Surprised by Joy

C.S. Lewis is perhaps most famous for his Narnia books. Read (or reread!) some of the books from that series. How do the experiences that Lewis describes in Surprised by Joy seem to influence Narnia?

“Joy,” in Lewis’s sense of a longing that is more delicious than any earthly fulfillment, is at the heart of this book. Look for the moments in the book when Lewis experiences this Joy. What do the places where Lewis finds himself feeling Joy tell us about who he is?

Lewis is careful to say early on that he will leave out a lot of information about his later life, sticking only to the facts that he sees as pertinent to his conversion. Did any of these gaps surprise you? How does the omission of parts of Lewis’s life story that we might expect to be important—for instance, his service in World War I—affect your reading of the book?