The Pilgrim's Regress

Published in 1933, The Pilgrim's Regress is both C.S. Lewis's first work of fiction and his first Christian book. He wrote it in just two weeks (August 15-29, 1932) while visiting his childhood friend, Arthur Greeves, in Belfast, Ireland.

 

Playing off John Bunyan's classic, Pilgrim's Progress, Lewis's allegory chronicles his journey to faith through various philosophies and -isms. Why allegory? Perhaps because Lewis was working on his academic treatise, The Allegory of Love (1936), about the same time. Later, he would cover much the same ground in a more conventional format in his autobiography, Surprised By Joy (1955).

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