Despite the fact that Lewis’s work has been unfairly villified by readers with substandard comprehension and critical thinking skills, one day when I finally regained access to my Penguin Classics library (it’s a long story and I don’t care to mention it), I decided it was time I read it.

As soon as I read the introduction, I realized the book and its author were presented in an overly negative light–perhaps unintentionally or even unconsciously. So I decided to give it a read.

And what a read it was. It is by far the most interesting English novel I have read so far. The art may be lacking a bit, but Lewis makes up for it in other ways: the book, despite its rather crude depictions of certain scenes, is actually one written for male audiences–and is meant to straighten them back to their occasionally-lost morality.

For instance, is someone chaste and good because they have shut themselves off from a world of temptation?

I couldn’t put it down, and I wish he had written more books!