What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s first published novel, an allegory issued in 1933?

The Pilgrim’s Regress was C.S. Lewis’s first published novel, appearing in 1933. It is an allegorical work about a character named John who journeys through a landscape representing competing ideas, beliefs, and philosophies.

Lewis wrote the book after returning to Christian belief. Its title deliberately echoes John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, but Lewis’s work is set in a modern intellectual landscape rather than presenting a straightforward retelling of Bunyan’s Christian allegory.

The narrative includes figures and places that embody philosophical positions, political assumptions, and religious arguments. Lewis later acknowledged that the book could be difficult for readers because many of its references were tied to the intellectual debates of its era.

The novel is sometimes confused with Out of the Silent Planet, published in 1938 and better known as the first volume of Lewis’s space trilogy. The earlier 1933 novel is The Pilgrim’s Regress.