C.S. Lewis earned a first-class Oxford degree in English in 1923.
Lewis studied at University College, Oxford, and completed the English final honour school in 1923. He had already achieved strong results in other areas: he won a first in Honour Moderations in 1920 and a first in Greats, the combined study of philosophy and ancient history, in 1922. His English degree completed an unusually broad academic record.
His education helped shape his later work as a literary scholar. Lewis became especially known for writing about medieval and Renaissance literature, and he eventually held academic posts at both Oxford and Cambridge. His scholarly book The Allegory of Love, published in 1936, examined medieval traditions of allegorical love poetry.
The answer is easy to mix up with philosophy or classics because those subjects were central to Lewis’s education and interests. He studied philosophy and ancient history in Greats before taking English. His later public reputation as a Christian apologist and novelist can also obscure the fact that he was professionally trained and employed as a literature scholar.