The Great Divorce – C. S. Lewis (full audiobook)
Chapter 1 4:55 Waiting in a Bus Queue. Endless evening. 5:21 Dindgy Lodging houses 5:37 The town seemed to be empty, so I attached myself to the queue 5:47 A little waspish woman snapped at a man ahead of her “I won’t go at all.” 6:21 Next to a short man with a skull 6:43 “Well, this is hardly the sort of society I’m used to.” “Not good enough for ya, aren’t we? Like your lip.” 7:06 Big Plain (or Plane?) Man and Short Man leave the queue 7:52 “We shall never all get in.” “Change places with ya for 5 buv lady.” Describing The Bus 8:23 Blazing with Heraldicly Colored Golden Light. 9:03 The Bus driver had A look of authority, seeming intent to carry out his job. 9:14 Getting on board the bus. A tousle headed youth sat beside the protagonist. 10:45 A thick wad of type-written paper Chapter 2 11:11 This ill-used man, unappreciated by his parents. To make matters worse… vulgarized intellect, communism, conscientious objecter. 12:32 Sweden 🇸🇪 the home of a new and radical art. 13:15 13:23 The Grey Town 14:38 The Deuce of a Town, so empty. (A ghost town ) 15:00 Napoleon 18:06 The bus is still moving, but nothing can be seen outside right now. 18:17 “The town will go on spreading indefinitely.” 18:33 “The trouble is they have no needs. You get what you want just by imagining it.” 20:11 What do they want? 21:00 It will be dark presently. 21:33 22:00 A fat cultured man enters into the conversation. 23:24 hours later, there came a change 24:14 Shrinking away from the faces of impossibilities Chapter 3 24:55 25:09 At last the top of the cliff 25:26 Then, suddenly, we were at rest. And the bus unloaded. The singing of a lark came to the protagonist’s ear. 25:53 The light and coolness of summer morning. A sense of being in a larger space, as if the sky were further off, and the extent of the green plain wider than earth. 26:25 A feeling of Freedom and Exposure or Danger. 26:59 They were fully transparent. They were ghosts. Tend to them or ignore them at will. The grass did not bend under their feet, even the due drops were not disturbed. 27:55 I tried to pluck a daisy, it would not break, it would not twist, I lost most of the skin off my hand. It was like a diamond. 28:43 I also was a phantom. Who will give me words to express the terror of that discovery. Golly, thought I, I’m in for it this time. 29:13 Stay as long as you please. 30:10 The Solitude was so vast. The Light and Long Shadows, No Change, No Progression. Sunrise Immovable. 31:01 People came to see us. The Earth shook under their tread. A sweet smell went up. Some naked, some robed. Some were bearded. 31:53 They [The Bright People] came on, steadily. Chapter 4 32:03 They came moving with order and determination, as if each of them had marked his man. 32:24 A grove of Cedars. The grass hard as diamonds felt like rinkled rock. 32:58 Followed by The Big Man/Ghost who was Followed by One of The Bright People 34:11 It is all over now. No need to bother of it. “I do not look at myself. I’ve given up myself. I had to, you know? After the murder. That is what it did for me. And that’s how everything began.” 34:38 “Personally, I thought you and I ought to be the other way round.” 35:12 “I done my best by everyone.” 35:30 “It will be much better to not go on about that.” 35:53 “You won’t get your rights and neither will I…You’ll get something far better.” 36:23 Ask 37:19 “You weren’t a decent man and you didn’t do your best.” 37:57 “I was the worst.” 38:25 “There are no private affairs.” 38:55 “Don’t refuse, you’ll never get there alone.” 39:48 “I didn’t come here to be treated like a dog” Chapter 5 40:07 Silence, then, 2 Velvet Footed Lions 40:57 Another one of those bright people was in conversation with The Fat Ghost 41:10 The Fat Ghost speaks to this Bright Spirit. 42:49 “We call it Hell” “discuss Hell reverently?” 43:33 “Do you really think people are penalized for their honest opinions?” “Do you really think there are no sins of intellect?” 43:57 “I know we used to talk that way…” 44:43 “Our opinions were not modestly come by.” “We just wrote the essays that got good marks.” 45:13 “When did we put up one resistance to the loss of our faith.” 45:38 “You and I were playing with loaded dice.” Drifting and unresisting 45:54 Sincerity, but not innocent. 47:11 “There is no ‘in the meantime.” Turn from your past. “He is In Me For You.” “You have seen hell, now you are inside of Heaven.” 47:47 Repent and Believe. 48:10 “Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows.” 48:56 The Land not of questions, but of answers. 49:35 Tasting Truth. Quenching Thirst. 50:10 The free play of mind is not actually Freedom. 51:30 “We know nothing of religion here. Only of Christ.” 53:45 What If speculation by The Fat Ghost. 55:18 Hardness of the surface. Chapter 6 55:55 The surface became uneven. 56:46 A Waterfall was pouring. 57:35 A Tree with apples of gold. 58:14 A ghost was crouching, signaling to the protagonist to duck down. 59:25 The ghost was haunted by the terror of discovery. 1:00:05 The winds blow apples off of the tree. 1:01:35 “Fool! Put It Down!” came the voice of The Water Giant (an angel) Chapter 7 1:02:40 1:03:43 “That’s all propaganda… a human being couldn’t live here.” “Just have a look around.” 1:05:13 “It’s as good as any other.” “Same old light.” 1:05:33 “They all tell me that.” “It’s never a new management, you’ll always find the same old ring.” 1:07:02 “If they wanted to rescue us, they could do it. But obviously the last thing they want is to end their so-called war. The whole game depends on keeping it going.” 1:08:32 A great depression had come over the protagonist. Chapter 8 1:09:15 1:09:48 1:10:37 A Sharp Urgent, Sense of Danger. Terror whispered “This is no place for you.” 1:11:53 A Woman Ghost wants to be alone. 1:13:15 Going up to the mountains. 1:13:50 “We were all a bit ghostly when we arrived.” 1:14:05 “What are we born for?” “For Infinite Happiness.” 1:16:16 A Herd of Unicorns were called by this bright person. Chapter 9 1:17:05 Setting the scene 1:17:44 Meeting an old, farseeing Scottish man. 1:18:30 This man’s name is George McDonald. 1:19:50 Do any of these ghosts stay? Can they stay? How did they come to be here? 1:20:15 The Refrigerium. 1:21:04 Is Judgement not Final? It depends on the way you are using the words. 1:22:00 Heaven works backwards, turning that agony into a Glory. 1:23:02 And both The Good Man and The Bad Man will speak truly. 1:24:08 What happens to The Saved? The opposite of a mirage. 1:24:38 “Hush, do not blaspheme.” “Hell is a state of mind.” “Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself.” 1:25:10 “But there is a real choice after death?” 1:25:38 “What concerns you is the nature of the choice itself.” 1:25:54 “The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” “There is always something they insist on keeping, even at the price of misery. There’s always something they prefer to joy, that is, to reality.” 1:26:15 The Sulks of The Spoiled Child, and 100 other names. Self-Respect. Tragic Greatness. Proper Pride. 1:27:34 Sir Archibald obsessed on survival. It drove him mad. 1:28:33 His occupation was clean gone. If only he had a laugh at himself, he could have begun all over again, and entered into joy. 1:29:11 “It is nearer to such as you than you think.” 1:29:50 Why do the solid people not go down into Hell? 1:30:15 Every one of us lives only to journey further and further into the mountains. Every one of us returns back to save souls. 1:30:43 What of the poor ghosts? “Thy Will Be Done.” and “thy will be done” 1:31:24 A ghost spoke speedily. 1:32:57 “She isn’t wicked.” “Is she now a grumbler?” 1:33:20 “or only a grumble?” “If there’s one wee spark we will blow it until it is red and clear.” 1:33:51 “Ye can repent and come out of it again, but there may come a day when you can do that no longer.” 1:34:35 “I owed all this ease to the strong arm of the teacher.” “The country put on new beauties.” 1:35:16 A 2nd pitiful female ghost. A flirty ghost. 1:36:36 1:38:54 The debris of a crumbled human soul, a cold church yard shadow that cannot be but somehow is. 1:39:20 Other grotesque phantoms. 1:41:09 “Looking comes first.” before Painting. Here, you are having the thing itself, it is from here that the messages came. 1:42:00 “When you’ve grown into a person, there’ll be some things you’ll see better than anyone else. At present your business is to see. Come and see.” 1:42:42 Learn to see. The Light itself was your first love. 1:43:35 The Fountain. The Leith. 1:45:00 Glory Flows Into Everyone. They are all famous, known, remembered, by the only Mind that can give a Perfect Judgement.