of his works. This is an excellent production I enjoyed thoroughly.

I'm unsure what connects the two different parts of this production beyond their author, but I'm equally satisfied with both, and so I won't complain.

Moving

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CS Lewis's "The Abolition of Man" brilliantly dissects the dangers of moral relativism, championing timeless virtues. His eloquent defense of objective values serves as a compelling call to preserve the essence of humanity, making it a thought-provoking and timeless work.
The narrator of this audio, Simon Vance, superb, and as a result, I’ve looked for other Work, which he has narrated, highly recommended.

Truly engaging

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