Pilgrim's Regress

The first book written by C. S. Lewis after his conversion, Pilgrim's Regress is, in a sense, a record of Lewis's own search for meaning and spiritual satisfaction that eventually led him to Christianity.

It is the story of John and his odyssey to an enchanting island which has created in him an intense longing—a mysterious, sweet desire. John's pursuit of this desire takes him through adventures with such people as Mr. Enlightenment, Media Halfways, Mr. Mammon, Mother Kirk, Mr. Sensible, and Mr. Humanist and through such cities as Thrill and Eschropolis, as well as the Valley of Humiliation.

Though the dragons and giants here are different from those in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Lewis's allegory performs the same function of enabling the author to say with fantasy and simplicity what would otherwise have demanded a full-length philosophy of religion. In Lewis's skillful hands this fable becomes as effective a Christian defense as Bunyan's.

Contents:

Book One THE DATA

1. The Rules
2. The Island
3. The Eastern Mountains
4. Leah for Rachel
5. Ichabod
6. Quem Quaeritis in Sepulchro? Non Est Hic

Book Two THRILL

1. Dixit Insipiens
2. The Hill
3. A Little Southward
4. Soft Going
5. Leah For Rachel
6. Ichabod
7. Non Est Hic
8. Great Promises

Book Three THROUGH DARKEST ZEITGEISTHEIM

1. Eschropolis
2. A South Wind
3. Freedom of Thought
4. The Man Behind the Gun
5. Under Arrest
6. Poisoning the Wells
7. Facing the Facts
8. Parrot Disease
9. The Giant Slayer

Book Four BACK TO THE ROAD

1. Let Grill Be Grill
2. Archtype and Ectype
3. Esse Is Percipi
4. Escape

Book Five THE GRAND CANYON

1. The Grand Canyon
2. Mother Kirk’s Story
3. The Self-Sufficiency of Virtue
4. Mr. Sensible
5. Table Talk
6. Drudge
7. The Gaucherie of Virtue

Book Six NORTHWARD ALONG THE CANYON

1. First Steps to the North
2. Three Pale Men
3. Neo-Angular
4. Humanist
5. Food from the North
6. Furthest North
7. Fools’ Paradise

Book Seven SOUTHWARD ALONG THE CANYON

1. Virtue is Sick
2. John Leading
3. The Main Road Again
4. Going South
5. Tea on the Lawn
6. The House of Wisdom
7. Across the Canyon by Moonlight
8. This Side By Sunlight
9. Wisdom – Exoteric
10. Wisdom – Esoteric
11. Mum’s the Word
12. More Wisdom

Book Eight AT BAY

1. Two Kinds of Monist
2. John Led
3. John Forgets Himself
4. John Finds His Voice
5. Food At a Cost
6. Caught
7. The Hermit
8. History’s Words
9. Matter of Fact
10. Archtype and Ectype

Book Nine ACROSS THE CANYON

1. Across the Canyon by the Inner Light
2. This Side By Lightning
3. This Side by the Darkness
4. Securus Te Projice
5. Across the Canyon
6. Nella Sua Voluntade

Book Ten THE REGRESS

1. The Same Yet Different
2. The Synthetic Man
3. Limbo
4. The Black Hole
5. Superbia
6. Ignorantia
7. Luxuria
8. The Northern Dragon
9. The Southern Dragon
10. The Brook

Afterword to the Third Edition