Descent into Hell: A Novel Summary and Reviews

Descent into Hell: A Novel
by Charles Williams

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Book Summary Information

Author: Charles Williams
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-01-01
ISBN: 0802812201
Number of pages: 222
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Book Reviews of Descent into Hell: A Novel

Book Review: A Time Bending Tale of Innocence and Metaphor for Complicit Madness
Summary: 4 Stars

I finally decided to check out `the other guy' from The Inkling and picked up a copy of Charles Williams' Descent into Hell in which he seems to explore the idea of `the terrible good' a relatively fruitful line of thought. The characters are layered and the descriptions rich with subtle observations about connection, human nature, art and scholarship. Williams is poetic without seeming self important. His dream and fantasy sequences however, can be ponderous and difficult.

Descent into Hell's protagonist Pauline, is a poetic soul haunted by apparitions. I was engaged in her story as it interwove with that of an eccentric poet and the dead of generations past on her way to apprehending the vaguely name omnipotent. It is the secondary (counterpoint) narrative of Wentworth, however, that makes this little novel truly memorable. A historical scholar's objectification of a woman takes a mystical and corporeal turn providing a jarring metaphor for the costs of maintaining an alternate reality. William's description of Wentworth's complicit delusion was horrifying in its familiarity. Wentworth's preference for a controlled unreality to an uncertain actuality and its associated madness was a creative and memorable centerpiece for a generally pleasant and intriguing story.

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