What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel about a dystopian modern society?

That Hideous Strength is C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel about a dystopian modern society.

The book is the third volume of Lewis’s space trilogy, following Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Unlike the earlier novels, much of its action takes place on Earth. The plot centers on the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments, or N.I.C.E., an organization whose scientific and bureaucratic ambitions threaten human freedom and moral judgment.

The novel follows Mark Studdock, a sociologist drawn toward the institute, and Jane Studdock, whose experiences connect her with resistance to its plans. Lewis combines academic satire, mythic elements, and Christian themes while examining the dangers of treating people as material to be managed.

The title comes from a line by the sixteenth-century poet David Lindsay, quoted in the novel’s epigraph. The work is sometimes labeled pure science fiction, but it also functions as a social and theological satire. Its concerns about technocracy, propaganda, and dehumanization explain why it continues to attract political and philosophical discussion.