A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken ( 1977, Harper & Row ) is a memoir of the author Sheldon "Van" Vanauken and his true love Jean "Davy" Davis but is self-described by the author as "the spiritual autobiography of a love rather than the lovers." The book has two essential parts, the first "pagan" and the second after the couple's conversion to Christianity while at Oxford up until tragedy befalls their relationship and its aftermath. It also chronicles the couple's friendship with C.S. Lewis including several letters that include outstanding spiritual advice. In what Van calls the pagan beginnings of their relationship, Van and Davy, agnostics devoted to beauty and truth, meet and from their first date discover their connection, in a moment Van describes using C.S. Lewis's words defining Friendship: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself ..." From there, their love grows to heights and depths that I recogniz...
a pilgrim's regress