vision of the universe as "the field of Heaven" peopled by aetheric angels. It had been the aim of Lewis' scholastic study The Allegory of Love (1936) to revalidate the standpoint of the mediaeval literature flowing from that time and a reference to one of its key authors is introduced as the reason for Lewis to contact Ransom in the first place. In Lewis's study, the authors of the Platonic School of Chartres are presented as "pioneers of medieval allegorical poetry…For them, Nature was not opposed to Grace but, rather, an instrument of Grace in opposing the Unnatural", which is one of the transformative ideas with which the novel's readers are to be familiarized. Bernardus Silvestris's study of the creation underpins Oyarsa's discussion with Ransom in the novel. Weston's speech and its translation The speech which Weston delivers at the book's climax (in Chapter 20), and Ransom's effort to render it into the language of Malacandra, demonstrates the gulf in cultural and moral perceptions between the planetary mind sets and may be said to make a sort of social criticism. Publication history (Information has been gleaned from the Library of Congress, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, and WorldCat.) References Further reading Downing, David C, Planets in Peril: A Critical Study of C. S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. University of Massachusetts Press, 1992. External links Quotations and Allusions in C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet, by the English-to-Dutch translator Arend Smilde (Utrecht, The Netherlands) Out of the Silent Planet (Canadian public domain e-text) 1938 British novels The Space Trilogy books Christian science fiction 1938 science fiction novels British science fiction novels Space exploration novels Novels set on Mars Novels set in University of Cambridge The Bodley Head books John Lane (publisher) books