Contains some gems

I've read and enjoyed almost all of Lewis's other writings, so I decided to check _Selected Literary Essays_ (SLE) out of the campus library and read it over the Christmas break. Some of the essays (e.g., "Metre", "The Alliterative Metre", and "The Fifteenth-Century Heroic Line") will be of quite limited interest, I think, and I wouldn't be surprised if some readers get bogged down with them and abandon the book. But those who press forward and endure to the end will be amply rewarded, for SLE contains some of Lewis's best writing. In particular, the essays on Bunyan, Austen, Scott, and Kipling are not to be missed.

Not to be missed, that is, if you can locate them. I personally wouldn't suggest paying the exorbitant prices that used-book sellers are currently demanding for copies of SLE. If nothing else, try Interlibrary Loan. Maybe in a few years prices will be reasonable. ( )

De Descriptionem Temporem, the essay (lecture) he gave when he accepted the Chair of Medieval & Rennaisance Literature at Cambridge is worth the price of the book. ( )