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Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus in a later edition published by Pan Books) is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis. Image File history File links CSLewis_Perelandra. ...
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ...
Some notable science fiction novels, in alphabetical order by title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 334 by Thomas M. Disch An Age by Brian Aldiss The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard...
Bodley Head has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House. ...
A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...
Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...
This article is about the C.S. Lewis novel. ...
1961 Pan Books edition of Ian Flemings James Bond novel Goldfinger is an example of the type of publication for which Pan Books became popular. ...
The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ...
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ...
Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. The story starts with the philologist Elwin Ransom, some years after his return from Mars at the end of Out of the Silent Planet, receiving a new mission from Oyarsa, the angelic ruler of Mars. Ransom is to travel to Perelandra (Venus), a new Garden of Eden with a new Adam and Eve, to oppose the diabolically inspired human physicist Professor Weston who has been sent to tempt the Eve figure. Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ...
Elwin Ransom is a character from C.S. Lewiss Space Trilogy. ...
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. ...
Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...
The Annunciation - the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus (El Greco, 1575) An angel is a supernatural being found in many religions. ...
(*min temperature refers to cloud tops only) Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 9. ...
The Fall of Man by Lucas Cranach, a 16th century German depiction of Eden The Garden of Eden (from Hebrew Gan Ēden, גַּן עֵדֶן) is described in the Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man—Adam—and woman—Eve—lived after they were created by God. ...
Michelangelos Creation of Adam, from the Sistine Chapel. ...
Professor Weston (full name Edward Rolles Weston) is arguably one of C.S Lewis greatest satanic characters. ...
Ransom arrives in Venus and finds it to be an oceanic paradise. One day is about 23 Earth hours, in contrast to Earth and Mars with their 24 and (roughly) 25 hour days. The sky is golden and very bright but opaque - the sun cannot be seen, hence the night is pitch black with no stars visible. Strange, mythical creatures roam the planetary sweet-water ocean, which is dotted with floating rafts of vegetation. These rafts look like small islands, and actually have plant life growing on them and animals living on them; however, due to the ocean underneath, they are in a constant state of motion like in an earthquake. Ransom quickly meets the Queen of the planet; unlike the inhabitants of Mars in Out of the Silent Planet, she is human (this is said to be because Perelandra was populated after Maleldil became human, that is, the birth of Jesus), but with green skin. She and the King of the planet are the only human inhabitants, the Eve and Adam of their world. Living on the floating rafts Ransom has seen, they are forbidden to sleep on the "Fixed Land". The rafts or floating islands are indeed Paradise, not only in the sense that they provide a pleasant and care-free life (until the arrival of Weston) but also in the sense that Ransom is for weeks and months naked in the presence of a naked beautiful woman without once feeling the slightest hint of sexual stirring - just as Adam and Eve were in the original Paradise until the Fall. An earthquake is a phenomenon that results from the sudden release of stored energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. ...
Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...
This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ...
The plot thickens when Professor Weston arrives in a spaceship and lands in a part of the ocean quite close to the Fixed Land. He at first announces that he is a reformed man, but appears to still be in search of power. Then he pledges allegiance to what he calls the "Life-Force", and subsequently shows signs of demonic possession. The new Weston finds the Queen, trying to tempt her into defying God and spending a night on the fixed land; Ransom must act as a counter-tempter. Demonic possession, in supernatural belief systems, is a form of spiritual possession whereby certain malevolent extra-dimensional entities, demons, gain control over a mortal persons body, which is then used for an evil or destructive purpose. ...
Well versed in the Bible and Christian theology, Ransom realizes that if the pristine green lady who never heard of Evil succumbs to Weston's arguments, the Fall of Man will be re-enacted on Perelandra. He does his best in day after day of lengthy arguments illustrating various approaches to temptation, but the demonic Weston shows super-human brilliance in debate (though when "off-duty" he displays moronic dumbasslike behaviour and small-minded viciousness) and moreover appears in no need of sleep. In Abrahamic religion, The Fall of Man or The Story of the Fall, or simply The Fall, refers to humanitys fall from a state of innocent bliss to a state of sinful understanding. ...
With the demon/Weston on the edge of winning, the desperate Ransom hears in the night what he gradually realises is a Divine voice, commanding him to physically destroy the Tempter. Ransom is highly reluctant, grappling with God for the whole night, but finally accepts the mission upon realising that otherwise God would later have to take drastic personal action to redeem this world ("not a second crucifixion but an even more appalling sacrifice"). Ransom fights his opponent bare-handed and chases him over the ocean, both riding the backs of giant fish. During a fleeting truce, the real Weston momentarily re-inhabits his body, and the conversation between them displays Lewis' horrific vision of what Hell is: the damned soul is not consigned to the pain of flames, but is absorbed and "digested" by the Devil, eventually losing completely its personality. Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) A hell, according to many religious beliefs, is an afterlife of suffering where the wicked or unrighteous dead are punished. ...
The Devil is a title given to the supernatural entity, who, in Christianity, Islam, and other faiths, is a powerful evil entity and the tempter of humankind. ...
But the momentary re-appearance of the real Weston was a trap - the demon controlling Weston has intended and succeeded in arousing Ransom's horror and his feeling of pity and compassion for the utterly damned Weston, and while Ransom is thus distracted the demon takes back control of the body, surprises and tries to drown him.
Surviving, Ransom at last smashes the devil/Weston's head with a stone in a subterranean cavern and consigns the body to volcanic flames. At the last moment, though, the demon bites Ransom's heel - an unhealable wound which cripples Ransom for the rest of his life. (This is presumably a reference to Genesis 3:15: "And the LORD God said unto the serpent (...) I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.) Genesis (Hebrew: ‎, Greek: ΓÎνεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah, the first book of the Tanakh and also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ...
Returning to the planet's surface, Ransom meets the King and Queen together with the Oyarsa of Mars and Venus. The story climaxes with Ransom's vision of the essential truth of life in the Solar System, and possibly of the nature of God: strongly paralleling the journeys of Dante in the Divine Comedy. Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
Major features of the Solar System (not to scale, from left to right): Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, the asteroid belt, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth & Moon, and Mars. ...
This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...
Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ...
Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, in Michelinos fresco. ...
His mission accomplished, he returns, rather reluctantly, to Earth to continue the fight against the forces of evil on their own territory.
Perelandra was published in 1943, one year after A Preface to Paradise Lost, and it deals with many of the same issues: the value of hierarchy, the dullness of Satan, and the nature of unfallen sexuality, for instance. To an extent, it can be viewed as a commentary on Milton's poem but a commentary which is intelligible to a reader ignorant of the original. 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...
Title page of the first edition Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. ...
For other uses, see Satan (disambiguation). ...
For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ...
Lewis's description of Perelandra's environment and rotation period is, of course, inconsistent with the actual conditions on Venus, but astronomical observation at the time of writing of the novel had not yet positively determined this to be the case.
The third volume of the trilogy, That Hideous Strength, is set on Earth and, perhaps inevitably, has rather a different tone than the prior two volumes; Ransom is a key character but is "off-stage" for much of the action. This article is about the C.S. Lewis novel. ...
Adjectives: Terrestrial, Terran, Telluric, Tellurian, Earthly Atmosphere Surface pressure: 101. ...
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