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That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups
 
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That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups (Paperback)

by C. S. Lewis (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 17.07
Price: CDN$ 12.31 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Frequently Bought Together

That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups + Perelandra + Out Of The Silent Planet
Total List Price: CDN$ 52.97
Price For All Three: CDN$ 38.51

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  • This item: That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups by C. S. Lewis

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  • Perelandra by C S Lewis

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Product Details

Product Description

Review

The New YorkerIn his usual polished prose, the author creates an elaborate satiric picture of a war between morality and devilry.

The New YorkerIf wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels.

Los Angeles TimesLewis, perhaps more than any other twentieth-century writer, forced those who listened to him and read his works to come to terms with their own philosophical presuppositions.


Product Description

The final book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, That Hideous Strength concludes the adventures of the matchless Dr. Ransom. The dark forces that were repulsed in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra are massed for an assault on the planet Earth itself. Word is on the wind that the mighty wizard Merlin has come back to the land of the living after many centuries, holding the key to ultimate power for that force which can find him and bend him to its will. A sinister technocratic organization is gaining power throughout Europe with a plan to "recondition" society, and it is up to Ransom and his friends to squelch this threat by applying age-old wisdom to a new universe dominated by science. The two groups struggle to a climactic resolution that brings the Space Trilogy to a magnificent, crashing close.
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That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups
72% buy the item featured on this page:
That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups 4.2 out of 5 stars (33)
CDN$ 12.31
Four Loves
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The Complete C.s. Lewis Signature Classics
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The Complete C.s. Lewis Signature Classics 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
CDN$ 22.04
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Customer Reviews

33 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, Sep 11 2006
By Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is the third and final book in C.S. Lewis's amazing Space Trilogy. This book was written as a sequel to the immensely popular Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra but Lewis also wrote it so that the story can stand on its own. So if you haven't read the first, you can start here.

That Hideous Strength, unlike the first 2 books in this series, where Ransom leaves earth and fights evil in space and on other planets, the battle in this book takes place on earth.

Ransom must lead a group of faithful believers against National Institute for Coordinated Experiments or N.I.C.E., an organization that believes that Science can solve all of humanity's problems. He must battle the people in this organization, super aliens trying to invade and control earth and use its population against other planets and against God.

On top of all of that, Merlin has arisen from his long sleep and has arisen in Englandd's time of greatest need. But the question is, who will find him first - N.I.C.E. or Ransom and his team? The fate of the world, and possibly the universe, rests on this question.

Lewis called this story an adult's fairy-tale. It is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, and a book that will keep your attention as you raptly turn the pages to find out where Lewis will lead you.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Goodness Spiced with Pantheism for a Fiercer Ride, Jan 8 2009
By Graham Worthington "Graham Worthington, autho... (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: That Hideous Strength (Paperback)
Lewis, like his friend and fellow philologist Tolkien, dealt in the creation of realistic myth. This well paced novel culminates his Space Trilogy, commencing with Out of the Silent Planet and continuing with Perelandra, based on the theme of natural and beneficial order versus the illusion of unchecked, destructive "human progress."

While one may take objection to many of Lewis's ideas on religion - I myself do - the unseen world of the eldils, or angels - both good and bad - that he constructs is so grandiose and fascinating that I for one forgive him all offences.

The story opens quietly in a small English town, where a modern young woman - modern for 1945 that is - endures the frustrations of marriage to an underpaid fellow of a minor university. From this innocent beginning, the pair become entrapped by the machinery of a satanic group bent on world domination.

Step by step they are enticed into a satanic plan for world domination, yet, while the plot snares them with all the devilish menace that a reader could wish for, its grasp on their lives is achieved by everyday, believable manipulations: the threatened loss of employment, the flattery of recognition, the temptation of money, power and fame. Eventually the Satanists overreach themselves, and the novel culminates in an imaginative battle of good and evil, with both spiritual and brute physical forces on either side.

The writer George Orwell argues that the inevitable triumph of good over evil weakens the novel, but I don't agree. To me, its charm lies not in its ending but in the skill with which the story is told. It says much for this story, that though science has overtaken it during passage of half a century and more, its lives as though written today.

I particularly enjoy Lewis's construction of opposed hierarchies, and the subtlety with which both good and bad characters are drawn. But how remarkable it is that we are often drawn more to the bad characters! My favourite amongst these is Wither, an ancient villain, whose massive but crumbling intellect hides behind a façade of amiable vagueness as he schemes his way towards ultimate power.

Ending on this note, is it not strange and intriguing that a strong Christian apologist like professor Lewis should need to spice his calm beliefs with garnishes of magic, naturism and warlike demigods?

Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven characterizations, but a fairly good read., Oct 28 1999
I only recently discovered the Trilogy, never having been much of a Lewis fan, and read them in order. Each book has its charms, but I especially enjoyed the way That Hideous Strength built on the "circles" of the Bad Guys, both at Bracton college and later at Belbury. Mark Studdock, a person possessing neither distinction, character, nor a talent for evil, has lived his life - and ruined it thereby - in a search for admission to 'the inner circle,' and any circle will do. He learns that each concentric circle, in addition to being more exclusive as he supposed, is also more evil and more banal.

The characterization of Stoddock is superb. Likewise the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Dimble and a few other minor characters. The book is almost worth reading just to gain the acquaintance of Mr. Bultitude.

Others are far less engaging. MacPhee - one of the most unidimensional characters I have ever read - is a continual annoyance. The whole build-up with Merlin, only to have him turn out completely powerless until "possessed" by the eldils, makes no sense to me at all. And then he - what? Explodes? Couldn't anyone have done that? And why do God and the angels need an Arthurian wizard, anyway?

But the biggest disappointment was Ransom himself. He went from being a lifelike, engaging fellow, in the first two books, to an idealized shadow. We never really learn how he goes from being a Cambridge don to a wealthy landowner and "the Pendragon." Who are these people who bequeath St. Anne's to him on the condition that he take the name "Fisher-King?" How did he become the Pendragon? No explanation.

This was hard to accept from such a brilliant writer. But that's not to say the book is unworthy of attention. I expect to read it again, probably soon, and will probably get more insights from it the second time through.

I believe much of the problem the Trilogy has with readers of my generation is that it is always classed as Science Fiction, which it certainly is not. People read it expecting familiar formulas, and don't know how to react when it turns out to be religious allegory. They should read more carefully. As with most of what he wrote, Lewis intended to illuminate more than to entertain.

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Zero stars - Stick with the original
'Out of the Silent Planet' is excellent, and the only decent book in the trilogy. It stands alone, so don't feel the need to read the other two books. Read more
Published on Jul 5 2004 by F. Mull

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my "all-time" favorite books
I have been a life-long C.S. Lewis fan, and first tackled this book when I was probably about 12, returning to it often throughout the years (I am now 32). Read more
Published on May 8 2004 by amg2008

4.0 out of 5 stars An Unusual Twist to end the Trilogy
While not as good Perelandra, That Hideous Strength is certainly worth reading. Although the first ~40 pages are confusing and a little boring, the story quickly begins to pick... Read more
Published on Dec 25 2001 by Joshua V. Schneider

5.0 out of 5 stars 2nd best fiction ever written!
This is my 2nd favorite fiction ever, right after Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. "Hideous" is brilliant because it combines a pragmatic look at evil people and diabolical... Read more
Published on Aug 18 2001 by Nathan G. Jensen

4.0 out of 5 stars Too Many Words, Clive, Too Many Words
After reading or rereading the first two excellent books in C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy-- Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra -- it is almost impossible to keep from reading... Read more
Published on Jul 17 2001 by Peter Fennessy

5.0 out of 5 stars Eldils and Merlin and bears oh my!
Silly heading, but nobody reads them anyway. I think. The third and last book in the trilogy (you did read the others, right? Read more
Published on Nov 19 2000 by Michael Battaglia

5.0 out of 5 stars An twisting plot that keeps the pages turning.
I truly loved That Hideous Strength. I have read both of it's prequels and I was not diasapointed by the final book. Read more
Published on Oct 18 2000 by Marielle

3.0 out of 5 stars Strong start
For the first half, at least, it is an absorbing look at the lure of power and the ever-unfolding "Inner Ring" (see that essay in the Weight of Glory compilation)... Read more
Published on Aug 15 2000 by secondadd

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate clash between cosmic forces of Good & Evil!
In THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH, C.S. Lewis concludes the epic battle for thesoul of mankind that he began in OUT of THE SILENT PLANET. Read more
Published on April 3 2000 by Arthur F. McVarish

5.0 out of 5 stars Both instruction and pleasure
With integrity such a rare commodity these days, it is always a pleasure to read the works of C.S. Lewis. Read more
Published on Feb 27 2000 by Susan Callaway

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