Which C.S. Lewis book is an autobiography about his discovery of joy?

Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s autobiography about his discovery of joy.

Published in 1955, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life recounts Lewis’s childhood, education, intellectual development, and movement from atheism toward Christianity. The title uses “joy” in Lewis’s specialized sense: an intense, fleeting longing awakened by beauty, literature, mythology, or imagination.

The autobiography is not a complete account of every part of his life. It focuses mainly on the experiences and ideas that shaped his spiritual and intellectual development. Lewis describes reading Norse mythology, George MacDonald, and other writers as important stages in that journey.

The book should not be confused with A Grief Observed, which records Lewis’s experience after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. “Joy” in the autobiography is primarily a spiritual and emotional concept, while Joy Davidman was a real person who became Lewis’s wife in 1956.