Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s autobiography about his intellectual and spiritual development.
Published in 1955, the book traces Lewis’s life from childhood through his education, military service, academic career, and return to Christian belief. It is especially concerned with experiences of intense longing or delight that Lewis called “Joy,” a term with a specialized meaning in his account.
The autobiography describes Lewis’s movement from childhood Christianity to atheism and then back toward theism and Christianity. His friendships with writers, including J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams, played an important part in the later stages of that journey.
The title does not mean that the book is simply a cheerful memoir. Lewis uses “joy” to describe a fleeting desire that points beyond ordinary satisfaction. Readers sometimes confuse this work with A Grief Observed, his later reflections on bereavement after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman.