That Hideous Strength

That Hideous Strength
C. S. Lewis

The third novel in the science-fiction trilogy by C.S. Lewis. This final story is set on Earth, and tells of a terrifying conspiracy against humanity.The story surrounds Mark and Jane Studdock, a newly married couple. Mark is a Sociologist who is enticed to join an organisation called N.I.C.E. which aims to control all human life. His wife, meanwhile, has bizarre prophetic dreams about a decapitated scientist, Alcasan. As Mark is drawn inextricably into the sinister organisation, he discovers the truth of his wife’s dreams when he meets the literal head of Alcasan which is being kept alive by infusions of blood.Jane seeks help concerning her dreams at a community called St Anne’s, where she meets their leader – Dr Ransom (the main character of the previous two titles in the trilogy). The story ends in a final spectacular scene at the N.I.C.E. headquarters where Merlin appears to confront the powers of Hell.

THE COSMIC TRILOGY

Out of the Silent Planet

Perelandra

That Hideous Strength

C. S. Lewis

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH

A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups

Contents

The Cosmic Trilogy (#u84396ac3-d225-57ac-b535-f8f086ff85d0)

Title Page (#uae40fa39-c7b4-56ab-8776-330660558bb7)

Dedication (#u81215599-3456-5437-a099-882430fa73b4)

Epigraph (#uec626b35-2eb7-5378-b20d-9dbe4f8e1863)

Preface (#u7a7313b9-5a0f-5e61-8a5f-4a2657d3e191)

1 Sale of College Property (#uee97f8c0-7407-5c19-9c31-a1fe0bdfda87)

2 Dinner with the Sub-Warden (#uacd07b11-7be6-58e6-808a-0c8e9b9e6555)

3 Belbury and St Anne’s-on-the-Hill (#ud2a06971-a5f4-5fd3-9680-32f723e290f0)

4 The Liquidation of Anachronisms (#u76612da6-8492-5070-a308-468512e3dfb1)

5 Elasticity (#ub849351e-68ce-5f7e-88f7-ac2ea6f703fc)

6 Fog (#litres_trial_promo)

7 The Pendragon (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Moonlight at Belbury (#litres_trial_promo)

9 The Saracen’s Head (#litres_trial_promo)

10 The Conquered City (#litres_trial_promo)

11 Battle Begun (#litres_trial_promo)

12 Wet and Windy Night (#litres_trial_promo)

13 They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Heads (#litres_trial_promo)

14 ‘Real Life Is Meeting’ (#litres_trial_promo)

15 The Descent of the Gods (#litres_trial_promo)

16 Banquet at Belbury (#litres_trial_promo)

17 Venus at St Anne’s (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

To

J. McNEILL

‘The Shadow of that hyddeous strength Sax myle and more it is of length.’

SIR DAVID LINDSAY: from Ane Dialog (describing the Tower of Babel)

Preface (#ulink_767a6d0f-78c2-5511-89ad-05ccdab67c99)

I have called this a fairy-tale in the hope that no one who dislikes fantasy may be misled by the first two chapters into reading further, and then complain of his disappointment. If you ask why–intending to write about magicians, devils, pantomime animals and planetary angels–I nevertheless begin with such hum-drum scenes and persons, I reply that I am following the traditional fairy-tale. We do not always notice its method, because the cottages, castles, woodcutters and petty kings with which a fairy-tale opens have become for us as remote as the witches and ogres to which it proceeds. But they were not remote at all to the men who made and first enjoyed the stories. They were, indeed, more realistic and commonplace than Bracton College is to me: for many German peasants had actually met cruel stepmothers, whereas I have never, in any university, come across a college like Bracton. This is a ‘tall story’ about devilry, though it has behind it a serious ‘point’ which I have tried to make in my Abolition of Man. In the story, the outer rim of that devilry had to be shown touching the life of some ordinary and respectable profession. I selected my own profession, not, of course, because I think fellows of colleges more likely to be thus corrupted than anyone else, but because my own is the only profession I know well enough to write about. A very small university is imagined because that has certain conveniences for fiction. Edgestow has no resemblance, save for its smallness, to Durham–a university with which the only connection I have had was entirely pleasant.

I believe that one of the central ideas of this tale came into my head from conversations I had with a scientific colleague, some time before I met a rather similar suggestion in the works of Mr Olaf Stapledon. If I am mistaken in this, Mr Stapledon is so rich in invention that he can well afford to lend, and I admire his invention (though not his philosophy) so much that I should feel no shame to borrow.

Those who would like to learn further about Numinor and the True West must (alas!) await the publication of much that still exists only in the MSS of my friend, Professor J. R. R. Tolkien.

The period of this story is vaguely ‘after the war’. It concludes the Trilogy of which Out of the Silent Planet was the first part, and Perelandra the second, but can be read on its own.

C. S. LEWIS

Magdalen College,

Oxford.

Christmas Eve, 1943.

1 (#ulink_30aff43e-f02b-5936-835b-bdc4215fabf0)

Sale of College Property (#ulink_30aff43e-f02b-5936-835b-bdc4215fabf0)

‘Matrimony was ordained, thirdly,’ said Jane Studdock to herself, ‘for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other.’ She had not been to church since her schooldays until she went there six months ago to be married, and the words of the service had stuck in her mind.