The Allegory of Love: A Study In Medieval Tradition (Canto Classics)

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Lewis and Hathaway discover that the bizarre murder of a Czech barmaid with an antique Persian mirror parallels a similar killing found in a newly published fantasy novel, by the young Oxford author Dorian Crane.

Here understanding allegory is quite important although Lewis gives the relevant overview in his analysis of the poem. Tolkien need look no further than works like this to find philosophic underpinnings of Narnia and Middle Earth.When I read it first, I felt compelled to read in their original languages such outstanding works as "The Faerie Queene", "Troilus and Cressida", the works of Chretien de Troyes, the two Orlandos, and lately "Le roman de la rose" by Guillaume de Lorris. As hard as it was to get through this book because it was hard for someone of my ignorance to stay interested, the main concepts Lewis presents are brilliant and have inspired me to learn more about poetry. My own reading of the secondary literature (pre- and post-Lewis) brought me to a similar conclusion. Hathaway (Laurence Fox) investigate, the more surprising revelations about some of Oxford's to professors come to light.

While the bulk of the book elaborates the development and use of allegory in medieval love poetry, my imagination was captured most by the potentially apologetic (in the Christian sense) logic behind his claim that allegory and symbolism are the inverse of each other. He recommended that modern readers intersperse an old book with a modern book in their reading patterns. One of the many suspects, Jem Wishart, looked quite familiar but I couldn't quite place him - I just looked up the actor on the IMDB, and Wishart was played by Adrian Lukis, who played Wickham in what is commonly known in my world as the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice.I'm afraid my reading of The Allegory of Love sacrificed the poets for the sake of reading more Lewis. For many who are familiar only with Lewis the fantasist, or Lewis the Christian apologist, it will open new perspectives. It traces the rise and decline of the love allegory as a mainstay of European literature in the late Middle Ages.