Everything, every sentence, in his spiritual autobiography is laden with some classical allusion to a work that the normal person hasn't read in Greek or Latin.Īfter the death of his mother in his youth, Lewis enters a long lasting period of atheism. Lewis, the man that "thought his way to God" (according to the back of the book), isn't really all man - he's part reading machine. "Surprised by Joy" is also an allusion to Wordsworth's poem, "Surprised by Joy-Impatient As The Wind", relating an incident when Wordsworth forgot the death of his beloved daughter.Ĭ.S. His friends were quick to notice the coincidence, remarking he'd really been "Surprised by Joy". The marriage occurred long after the period described, though not long after the book was published. The book isn't connected with his unexpected marriage in later life to Joy Gresham. He ultimately discovers the true nature & purpose of Joy & its place in his own life.
Though he described the school as "a very furnace of impure loves" he defended the practice as being "the only chink left thru which something spontaneous & uncalculating could creep in." The book's last two chapters cover the end of his search as he moves from atheism to theism & then from theism to Christianity. He writes about his experiences at Malvern College in 1913, aged 15. He finally finds what it's for at the end. He's struck with "stabs of joy" throughout life. This Joy was a longing so intense for something so good & so high up it couldn't be explained with words. However, while he does describe his life, the principal theme of the book is Joy as he defined it. He recounts his early years with a measure of amusement sometimes mixed with pain. That isn't to say the book is devoid of information about his life. This word was the best translation he could make of the German idea of Sehnsucht, longing.
His aim was to identify & describe the events surrounding his accidental discovery of & consequent search for the phenomenon he labelled "Joy". This is because his purpose in writing wasn't primarily historical. The book overall contains less detail concerning specific events than typical autobiographies. Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life is a partial autobiography describing Lewis' conversion to Christianity.
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