The Hideous Strength Author:C. S. Lewis "That Hideous Strength" is the 3rd and final book in C.S. Lewis' space trilogy. Although "That Hideous Strength" takes place entirely on Earth, supernatural elements from the first two books make an appearance in this one. — Lewis called his book "A fairy tale for grown ups," which is actually a pretty good summary of the whole thing. What Lewis ... more »attempts (and mostly achieves) is to represent the invisible spiritual realities through the ordinary, humdrum things of the world. As in fairy tales, "That Hideous Strength" starts out with the ordinary but ends up in the most extraordinary way.
Another way of reading "That Hideous Strength" is to look at it through the lens of the different worldviews that are presented. Among these are the unthinking atheism of Mark, the selfish practical atheism and individualism of Jane, the modernistic dream of human reason, a more postmodern mix of reason and the occult, and Christianity. It's fascinating to see the war of the worldviews at work in "That Hideous Strength"! Lewis clearly understood the spiritual state of England in 1946, and his analysis of that condition continues to have relevance for the Western world in the 21st century. Lewis' fairy tale succeeds in alerting his readers to the very real presence of the supernatural in our ordinary lives.« less