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The Screwtape Letters
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
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The Screwtape Letters
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Publisher's Summary
The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation, and triumph over it, ever written.
What the critics say
Audie Award Finalist, Inspirational/Spiritual, 2007
Known for The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis wrote the wittiest defense of Christianity ever. Humorist John Cleese won AudioFile Earphones for his 1999 enactment of the correspondence between two devils plotting the damnation of one man's soul. Ralph Cosham is a slightly less demented fiend, but the text itself remains hilarious.... Cosham's organ-like voice also lends resonance.... This is, therefore, the best audio ever spoken of the funniest defense of Christianity ever written." (AudioFile magazine)
"Lewis' satire is a Christian classic....[his] take on human nature is as on-target as it was when the letters were first published in 1941." (Library Journal)
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What listeners say about The Screwtape Letters
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tee
- 2017-12-09
Wise words on human nature
I took a while to finish this audiobook, one chapter at a time, in between other audiobooks. It contains a lot of substance, and going through quickly would have caused indigestion.
While this is Christian literature, there is lots of wisdom that stem from C.S. Lewis’s shrewd observation of human nature and politics. Over half a century on after Lewis completed this work, the observations are as spot-on as before.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Grayson
- 2023-07-16
A vital book
An excellent read of one of the classics, such a thought provoking view of the world
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Darrell Clarke
- 2023-05-29
So relevant in todays’ climate
CS Lewis wrote this in the 1940’s. Here we are 80 years later we’re seeing similar societal behaviours. The enemy is up to his same old tricks.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mark 45
- 2023-04-23
Very Unique and very useful book.
Very Unique and very useful book. Written by a great writer and narrated to perfection. If you don't believe in good or evil, you should read this book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-03-22
Must Read Christians!
I have read and listened to this book multiple times over the years and always have a new takeaway from it. CS Lewis is astonishingly brilliant.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eric Hellsten
- 2023-01-27
Entertaining
Funny and cynical - not hard to believe it was written by a writer of immense talent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- John
- 2022-12-24
Brilliant
I felt those demons speak as in from within myself, CS Lewis is frighteningly intuned with humans moral experiences! Very well written & so valuable to learn about yourself.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2022-05-26
great short listen
it's packed with wisdom, delivered in a fresh way. Great listen.
was anyone else kind of rooting for wormwood?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Keely Hall
- 2022-04-30
A mirror
This novel holds a mirror up to your own precognitions, when it comes to daily life, sin, and salvation. Fascinating.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Susannah Schuilenberg
- 2021-12-24
An old favourite
Totally pleased to have found this classic by CS Lewis free as part of my membership in Audible. As always, a brilliant allegory using language that requires thinking.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Matthew
- 2010-07-26
Haunting Satire
This work, as is stated within and elsewhere, was the most difficult for Lewis to write because of its grim nature and, as he has hinted, the ease with which he was able to write it. One reviewer wrote that Lewis' ego was "out of control" as he told a "thinly veiled story." I think the listener missed the point of the book. Lewis was writing a satire in an attempt to point out the many ways in which we selfishly assure ourselves of our own right actions - all the while possibly dooming ourselves and hindering others. I find it well thought out, well written, and very witty. I would be surprised if anyone who read/listened to this book did not find themselves analyzing their own lives for the same well meaning, but destructive, attitudes and actions depicted therein.
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119 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- E. Pearson
- 2011-12-31
One to Read Again and Again
This was my third reading of Screwtape. The first two times I actually read the text, but the listen was equally enjoyable. I think I probably gleaned a bit more from reading myself, because the text is so rich and the depth of meaning so layered that in listening I fear I let some meaning slide rather than stop the recording and go back over various bits. Still, I would enjoy listening to this version several times over. The narrator is perfect, and never over-dramatizes the voice of Screwtape, which in my opinion would have been easy to do. This book is so psychologically rich, humorous, and poignantly honest that I believe anyone--fervid Christian and non-religious alike, would gain much from its study.
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102 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sher from Provo
- 2010-06-05
So much truth, much of it scary.
I expect to listen to this book again in the not-too-distant future, because I am sure I missed a lot that I can pick up on a second time. As it is, I see so many of Screwtape's character traits in people I know, as well as in myself. Reading this book was like looking into a mirror in which one hardly recognizes oneself until forced to look long enough to see what is truly there. So often what one sees is very scary.
Unlike Screwtape, we still have the option of changing our lives for the better. That, to me, is the huge lesson of this book
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94 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Abigail
- 2009-12-23
Sarcastic & Hilarious
While listening to this book I found myself laughing out loud. 28 yo female not religiously educated and came away feeling uplifted. This book encourages me to think about life and living. Once in the book Screwtape refers to those who forget life is about music and dancing (fun) are just within reach of the devil for they have squandered their life! CS Lewis mocks the ritual of religion for wasting time on symbolism forgoing the true meaning of Christianity/Positive & Generous living. You do not need to be "Christian" to enjoy and draw from the universal message of this book.
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91 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Erez
- 2008-09-12
Well written, but you need to be a Christian
This book is undeniably well written and intelligent. However, for someone like me who has no Christian background, it gets a little boring. While C. S. Lewis offers some wise insights into human nature in general, these are (to me) lost in a large body of thoughts about the Christian God's love for mankind, the correct and incorrect approach to prayer, humility, charity and so on. The literary device of putting these in the mouth of a devil loses its novelty after a short while. I have no doubt that Christians will be able to enjoy this book much more than I have, but if you're like me I wouldn't recommend it.
As for the narrator, he does a decent job, albeit somewhat monotonous; I've heard an excerpt from a version narrated by John Cleese which sounds much more lively, but Audible doesn't seem to have that one (yet?).
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75 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- John
- 2014-06-09
Abandon All Hope...
In the interests of full disclosure, let me say that I love C. S. Lewis. His apologetics helped my wife and I keep our sanity in the Episcopal Church and he was among the galaxy of writers who lead us toward the Catholic Church. His scholarly works are a delight to anyone interested in medieval literature. His slim guide to Paradise Lost is indispensible to a satisfying understanding of that poem. Oddly, I have never dipped into his fiction to any great extent, though I did have a third grade teacher who read us chapters from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
So when I didn’t enjoy Screwtape as much as I thought I would, I was perplexed. How could I not revel in Lewis’ customarily incisive separation of modern misperceptions from the ancient perceptions, insanity from sanity, the comfortable lie from the uncomfortable truth? Fittingly, it was Lewis himself who explained my dilemma.
Truth be told, he didn’t much like this book either. His confession appears in his short introduction to the last chapter of this recording, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”. This exercise in what he calls “diabolical ventriloquism” proved to be something he could write with the greatest of ease, but with the least enjoyment. “Though it was easy to twist one’s mind into the diabolical attitude” he writes, “it was not fun—or nor fun for long.” The “strain” of writing this book produced what he calls “a sort of spiritual cramp”. “It almost smothered me before I was done. It would have smothered my readers if I had prolonged it.”
Now I didn’t feel so bad. My reactions to Screwtape’s correspondence tallied with their author’s. I, too, felt that spiritual cramp. An overwhelming sense of the relentlessness of sin, an airless, trapped feeling that verges on claustrophobia. While Lewis was aware of this problem with his book, he was even more painfully aware of his inability to solve it.
Ideally, he admits, the book should have included Arch-angelical advice to the “patient’s” guardian angel. “Without this, the picture of human life is lopsided.” (A fine example of British understatement, that.) The problem is one of style. “[F]or the style would really be part of the content. Mere advice would be no good. Every sentence would have to smell of heaven”. In today’s world it was “a book no one could write”, for “even if you could write prose like Traherne’s, you wouldn’t be allowed to, for the canon of ‘functionalism’ has disabled literature for half its functions.”
A typically telling insight, combining faith and reason and scholarship and a complete and easy familiarity with the greatest writers—all delivered without pride or pomposity. All the things that make Lewis such a treasure to read and reread.
So, while I am grateful to Audible for offering this as a Daily Deal for a mere $1.95, and Ralph Cosham does a fine job as reader, I can’t give this one all the stars I thought I would. And, based on the evidence, I think Lewis would agree.
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39 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Kathy
- 2009-09-16
Intriguing
It's our human nature to do the oppisite of what we are told. How clever of C.S. Lewis to give us the "other side's" point of view. It instantly challenged me to live for Christ in a tangible way rather than following rules of religion.
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15 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- musicalcharge
- 2007-09-18
Excellent
A very solid reading of a wonderful book. I would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of C.S. Lewis and has an idea of the things he wrote other than the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm not saying anything against the Chronicles of Narnia--I love them. But for those expecting a fantasy novel, you'll not find it here.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Elliott
- 2007-03-13
Ear Catching
This was a welcome distraction on a long drive of chaotic familiarity. The characters' voices developed faces and postures, while the storyline captured your imagine with realisms.
Great on a winter's night favorite chair, as well as a subway going downtown.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Joseph
- 2012-03-19
Far better than I expected
For many years, I had avoided reading this famous book by C..S. Lewis, in spite of my admiration for his Perelandra trilogy, and other writings. I was turned off by his too-orthodox Christianity. I consider myself a Christian, but a very heretical one. For me, Lewis takes the Bible a bit too literally.
Nevertheless, and in spite of my disagreement with certain passages (for example, where he implicitly attacks Hegel and Rousseau), this book totally captivated me. My disagreements seemed unimportant in the spell of such brilliant wit and deep insight. And I had to admit that many of Lewis's moral judgments and insights (i.e., the reverse of what the demon Screwtape likes or dislikes) were quite compelling and original. And the many moments of irony had me laughing at times.
The reader is excellent, and this book is a classic for anyone who is deeply interested in profound moral and social questions, whether or not they believe (as Lewis seems to) in the existence of Satan.
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12 people found this helpful