Surprised by Joy

Surprised by Joy (1955) This autobiographical work traces Lewis’s early life and gradual conversion to Christianity. Beginning with his childhood in Belfast, he recalls an upbringing marked by imagination, literature, and the experience of fleeting, piercing moments of longing he calls “Joy.” Educated in boarding schools and later at Oxford, Lewis moves from nominal Christianity to atheism, influenced by classical mythology, philosophy, and friendships. Yet those very influences—especially his passion for myth and beauty—keep reawakening the sense of transcendent desire. He describes how his friendships with writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson challenged his assumptions and led him to reconsider Christ. In 1931 he finally surrenders to faith, calling himself “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” The book is less about romantic happiness than about the surprising discovery of God as the source of the longing behind all human joy.