Which C.S. Lewis memoir describes his childhood, education, and return to Christianity?

Surprised by Joy is the C.S. Lewis memoir describing his childhood, education, and return to Christianity.

Published in 1955, Surprised by Joy traces Lewis’s intellectual and spiritual development from childhood through his conversion to Christianity. It discusses his early love of mythology and literature, his experiences in school and at Oxford, and the influences that shaped his thinking.

The title refers to Lewis’s idea of “joy,” a powerful longing or fleeting experience that he associated with imagination, beauty, and desire for something beyond ordinary satisfaction. The memoir is not a complete day-by-day autobiography; it is selective and organized around the development of his ideas.

Lewis became a Christian in stages. He returned to theism in 1930, became a Christian in 1931, and later distinguished between his conversion to belief in God and his conversion to Christianity. These stages are why short summaries of his conversion can seem inconsistent.