What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel about a sinister institute?

That Hideous Strength is C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel about the sinister National Institute of Coordinated Experiments, known as N.I.C.E.

The book is the third volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, following Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Unlike the first two novels, most of its action takes place on Earth. The story follows Mark and Jane Studdock as they become entangled in a conflict involving the institute, scientific power, political manipulation, and supernatural forces.

Lewis drew part of the novel’s atmosphere from concerns about technocratic control and the misuse of scientific authority. The title echoes a line from David Lindsay’s 1920 novel A Voyage to Arcturus, a work Lewis admired. That connection is sometimes missed because the novel is usually discussed as science fiction or theological fiction rather than as an adaptation.

That Hideous Strength is not the same book as Perelandra, although both feature Elwin Ransom and belong to the same trilogy. Its Earthbound setting gives the trilogy a sharp change of scale and subject.