No Honor to Fury

book, that stab, that pang, that longing. Words, as J. F. Stephen says, are tools that break in the hand; but Mr. Lewis uses those fragile tools as well as anyone in our generation.

Most biographies of writers are written by good, gentle, bookish fellows who have a solid understanding of their hero’s words and metaphors, but little or no spontaneous interest in the persons, places, or things that moved him to write in the first place.