What is the name of C.S. Lewis’s 1933 allegorical autobiography?

C.S. Lewis’s 1933 allegorical autobiography is The Pilgrim’s Regress.

The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism was Lewis’s first prose work after his return to Christian belief. It follows a character named John on a symbolic journey through a landscape filled with figures and places representing intellectual and spiritual ideas.

The title deliberately echoes John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, but Lewis’s book is not a retelling of Bunyan’s narrative. It presents Lewis’s own route through questions about reason, desire, philosophy, and Christianity. His use of “regress” signals a movement back toward an older understanding rather than a conventional forward pilgrimage.

The book can be difficult for modern readers because many characters embody debates and concepts rather than ordinary personalities. Lewis later wrote a preface explaining some of the terminology and cultural assumptions that shaped the allegory.