Reviewed Apr 17, 2017 on The Litt Review.
Spirits in Bondage was CS Lewis’s first published work, when he was twenty, under a pseudonym. It had no critical acclaim, and was a disappointment for the young lad.
I wish it had stayed that way. But it didn’t. Lewis went on to become a famous author, and this work was dragged out of obscurity and published over and over again. It eventually ended up in my hands when I was around 12, and I became enamoured with it. In particular, I like the fact that it was written while Lewis was still an atheist, which is something that I, a budding humanist, identified with immensely. Lewis was an atheist before he became a Christian theologian; I could be an atheist, too, because I could always come back later if I wanted, I thought to myself. Kind of strange logic, but I was young.
I listened to this book again, recently, using the Librivox audiobook. I listened to almost the entire book in one go, while on a run. This was a very boring and sad experience. Partly because the poetry is so bad, and partly because I am not used to hearing poetry while running, and partly because the narrator had a voice that was a bit older than the intended reader and also had a thick American accent. I don’t blame him, at all - well done, Robert Garrison. But I don’t think this worked very well. Granted, I may not have given it a chance.
Some poems I remembered, and can still quote by heart:
I am the spider making her net,
I am the beast with jaws blood-wet.I am a wolf that follows the sun
And I will catch him ere day be done.
From Satan Speaks.
I remember this, especially, because it smacks so much of later work, in Narnia.
I’m hunger. I’m thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy’s body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.
Says the Werewolf in Prince Caspian.
That makes this volume interesting - seeing where Lewis would go. But not all of the poems have this quality - a lot are bad imitations of the romantics, or sad poems about the GreaT War. Those are interesting, at times, but rarely worth reading unless you’re interested in the development of Lewis’s psyche. But, as is probably abundantly clear, I don’t think there’s any other reason to read it.
You can read the entire book for free from Project Gutenberg.
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