Which C.S. Lewis autobiography describes his intellectual journey toward Christianity?

Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s autobiography describing his intellectual journey toward Christianity. Published in 1955, it covers his childhood, education, literary influences, friendships, and movement from atheism toward belief.

Lewis uses the word “joy” for a distinctive longing or desire that he experienced through imaginative and literary encounters. The book is not a conventional day-by-day memoir; it selects episodes that illuminate his changing ideas and spiritual development.

A common mix-up is to treat the title as a reference to Joy Davidman, Lewis’s wife. The autobiography predates their marriage and uses “joy” in a special autobiographical and philosophical sense. A Grief Observed, by contrast, concerns the later experience of mourning Davidman’s death.