刘易斯小时候因讨厌学校，只接受家庭教师授课。1916 年他获奖学金进入牛津大学就读，期间曾应征入伍参与第一次世界大战。1925 年起，他在牛津大学莫德林学院担任研究员，任教期间，他参加名为“吉光片羽（The Inklings）”读书会，并结识牛津大学英国文学教授Ｎ·柯格希尔，以及著名的《魔戒》作者J·R·R·托尔金，这场相遇改变了他整个人生。

1954 年，他当选为剑桥大学中世纪与文艺复兴期英国文学讲座教授，所写文学批评论文已成传世之作。他是一位甚受学生爱戴的老师。而他写作的神学和具神学深度的文学作品早已脍炙人口。其重要作品有：《纳尼亚传奇系列》、《太空三部曲》、《痛苦的奥秘》、《返璞归真》、《四种爱》等。

精彩书摘

　　Lucy Looks Into A Wardrobe
　　露西进入魔衣柜
　　Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs Macready and three servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to meet them at the front door he was so oddlooking that Lucy (who was the youngest) was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was the next youngest) wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose to hide it.
　　As soon as they had said goodnight to the Professor and gone upstairs on the first night, the boys came into the girls’ room and they all talked it over.
　　“We’ve fallen on our feet and no mistake,” said Peter. “This is going to be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like.”
　　“I think he’s an old dear,” said Susan.
　　“Oh, come off it!” said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be tired, which always made him bad-tempered. “Don’t go on talking like that.”
　　“Like what?” said Susan; “and anyway, it’s time you were in bed.”
　　“Trying to talk like Mother,” said Edmund. “And who are you to say when I’m to go to bed? Go to bed yourself.”
　　“Hadn’t we all better go to bed?” said Lucy. “There’s sure to be a row if we’re heard talking here.”
　　“No there won’t,” said Peter. “I tell you this is the sort of house where no one’s going to mind what we do. Anyway, they won’t hear us. It’s about ten minutes’ walk from here down to that dining-room, and any amount of stairs and passages in between.”
　　“What’s that noise?” said Lucy suddenly. It was a far larger house than she had ever been in before and the thought of all those long passages and rows of doors leading into empty rooms was beginning to make her feel a little creepy.
　　“It’s only a bird, silly,” said Edmund.
　　“It’s an owl,” said Peter. “This is going to be a wonderful place for birds. I shall go to bed now. I say, let’s go and explore tomorrow. You might find anything in a place like this. Did you see those mountains as we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be stags. There’ll be hawks.”
　　“Badgers!” said Lucy.
　　“Foxes!” said Edmund.
　　“Rabbits!” said Susan.
　　But when next morning came there was a steady rain falling, so thick that when you looked out of the window you could see neither the mountains nor the woods nor even the stream in the garden.
　　“Of course it would be raining!” said Edmund. They had just finished their breakfast with the Professor and were upstairs in the room he had set apart for them—a long, low room with two windows looking out in one direction and two in another.
　　“Do stop grumbling, Ed,” said Susan. “Ten to one it’ll clear up in an hour or so. And in the meantime we’re pretty well off. There’s a wireless and lots of books.”
　　“Not for me,”said Peter; “I’m going to explore in the house.”
　　Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would; but soon they came to a very long room full of pictures and there they found a suit of armour; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out on to a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and were lined with books—most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in a church. And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead bluebottle on the window-sill.
　　······
　　从前有四个孩子，他们的名字叫彼得、苏珊、埃德蒙和露西。这是一个发生在他们身上的故事。当时正处于战争期间，由于空袭，父母将他们从伦敦疏散，送到了一位住在偏远乡下一座庄园里的老教授家里。那个地方离最近的火车站有十英里，距离最近的邮局也有两英里。老教授没有妻子，他和一个名叫麦克里迪夫人的女管家还有三个仆人（她们的名字叫艾维、玛格丽特和贝蒂，但她们并不经常出现在故事中）住在一座非常大的房子里。他本人已经上了年纪，他脸上的大部分地方都和头上一样，长满了蓬乱的白色须发。孩子们几乎立刻就喜欢上了他。可是在第一天傍晚，当他走出来，站在前门迎接他们时，因为他的长相如此古怪，以致露西（她是年纪最小的）有一点儿怕他，而埃德蒙（他排行老三）想要大笑，只得不停地装作要擤鼻涕来加以掩饰。头一个夜晚，他们刚跟教授道了晚安，回到楼上，男孩们就立刻来到了女孩们的房间，四个人凑在一起谈论起来。
　　“毫无疑问，我们的确非常幸运。”彼得说，“这里的一切都棒极了。那个老爷子会让我们随心所欲做我们想做的事情。”
　　“我觉得他是个老好人。”苏珊说。
　　“哦，打住！”埃德蒙说道，他已经累了，但他装出自己并没有感到疲惫的样子，这总会使得他脾气暴燥，“别再继续像那样讲话了。”
　　“像什么样？”苏珊问道，“不管怎样，你都该上床睡觉了。”
　　“学着像老妈那样讲话。”埃德蒙说，“你凭什么管我该啥时睡觉？你自己去睡吧。”
　　“是不是我们最好都去睡觉呢？”露西说，“如果有人听到我们在这里说话，我们肯定该要挨尅了。”
　　“不会有人听见的。”彼得说，“我告诉你们，在这种房子里，没有人会在意我们做些什么。再说，他们不会听到我们说话。从这里下到那个餐厅大概要走十分钟，中间还有那么多的楼梯和过道。”
　　“那是什么声音？”露西突然问道。这座房子比她以前到过的任何房子都要大，一想到所有那些长长的走廊，以及一排排通向空房间的房门，她就开始感到有点毛骨悚然。
　　“那只是一只鸟，傻瓜。”埃德蒙答道。
　　“那是一只猫头鹰。”彼得说，“对于鸟类来说，这里可真是个美妙的地方。我现在要去睡觉了。听着，我们明天出去探险吧。在这样一个地方，你可能会发现任何东西。我们来的时候，你们看见那些山了吗？还有那些树林？没准儿那里还有老鹰。说不定还有雄鹿呢。肯定会有隼。”
　　“还有獾！”露西说。
　　“还有狐狸！”埃德蒙说。
　　“还有兔子！”苏珊说。
　　但是当第二天清晨到来时，外面正在不停地下着雨，雨很大，如果你向窗外望去，既看不到山岭，也看不见树林，甚至连花园中的小溪都看不见了。
　　“竟然下起雨来！”埃德蒙说。他们刚刚和教授一起吃完早餐，来到楼上他专门给他们留出的一个房间——那是一个长长的低矮的房间，在两边墙上各有两扇窗户，可以眺望不同的方向。
　　“别再抱怨了，埃德。”苏珊说，“再过个把小时，十有八九天就会放晴。在此期间，我们可以自得其乐。这儿有一个无线电收音机，还有大量的书籍。”
　　“我对这些可不感兴趣。”彼得说，“我要在室内探索一番。”
　　大家一致同意这个建议，历险就这样开始了。这座房子属于那一种，你似乎永远也不可能走到它的尽头，因为里面到处都是出人意料的地方。恰如他们所预料的那样，打开来的头几扇门里面只是闲置的卧室。很快他们来到了一间非常长的，挂满了画像的房间，在那里他们还发现了一副盔甲。在那之后又是一间挂满绿色帘幕的房间，角落里还有一张竖琴。接着下了三级台阶，然后又上了五级台阶，他们来到了一间小小的楼上客厅，有一扇门通往外面的阳台。再往后又是一连串互相贯通的房间，里面摆满了书籍——大部分书籍都非常古老，有一些书比教堂里的《圣经》还要大。在那之后不久，他们又进入一个房间查看。那个房间空空荡荡，只有一个大衣柜，是那种柜门上有一面镜子的衣柜。除了窗台上一盆枯死的矢车菊，房间里没有其他任何东西。

　　……

前言/序言

　经过两年多不懈的努力，“纳尼亚”系列经典的译文终于杀青了！这时，我既感到完成任务的轻松与喜悦，又隐隐感到一丝不舍。以前，也曾经读过“纳尼亚”系列，但那时是一目十行，不求甚解。翻译则不同，不仅要对作者的思想和时代背景有较深入的了解，而且要尽量将其语言风格表达出来。这大概就是翻译所谓的“神似”与“形似”吧。

　 C·S·刘易斯可以称得上是一代宗师，被誉为“最伟大的牛津人”。他博学多才，著述颇丰。有人说，“纳尼亚”系列是“儿童的圣经”。要想读懂这套传奇故事，我们就必须对作者的信仰历程有所了解。

　刘易斯的父母都是虔诚的新教徒。刘易斯出生后不久，就在爱尔兰的教会受洗。由于青少年时期的叛逆，他曾一度远离了自己的信仰。后来，在《魔戒》的作者、好友托尔金和其他朋友的影响下， 32岁时他又回到了上帝的怀抱。回归信仰之后，刘易斯创作出了许多不朽的传世之作。

　在“纳尼亚”的奇幻世界中，那位无所不在的狮子阿斯兰正是耶稣的化身。狮子是百兽之王，而圣经启示录则称耶稣为“犹大支派中的狮子”、“万王之王”。刘易斯藉着一系列的故事，轻松地阐释了上帝创造宇宙、魔鬼诱使人类犯罪、耶稣为罪人赎罪舍命、然后从死里复活等基督教教义。

　刘易斯曾广泛涉猎欧洲的神话，因此“纳尼亚”系列经典中也出现了小矮人、半人马、潘恩、树精和狼人等形象。大师的想象力异常丰富，不受时空的限制，可谓天马行空，驰骛八极。套用刘勰的话来说，就是“思接千载，视通万里”。加上他的词汇量丰富，时常用诗一狮子、女巫和魔衣柜（中英双语典藏版） [7-10岁] [THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE] 下载 mobi epub pdf txt 电子书格式