What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s space-trilogy novel published in 1938?

C.S. Lewis’s 1938 space-trilogy novel was titled Out of the Silent Planet.

Out of the Silent Planet is the first volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy. It introduces the philologist Elwin Ransom, who is kidnapped and taken to the planet Mars, called Malacandra by its inhabitants. The novel contrasts the moral and spiritual cultures of other worlds with the corruption represented by the human kidnapper Weston.

The second book, Perelandra, appeared in 1943, and the final volume, That Hideous Strength, followed in 1945. The books share characters and themes but differ in setting and style: the first two focus strongly on planetary travel, while the third brings the conflict into an English academic and social environment.

The title’s “silent planet” is Earth, viewed from the perspective of the wider inhabited universe. The novel therefore combines science fiction adventure with Lewis’s concerns about language, colonial ambition, and spiritual evil.