What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1943 space novel?

C.S. Lewis’s 1943 space novel was titled Perelandra.

Perelandra is the second novel in Lewis’s Space Trilogy, following Out of the Silent Planet and preceding That Hideous Strength. The story sends the philologist Elwin Ransom to the planet Perelandra, also called Venus, where he encounters a newly forming world and a temptation that echoes the biblical account of humanity’s fall.

The novel combines speculative fiction, theology, planetary romance, and philosophical debate. Lewis used the trilogy to explore questions about evil, freedom, obedience, and the destiny of intelligent life beyond Earth.

A common mix-up is to identify Out of the Silent Planet as the trilogy’s second book; it is actually the first. Perelandra was published in 1943, during the period when Lewis was also becoming widely known as a Christian broadcaster and essayist.