The Great Divorce: An extraordinary voyage of self-discovery and spiritual en...

Do not underestimate this book, just because it does not deal with Narnia - it is one of his most beautiful and thought-provoking books. I have a paper copy and have read it many times, and have now moved to the Kindle edition, which is much easier to read, physically speaking. There are three small textual errors in the Kindle version of the book. The first is as follows: On page 45 the text reads: The noise, though gigantic, was like giants' laugh-ten like the revelry of a whole college of giants together ... It should read: The noise, though gigantic, was like giants' laughter: like the revelry of a whole college of giants together ... On page 62, the text reads: .. the whole wood trembled and dwindled at the sound. It should read .. the whole wood trembled and dindled at the sound. On page 81, the text reads: ..only to Spit and gibber out in one ecstasy of hatred .. It should read: .. only to spit and gibber out in one ecstasy of hatred .. It is a great book, and other than these three errors, the text is just great, conveying all of Lewis' imaginative greatness. I cannot over-emphasise just how amazing this book is; I personally re-read it about once every couple of months and am always thinking about the truths conveyed in it.

Intriguing look at human failings and the perils of letting one characteristic dominate our lives. Worth reading twice at least.

This book may be short but it is very meaty. CS Lewis plays with ideas of heaven and hell. It is sometimes a little dated but it well worth thinking about.

I need to read this again and possibly again before digesting this fantastic story. Never have i read anything as remotely interesting as this bus journey from hell to heaven. However, it does highlight Love Rules.

Something like the Book of Revelations, something like A Christmas Carol, something like The Pilgrim's Progress, this book is exceptional.

As a great admirer of CS Lewis, it's a surprise that I hadn't read this book before, its title derived from Blake's 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. With its vision of hell as a perpetually grey, miserable city, I should think anyone who suffers from depression will recognise it and consider it worse than any idea of fire and brimstone. CS Lewis's humour, psychological insight, observation of people, and lyrical use of imagery and metaphor can clearly be seen here in this depiction of a bus ride from hell to heaven. I found some of it very uncomfortable reading as the dreary, self-absorbed, monologues of some of the "ghost bus passengers" were painfully recognisable, especially the lady with the "martyr complex". The very thought that people may take these psychological states into the afterlife and choose to remain with them forever seems worse to me than pitchforks and pits of sulphur. CS Lewis's description of the conditions in the foothills of heaven reminded me slightly of his science fiction novels. A profound and very thought-provoking book.

An idea of what hell could be, and what we must do to find our way out of it. A bit scary in some ways but a reminder of what we hope for and of God's mercy. Food for thought, to be sure.

It is a novel urging us to consider our afterlife. Where would we go after death? Is it to nothingness? This story assumes after death is not a state of nothingness. We cannot be too pedantic on theology with the novel; perhaps to be precise with theology in this matter cannot make a story? I don’t know. This is why I give it only a 3-star. There is hell and ghosts from there are allowed a bus ride on excursion to the edge of heaven as it were. There ghosts have the encounter with ‘solid beings’, who are really citizens of the heaven coming out to the edge to ‘evangelise’ to ghosts from hell on excursion. It seems to suggest that ghosts (i.e. after their death) can still convert to believe in God and go to heaven. To stay or to go back is the choice confronting them. Should one decide to stay, then ‘hell’ is not hell but ‘purgatory’. Obviously I don’t believe in that. The novel is told in the first person. The story is made up of caricatures of people who give their reasons of not believing. The ‘I’ in the story has more soulful conversations with his ‘teacher’. They debate and analyse the snapshots that they witness. These may be seen as commentaries on what is going on in each case. Every now and again, Lewis hits some memorable truths of our psyche, for example, we persistently prefer something at the price of our misery. Daft, but that is precisely the point, sin is insanity. So what is the Great Divorce? Is it between heaven and hell? Ghosts which have gone to hell cannot enter into heaven. It could also be between holiness and sinfulness, with holiness represented by the substance of things and sinfulness the ghostly existence which has no bearing in the heavenly realm. It is painful for sinfulness to confront holiness – any substance gets undone, disintegrated. I personally find this book a little underwhelming.

Fantastic read! Like I was reading a Haruki Murakami.

I love this book. So thought provoking. CS Lewis has such an incredible imagination. His story highlights how seemingly loving behaviours are not and how we hang onto things in this world that have no value with the eyes of heaven. I highly recommend the book.

Eu já tinha escutado podcasts sobre essa obra e comecei a lê-la com a expectativa lá em cima, e realmente eu não me decepcionei nem um pouco! É incrível como C. S. Lewis consegue fazer você refletir na sua própria vida, nos seus próprios vícios e hábitos que só te distraem do verdadeiro centro cuja nossa vida deve ser centrada – o Deus verdadeiro – e tudo isso em tão poucas páginas. Esse livro mudou minha vida, de verdade. Não tenho palavras pra descrever o quanto eu recomendo ele pra todos.

Dieses Buch sollten alle Christen gelesen haben. C S Lewis erklärt mit Hilfe einer Busreise von der Hölle in den Himmel die Probleme des Christentums so anschaulich, wie es ein Geistlicher in einer Predigt wohl kaum könnte.

The Great Divorce excels at story telling in a way that captures your heart. It's a fictional story, but C.S. Lewis weaves in different theological ideas in story form. Yes, he does admit that everything in the story if speculation but it's hard not to believe that his theology influenced his writing of this book. The beginning starts off a little slow but there are multiple points in the book that are really enchanting, more than at the story level, but at the heart level as well. You begin to see yourself in some of these characters and their decision-making. More importantly, he does a great job of imagining what life in the next world might be like. Of course, that's speculation, but if he's able to enchant your heart with his own thoughts, how much more will it actually be!