The Reception of C. S.Lewis in Post-Communist Romania

This paper presents the circumstances surrounding the publication of the Romanian translations of C. S. Lewis’s best known works. In the first part, the author gives information about the Romanian authors who were acquainted with Lewis’s writings during Communism, when the translation and printing of books on religious topics was under the tight control of a totalitarian government. In spite of that control, two Lewis titles-The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Mere Christianity-which were translated in the US, were smuggled into Romania. The second part of this paper deals with the remarkably changed situation after the emergence of a new regime in 1990. Since then Lewis’s books have been published, often in multiple print runs, by secular as well as Christian publishers, with a total of 12 fiction and 13 non-fiction titles, indicating a wide popular reception of his work.