What is the name of C.S. Lewis’s 1938 science-fiction novel about Elwin Ransom?

C.S. Lewis’s 1938 science-fiction novel about Elwin Ransom is Out of the Silent Planet.

Out of the Silent Planet introduces Elwin Ransom, a Cambridge philologist who is kidnapped and taken to Malacandra, the planet humans call Mars. There he encounters intelligent species and learns that Earth has become isolated from the wider harmony of the solar system.

The novel was published in 1938 by John Lane, and it became the first book in Lewis’s Space Trilogy. Its sequel, Perelandra, appeared in 1943, followed by That Hideous Strength in 1945. Lewis used planetary adventure to explore moral corruption, language, technology, and the Christian understanding of humanity.

Readers sometimes confuse the trilogy’s titles because Perelandra and That Hideous Strength are also major Lewis science-fiction novels. Out of the Silent Planet is specifically the opening volume and the book that first introduces Ransom.