What was C.S. Lewis’s first published book of literary criticism?

The Allegory of Love was C.S. Lewis’s first published book of literary criticism.

Published in 1936, the study examines the medieval and Renaissance tradition of allegorical love poetry. Lewis traces how writers represented love as an abstract or personified force, discussing works and figures connected with courtly literature, medieval allegory, and Edmund Spenser’s poetry.

The book established Lewis as a serious literary scholar before he became widely known as a Christian apologist and children’s author. Its scholarship reflects his expertise in medieval and Renaissance English literature, the field in which he taught and later held an Oxford academic position.

The title can be confused with Lewis’s later scholarly books, especially English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama, published in 1954, and An Experiment in Criticism, published in 1961. The Allegory of Love is the earlier work and is often treated as the book that first brought him broad academic recognition.