Which 1936 C.S. Lewis book examined medieval ideas of courtly love?

The Allegory of Love is C.S. Lewis's 1936 study of medieval and Renaissance ideas about courtly love.

The book's full title is The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition. Lewis examines the development of allegorical literature and the concept of courtly love, discussing writers and texts including Ovid, the Roman de la Rose, Chaucer, and Edmund Spenser. Its publication established Lewis as a significant literary scholar before many readers knew him as a Christian apologist or children's novelist.

The work is not a novel and does not present one continuous allegorical story. Instead, it is a historical and critical study of literary traditions. This distinction matters because Lewis later wrote imaginative fiction that used symbolism and theological themes, while The Allegory of Love belongs to his academic criticism. The book also helped shape his professional reputation at Oxford.