Which 1936 C.S. Lewis book won the Hawthornden Prize?

The Allegory of Love won the Hawthornden Prize in 1936.

C.S. Lewis’s The Allegory of Love is a scholarly study of medieval and Renaissance literary traditions. Published in 1936, it examines the development of allegorical writing and the representation of love in works associated with authors including Ovid, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante, and Edmund Spenser.

The book helped establish Lewis’s academic reputation before he became widely known for Christian apologetics and children’s fantasy. Its argument follows the changing literary treatment of love across periods rather than presenting a simple history of romantic feeling.

The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award founded in 1919. Lewis’s win is sometimes overlooked because popular accounts focus on Narnia and Mere Christianity, but his professional career began as a scholar and teacher of English literature. The Allegory of Love remains one of his most important works of literary criticism.