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Catholic? Professor at Oxford? Estranged from Tolkien? Author of a biblical allegory? Around Lewis circulate legends and quotes he never wrote. Twelve statements, twelve verdicts, and each time the page to check.

The true and the false

Une loupe posée sur des pages et des cartes anciennes, dans un bureau d'enquêteur

Lewis was Anglican, not Catholic.
Narnia is not an allegory, according to Lewis himself.
He was never a "professor" at Oxford.

Each legend receives a verdict: true, false, or to be nuanced. The links allow you to go further.

1. "Lewis was Catholic." — False

Lewis was a member of the Church of England, "an ordinary layman," as he said. Tolkien, a devout Catholic, regretted that Lewis did not follow him. Some of his ideas (purgatory, confession) brought him closer to Catholic tradition, which explains the confusion, and he is widely read by Catholics. To verify: "Reasoning or Storytelling?".

2. "Narnia is an allegory of the Bible." — False, according to Lewis

Lewis refused the word. He spoke of a "supposal": what if another world existed and the Son of God incarnated there, in the form of a lion? An allegory translates ideas into images; Narnia is a world in itself.

3. "He wrote Narnia to evangelize children." — False

Lewis said it clearly: it all started with images (a faun with an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion), without any moral intention. Aslan "imposed himself" later. To verify: the sheet Of Other Worlds.

4. "He was a professor at Oxford." — To be nuanced

At Oxford, he was a fellow and a tutor at Magdalen College, but the university never gave him a chair. It was Cambridge that appointed him professor in 1954. To verify: the sheet The Last of the Dinosaurs.

5. "Lewis and Tolkien fell out." — To be nuanced

Their friendship cooled in the 1950s (Tolkien did not like Narnia, nor Charles Williams, nor Lewis's marriage), but they never fell out. Tolkien helped Lewis get his appointment at Cambridge, and his death deeply affected him. To verify: Tolkien and Lewis.

6. "Lewis was English." — False

Born in Belfast in 1898, a British citizen, he considered himself Irish and was annoyed to be taken for English. Belfast proudly claims him today. To verify: Eight Addresses, Eight Books.

7. "Lewis was a theologian." — False

He was a professor of literature and insisted that he had no theological training. He was a layman writing about faith.

8. "Lewis hated women." — To be nuanced

Some of his phrases have not aged well; his female characters, friendships, and marriage say otherwise. To verify: Susan, Orual and Joy.

9. "He married Joy out of love, from the start." — False

The first marriage, a civil one in 1956, was a service to allow her to stay in England. Love came with Joy's illness; the religious marriage took place in 1957, at her bedside. To verify: Shadows of the Mind.

10. "His death went unnoticed." — True… that day

Lewis died on November 22, 1963, the day of Kennedy's assassination (and of Aldous Huxley's death). The newspapers barely mentioned it. But his books have never stopped selling. To verify: Bronze, Stamps and Quarrels.

11. "Lewis wrote: 'You don't have a soul, you are a soul; you have a body.'" — False

This quote, found all over the Internet, does not appear anywhere in his works. Its origin is uncertain. Experts like William O'Flaherty (The Misquotable C.S. Lewis, 2018) have listed dozens of apocryphal quotes. To verify: the section False Quotes on our quotes page.

12. "Joy's death made him lose his faith." — To be nuanced

A Grief Observed shows a man who doubts, who rails against God, who fears He is cruel. But the book ends with a purified faith, and Lewis remained a believer until the end: he wrote Letters to Malcolm the year of his death. To verify: the sheet A Grief Observed.

Le bon réflexe

Before sharing a quote from Lewis, look up the book and chapter. If no one can provide them, be wary.

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