C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Peter Schakel (Hope College)
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That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups

(1945) is a sequel to two earlier novels by C. S. Lewis,

Out of the Silent Planet

(1938) and

Perelandra

(1943). Like the earlier two stories, its central character is Elwin Ransom, though he has a smaller role in the overall action of this book. In

Perelandra

Ransom traveled to Venus and defeated Edward Rolles Weston, one of the two villains who kidnapped him and took him to Mars in

Out of the Silent Planet

. In

That Hideous Strength

Ransom returns to Earth to do battle with the other villain, Richard Devine.

That Hideous Strength describes the attempt to seize control of the earth by a large, powerful, supremely evil socio-scientific organization (the National Institute for Coordinated Experiments – known mostly by its acronym,

1284 words

Citation: Schakel, Peter. "That Hideous Strength". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12308, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12308 That Hideous Strength 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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