The

SCREWTAPE LETTERS

with

Screwtape Proposes a Toast

C. S. Lewis

An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

the screwtape letters. Copyright © 1942, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright restored © 1996 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.

Preface to the Screwtape Letters. Copyright © 1961, restored 1996 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.

Screwtape Proposes a Toast. Copyright © 1959, renewed 1987 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.

From The World’s Last Night by C. S. Lewis. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Inc.

Preface to Screwtape Proposes a Toast. Copyright © 1982 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.

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first harpercollins paperback edition published in 2001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898–1963.

The Screwtape letters; also includes, “Screwtape proposes a toast” / C. S. Lewis.

p. cm.

Originally published: 1st Touchstone ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

ISBN 978-0-06-065293-7

1. Christianity—20th century.

I. Title: Screwtape letters; also includes, “Screwtape proposes a toast”.

II. Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898–1963. Screwtape proposes a toast.

III. Title: Screwtape proposes a toast. IV. Title.

BR125.L67 2000

248'.4—dc21

00-049860

To J. R. R. Tolkien

The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.

luther

The devil … the prowde spirite … cannot endure to be mocked.

thomas more

PREFACE

I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but ill-disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle. I have made no attempt to identify any of the human beings mentioned in the letters; but I think it very unlikely that the portraits, say, of Fr Spike or the patient’s mother, ...