What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel about a society shaped by eugenics?
Answer
That Hideous Strength
That Hideous Strength is C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel about a society shaped by eugenics and technocratic control.
It is the third and final volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, following Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Unlike the earlier books, much of its action takes place on Earth, where the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments seeks to transform humanity through scientific and administrative power.
The novel draws on concerns Lewis also examined in nonfiction, especially the danger of reducing human beings to objects that can be engineered. Its title echoes a line from David Lindsay’s 1920 novel A Voyage to Arcturus. Readers sometimes mistake the book for a straightforward space adventure; it is instead a dystopian and supernatural satire involving institutions, language, technology, and moral choice.