Source of "Beauty of the female" quote.

[Robert Smith]

"The beauty of the female is the root of joy to the female as
well as to the male, and it is no accident that the goddess of
Love is older and stronger than the god. To desire the
desiring of her own beauty is the vanity of Lilith, but to
desire the enjoying of her own beauty is the obedience of
Eve, and to both it is in the lover that the beloved tastes
her own delightfulness" - That Hideous Strengh.

Does anyone know if this passage from THS is a quote from some other
book, or something Lewis wrote himself? In THS Jane Studdock reads
this in an unnamed book.

I have been intrigued by the inserted quotes in THS. At one point one
of the characters quotes from Charles Williams' "Talliesin through
Logres" ("A passion of patience ..."), but I am baffled by this one.

Robert

[David R L Porter]

Lilith of course suggests George Macdonald, but I've skimmed CSL's MacD
anthology without success - one would have thought that if a quote had
impressed CSL to the extent of quoting it in a novel, he would have put
it in the anthology. I also skimmed Rollo Heim's MacD anthologies, and
Macdonald's own 'Lilith' from chapter 40 onwards.

Unfortunately Lilith/Eve is a critical reference like Scylla/Charybdis,
Pelion/Ossa etc, so anybody could have written the paragraph. To me it
doesn't sound wholly like Lewis, though it might be him. I looked in
Janine Goffar's Lewis Index under several of the keywords, again without
success.

I think it'll be down to somebody recognising the quote and remembering
where they read it.

You would have thought that CSL, who must have spent much of his working
week urging his students to verify their sources, might have left us a
bit more help! Anyone fancy doing an annotated CDSL fiction as a PhD
project?

[David R L Porter]

Post by David R L Porter
Anyone fancy doing an annotated CDSL fiction as a PhD
project?

Uh - that's CSL, not CDSL ....

[Peter Trei]

Post by Robert Smith
"The beauty of the female is the root of joy to the female as
well as to the male, and it is no accident that the goddess of
Love is older and stronger than the god. To desire the
desiring of her own beauty is the vanity of Lilith, but to
desire the enjoying of her own beauty is the obedience of
Eve, and to both it is in the lover that the beloved tastes
her own delightfulness" - That Hideous Strengh.
Does anyone know if this passage from THS is a quote from some other
book, or something Lewis wrote himself? In THS Jane Studdock reads
this in an unnamed book.
I have been intrigued by the inserted quotes in THS. At one point one
of the characters quotes from Charles Williams' "Talliesin through
Logres" ("A passion of patience ..."), but I am baffled by this one.
Robert

This question has been asked at least 3 times over the
past decade in this group, and has never been resolved.
It's not a direct quote from 'Lilith' - the text in in
Gutenberg, and even a very quick scan of every use of
the word 'beauty' does not produce anything that
looks similar.

Googling on the quote gives no help, but I did find one
group where part of the quote appears in German, without
attribution. Inspired by that, I tried 'The Sorrows of
Young Werther', but its not there either.

Maybe this should be in the FAQ.

Peter Trei

[m***@mooreeffoc.com]

I think Lewis said something like that elsewhere, in his own voice, not
so seriously? Sort of bemused and shocked? Which might suggest he had
read it elsewhere....

Post by Robert Smith
"The beauty of the female is the root of joy to the female as
well as to the male, and it is no accident that the goddess of
Love is older and stronger than the god. To desire the
desiring of her own beauty is the vanity of Lilith, but to
desire the enjoying of her own beauty is the obedience of
Eve, and to both it is in the lover that the beloved tastes
her own delightfulness" - That Hideous Strengh.
Does anyone know if this passage from THS is a quote from some other
book, or something Lewis wrote himself? In THS Jane Studdock reads
this in an unnamed book.
I have been intrigued by the inserted quotes in THS. At one point one
of the characters quotes from Charles Williams' "Talliesin through
Logres" ("A passion of patience ..."), but I am baffled by this one.

Was there a copyright acknoledgement on the Williams quote?

Mary

[Robert Smith]

Post by m***@mooreeffoc.com

Post by Robert Smith
I have been intrigued by the inserted quotes in THS. At one point one
of the characters quotes from Charles Williams' "Talliesin through
Logres" ("A passion of patience ..."), but I am baffled by this one.

Was there a copyright acknoledgement on the Williams quote?

One of the characters just talks about it from "a book I've been
reading" or something like that. I don't have the book right now, so I
do not know if their was a copyright acknowlegement in the legal
matter at the front or not.

Robert

[Daryl]

Hmm. I couldn't find anything either but did uncover this intresting paper as a
result of my search.

http://campus.kcc.edu/faculty/cstarr/C.S.%20Lewis%20Course/Best%20Student%
20Papers/Jamie%20Bragg%20-%20The%20Masculine%20and%20Feminine%20According%
20to%20C%20S%20Lewis.htm



Daryl
And when He knew for certain, only drowning men could see Him.
He said all men shall be sailors then, until the sea shall free them.
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