C.S. Lewis is the narrator of his autobiography Surprised by Joy. Published in 1955, the book recounts selected experiences from his childhood, education, intellectual development, and movement toward Christianity.
The title comes from Lewis’s use of “joy” for a particular kind of intense, fleeting longing. He distinguishes this experience from ordinary happiness or pleasure. In the narrative, encounters with mythology, literature, friendship, and ideas all contribute to his developing understanding of that longing.
Lewis describes his childhood in Belfast, his relationship with his brother Warren, his education, his service in the First World War, and his years at Oxford. He also discusses his gradual rejection of atheism and later return to Christian belief, though the autobiography is selective rather than a complete diary.
The book is sometimes mistaken for a conventional conversion memoir. Its focus is broader: it traces how imagination, reading, and philosophical reflection shaped Lewis’s life before and around his conversion.