What is the title of C.S. Lewis’s autobiography about his conversion and childhood imagination?

Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s autobiography about his conversion and childhood imagination.

Published in 1955, Surprised by Joy describes Lewis’s early life, education, intellectual development, and movement from atheism toward Christianity. The title refers to “joy,” a term Lewis used for intense experiences of longing and desire that seemed to point beyond ordinary satisfaction.

The memoir covers his childhood in Belfast, his time at school, his service in the First World War, and his intellectual life at Oxford. It emphasizes ideas and spiritual development more than personal chronology, so it is not a complete account of every event in his life.

The book is often confused with A Grief Observed, Lewis’s later record of mourning after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. Surprised by Joy appeared before that marriage and focuses chiefly on Lewis’s earlier religious and intellectual journey.