Which 1936 C.S. Lewis book examines allegorical love in medieval and Renaissance literature?

The Allegory of Love is C.S. Lewis’s 1936 study of allegorical love in medieval and Renaissance literature.

Published in 1936, The Allegory of Love examines how writers used allegory to represent love and related ideas. Lewis discusses medieval traditions and follows their development into Renaissance literature, combining literary history with close reading and broad cultural interpretation.

The book helped establish Lewis’s reputation as a major scholar of English literature. It was written before many of his best-known popular works, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Mere Christianity. Its subject also reflects his deep interest in older literary periods, especially medieval texts and the transition into the Renaissance.

The title can be confused with Lewis’s later scholarly works. A Preface to Paradise Lost, published in 1960, discusses John Milton’s epic, while The Discarded Image, published in 1964, surveys the medieval and Renaissance model of the universe. The Allegory of Love is specifically the 1936 study of allegorical literary traditions.