The Screwtape Letters

"Music and silence, how I detest them both. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress. Meanwhile you, disgusting little-

[Here the MS. breaks off and is resumed in a different hand.]

In the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede."

This is a book that all C.S. Lewis fans should read. It's far different from any of his other books (at least, the ones I've read) The whole book is a series of letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, written to his nephew Wormwood who is a young tempter. Thoughout the book, Screwtape corrects his nephew's naive or misguided attempts to keep his Patient from Heaven. Shortly into the book, the Patient becomes a Christian. This is atrocious is Screwtape's eyes, but all it does is cause him to suggest different tactics to win the Patient over to "Our Father Below."

The only other thing I have to say is that I wish I could find the version read by John Cleese on sale somewhere...