#53 in Biography & memoir
Surprised by Joy
- 238
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
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About the book
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life is a partial autobiography published by C. S. Lewis in 1955. The work describes Lewis's life from very early childhood until his conversion to Christianity in 1931, but does not go beyond that date.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.9 across 80 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 35% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Biography & memoir average of 8.2. That is how 8.1 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.9 | 13 | 16% |
| Hardcover | 8.1 | 67 | 84% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“For lovers of C.S. Lewis, this book provides some great insight into his mind. But prepared that it is also a highly intellectual endeavor, not for fainthearted readers.”
“Another book that I had read swathes of before (this time quoted verbatim in a mostly very serviceable tome of a biography about the four major inklings.) Since a profoundly lonely period of my life in late childhood and the early teens (it is rare…”
Frequently asked
How long is Surprised by Joy?
It has 238 pages — shorter than 79% of the ranked books in Biography & memoir.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Biography & memoir — with scores between 8.0 and 8.3, closest to this book.
