Wednesday, July 22, 2009

C.S. Lewis in His Own Voice

If you've never heard C.S. Lewis speak, here are some free samples online.

The first two are from the BBC:
Beyond Personality: The New Men (14:05 mins)
March 21, 1944
Length: 14:05
(This talk later became a part of Mere Christianity.)

An Introduction to The Great Divorce
Date: May 9, 1948
Length of clip: 1:58
On this site you can hear a few samples from his lectures on The Four Loves:
  • Introduction (0:29)
  • "Agape Love" (0:20)
  • "Is Creation Necessary?" (0:35)
You can also order The C.S. Lewis Recordings, which contains the following material:
The Four Loves - In this rare recording of C.S. Lewis' own voice, Lewis examines the four classical Greek terms for love: storge, philia, eros and agape. Recorded in 1958 in London by the Episcopal Radio-TV Foundation, it was first heard in the United States on the Episcopal Series of the Protestant Hour radio program, now known as Day1.

C.S. Lewis Speaks His Mind - This rare recording contains Lewis' lecture on Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Lewis' adaptation of his famous Cambridge lecture known as "The Great Divide," his introduction to his book The Great Divorce, and his critique of works by author Charles Williams.

If there is more audio of Lewis in his own voice, let me know.

On another note, I was recently at Half-Price Books (love that store) and came across a recording of the actor Kenneth Branagh's unabridged reading of The Magician's Nephew. During recent travels we've also been listening to Michael York's unabridged reading of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I hadn't heard of these recordings before (it's time-consuming just to find out which British actor did which recording!), but I'm sure the rest are just as good. If anyone wants to take the time to figure out who reads the rest of the books, feel free to leave it below as a comment.

Update: Here are the rest of the Narnia audiobooks. Thanks for the help!

Patrick Stewart, The Last Battle

Alex Jennings, The Horse and His Boy

Lynn Redgrave, Prince Caspian

Derek Jacobi, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Jeremy Northam, The Silver Chair