An imaginative novelist and an incisive theologian, C.S. Lewis drew deep inspiration from classic British literature. Originally delivered as lectures as Trinity College, the essays here find Lewis expounding on the enduring significance—and his own appreciation—of William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, William Tyndale, John Knox, Samuel Johnson, Richard Hooker, Hugh Latimer, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, and Thomas Cranmer. Framing the historical and cultural upheavals of the time, Lewis adds perspective to the influences that shaped these authors' lives and works.