A Darker Ignorance: C. S. Lewis and the Nature of the Fall (Critical Essay‪)‬

Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure. (Milton, Areopagitica 728-29) WITH the recent publication of the last volume in Philip Pullman's His ark Materials trilogy, C. S. Lewis has received a new wave of publicity--largely negative--as numerous articles and interviews have recorded Pullman's dislike of Lewis's work, especially the Narnia series. While his opinions are to a large extent a matter of taste and to that extent not matter for scholarly concern, some of his remarks reflect interpretations of Lewis's work that merit further exploration.