C.S. Lewis published The Pilgrim’s Regress in 1933. It was his first published work after his conversion to Christianity and is an allegorical account of a character named John who searches for a way beyond the limitations of his inherited beliefs.
The title deliberately recalls John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, but Lewis’s book also responds to modern intellectual movements and debates. Its subtitle, An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism, signals the combination of religious argument and literary symbolism.
The book was not an immediate commercial success, and Lewis later acknowledged that its allusions and argumentative structure could make it difficult for readers. Nevertheless, it established themes that would recur in his apologetic writing and fiction.