Books by Charles Williams

Those who have read Williams's earlier novels will not want to be told anything about Descent into Hell except that it is one of his best. Those who do not know the author's work will find that when they have read this novel, they will want to read all the others.

Do you mean, ' Sir Giles said, 'that the thing never gets smaller?''Never, ' the Prince answered. 'So much of its virtue has entered into its outward form that whatever may happen to it there is no change. From the beginning it was as it is now.''Then by God, sir, ' Reginald Montague exclaimed, 'you've got the transport of the world in your hands.'Neither of the two men made any answer. The Persian, sitting back in his chair, and Sir Giles, sitting forward on the edge of his, were both gazing at the thing which lay on the table. It was a circlet of old, tarnished, and twisted gold, in the centre of which was set a cubical stone measuring about half an inch every way, and having apparently engraved on it certain Hebrew letters. Sir Giles picked it up, rather cautiously, and concentrated his gaze on them. The motion awoke a doubt in Montague's mi

The Early Metaphysical Plays of Charles Williams (put in larger font at top of back page) Behold three plays by a major member of the Inklings, Charles Williams, none of which has been reprinted since 1930. The editor of his Collected Plays (1963) thought them unworthy of inclusion, but these works so surpass the general run of contemporary productions as to reveal how fresh an artist Williams was. We have been long deprived of these intriguing accomplishments. The Witch would hold the stage at any time, whereas The Chaste Wanton reads like a first rate radio drama of the 1930s. Rites of the Passion is an Easter liturgical choral work, first cousin to W. H. Auden's For the Time Being. With Three Plays, Williams anticipated the revival of the British religious verse drama by half a decade. These theological adventures are the forerunners of the plays of T. S. Eliot, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Christopher Fry. An excellent entry into Williams's world.

The purpose of this book is to provide brief biographies of certain historical figures whose names have for long been prevalent in English literature. These names are used not only in correct historical allusions, but as imaginative ideas; myths, one might almost say, of the English mind.-from the Preface Charles Williams was one of the finest-not to mention one of the most unusual-theologians of the twentieth century. His mysticism is palpable-the unseen world interpenetrates ours at every point, and spiritual exchange occurs all the time, unseen and largely unlooked for. His novels are legend, his poetry profound, and as a member of the Inklings, he contributed to the mythopoetic revival in contemporary culture.

When Charles Williams died in 1945 there remained to us of his work, besides his published books and those which he had in preparation for the press, a number of essays which had appeared in periodicals and elsewhere, many of which contain important statements of his ideas. A selection of these is printed here. -from the Introduction Charles Williams was one of the finest-not to mention one of the most unusual-theologians of the twentieth century. His mysticism is palpable-the unseen world interpenetrates ours at every point, and spiritual exchange occurs all the time, unseen and largely unlooked for. His novels are legend, and as a member of the Inklings, he contributed to the mythopoetic revival in contemporary culture.