An Experiment in Criticism (1961)

Lewis’s experiment was to reverse the usual critical practice of his time, of focusing on the work
and judging its quality by the extent to which it adheres to predetermined standards.
Lewis proposes that attention be concentrated instead on the reader, on identifying
what constitutes “good reading” instead of what characterizes a “good book.”
It includes chapters on myth, fantasy, and poetry, and important discussions
of the visual arts as well as the value of reading literature.

• Discussed in chapter 1 of Schakel, Imagination and the Arts in C. S. Lewis