Product Description

This autobiography of C.S.Lewis's early life, focusing on the spiritual crisis which was to determine the shape of his entire life, now repackaged and rebranded as a key title in the C.S. Lewis Signature Classics range. "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God!perhaps the most dejeced and reluctant convert in all England." Thus C.S. Lewis describes memorably the crisis of his conversion in his famous autobiography. Lewis was for many years an atheist, and in Surprised by Joy he vividly describes the spiritual quest which eventually convinced him of the truth and reality of the Christian faith.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9341 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'He is admirably equipped to write spiritual autobiography for the plain man, for his outstanding gift is clarity. You can take it at two levels, as straight autobiography, or as a kind of spiritual thriller, a detective's probing of clue and motive that led up to his return to the Christianity he had lost in childhood.' Isabel Quigley, Sunday Times

About the Author
Born in Ireland in 1898, C.S. Lewis gained a triple First at Oxford and was Fellow and Tutor at Magdalen College from 1925-54, where he was a contemporary of J.R.R. Tolkien, among others. In 1954 he became Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge. One of the most gifted and influential Christian writers of our time, he is also celebrated for his Narnia Chronicles and his literary criticism and science fiction. C.S. Lewis died on 22 November 1963.

Customer Reviews

Surprised by Joy - a thoroughly enjoyable autobiography.
I have already read most of C.S.Lewis' works, but I'd intentionally put-off reading 'Surprised by Joy'. I'd felt it more interesting to learn Christian Wisdom from what he wrote after his conversion, than to concern myself with how he became converted. However, I finally gave in; and it is a thoroughly good read, unusually humorous in some places: his memories of his eccentric father and also of a wartime troop-train had me laughing out- loud. Another C.S.Lewis triumph.

Wise, Entertaining, Beautifully Written
I have loved this book for the better part of thirty years - - and not simply because it is the autobiography of one of my favorite authors. I would revere this book if it was the only work by C. S. Lewis that had ever been published.

Lewis himself said that the best part of many long novels, such as Dickens's, is the beginning - - the childhood years. As an autobiographer Lewis excels here, too, with his account of his imaginative formation in a big old Belfast house and as a junior member of a family that included some eccentrics indeed. We read on to an account of his school-days miseries that rivals George Orwell's notorious essay "'Such, Such Were the Joys'." (One of Lewis's masters was institutionalized as insane within a year or so of Lewis's leaving the school.) Later, we read of his wartime experiences. (He did not have to serve in World War I, by the way, as Irish-born.)

Are you a Tolkien fan? You'll enjoy Lewis's account of his wary meeting with a "Papist" philologist.

The account of his conversion is, of course, a classic, one that people may, I believe, be reading for decades, even centuries, to come; many people have found it useful in understanding their own spiritual experiences.

The book is generous, poetic, and fresh.

Dale Nelson English Department Mayville State University, USA

Funny Story and Review...
Before I saw this book on a shelf in a library, I knew that C.S. Lewis married a woman named Joy. When I saw the title, I thought the book must have been about how he and Joy met each other and that since he was an older man when he married, he was "surprised by Joy." Funny thought, but not the case. This is C.S. Lewis' spiritual autobiography. He describes his early years, his internal yearnings, his hunger for he-knew-not-what. A more honest book, you would be hard pressed to find. I give it the highest rating possible and recommend it to all. Also recommended: Castle of Wisdom by Rhett Ellis-- a Christian book that is... well, different.