Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The line is a young reader's rule of thumb, passed down from a schoolmaster father, and the film turns it into a question that Lewis spends the story answering with his own life: do we read to find company, or is it love that does that? Because Lewis himself repeats it on screen, it has spread across the internet as his own, though the surviving record points to the screenwriter's page and the film.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for ShadowlandsShow the scene
In Shadowlands (1993), written by William Nicholson, a young man who has been stealing books in Oxford comes to C. S. Lewis's rooms and tells him how he reads, all night, hands shaking at the start of a new book. Asked about his father, a village schoolmaster, he gives the family saying. Lewis then offers him a loan, and the young man leaves. Years later he meets Lewis again, now widowed, and Lewis recalls it back to him. Near the end, Lewis uses it on his own new tutorial student, Chadwick, asking whether it is true.
Sources (3)
- Springfield! Springfield! Shadowlands scriptthe book-stealing visit; the reunion with Peter Whistler; the scene with ChadwickReference checked
- Wikiquote: Readingletter NReference checked
- Wikiquote: C. S. LewisMisattributed sectionReference checked
Context reviewed
