Who is the protagonist called Elwin Ransom in C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy?

Elwin Ransom is the protagonist of C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy. He is introduced as a philologist in Out of the Silent Planet, the first book, published in 1938.

Ransom travels beyond Earth and encounters the worlds of Malacandra and Perelandra. The trilogy combines planetary adventure with philosophical and theological ideas, presenting alien civilizations and cosmic conflict through a distinctly literary lens. Its other volumes are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945.

Ransom’s name is sometimes confused with Mark Studdock, the central character of That Hideous Strength. Mark belongs to the third novel and is not the trilogy’s recurring protagonist. Lewis drew on contemporary debates about science, technology, language, and human nature while creating Ransom’s interplanetary adventures.