Which C.S. Lewis novel follows Mark and Jane Studdock in a struggle involving the N.I.C.E.?

C.S. Lewis’s novel That Hideous Strength follows Mark and Jane Studdock in a struggle involving the N.I.C.E. The initials stand for the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments, a powerful organization pursuing scientific and social control.

Published in 1945, the novel is the third volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, although its setting is primarily Earth rather than another planet. It combines academic satire, mythic imagery, Christian themes, and dystopian ideas. Mark is drawn into the N.I.C.E. through his academic ambitions, while Jane’s experiences lead her toward a different understanding of knowledge and responsibility.

The novel is sometimes treated as simple science fiction, but its concerns extend to bureaucracy, propaganda, eugenics, and the misuse of technology. Its title echoes a line from the medieval poem The Song of the Holy Ghost by David Lindsay, and Lewis placed a quotation from that poem at the beginning of the book.