C.S. Lewis published The Pilgrim’s Regress in 1933. It was his first published work of prose fiction and presents a modern allegorical journey influenced by John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.
The protagonist, John, travels through a symbolic landscape while searching for the source of an unsettling desire called “Sweet Desire.” Along the way, he encounters figures and institutions representing philosophical, cultural, and religious positions. The book reflects Lewis’s developing Christian thought soon before his conversion in 1931 had become established in his public writing.
Lewis later acknowledged that the allegory could be difficult for readers because many of its references were tied to contemporary intellectual debates. In a later preface, he discussed the distance between the book’s original context and the circumstances of its readers.
The novel predates Lewis’s better-known Narnia books and his major works of Christian apologetics. It is important for understanding the transition from his earlier literary interests to the Christian imaginative and argumentative writing that made him famous.