From Neuchâtel to our bookstores: eighty years of Lewis in French, and the books that are still missing

• First translation: *The Devil’s Tricks*, Neuchâtel, 1943.
• Major role of Swiss publishers: Delachaux and Niestlé, EBV, L’Âge d’Homme, Raphaël.
• Current publishers: Empreinte temps présent, Téqui, Cerf, Antigone14, Gallimard Jeunesse.
• Never translated: *The Pilgrim's Regress*, *The Allegory of Love*, *The Discarded Image* and most of the essays.

This article focuses on Lewis's work outside Narnia. For the Chronicles, see “French editions of Narnia”.

First period (1943-1997): French-speaking Switzerland opens the door

It was in Switzerland that Lewis learned French. Delachaux and Niestlé, in Neuchâtel, published *The Devil’s Tricks* as early as 1943, then *The Great Divorce* (1947), part of *Mere Christianity* (1948) and *Letters to Malcolm* (1970). EBV, in Basel, published in the 1980s *God on Trial* and *Demoncratic(ally) Yours*. L’Âge d’Homme, in Lausanne, published *A Face for Eternity* (1995) and *The Cosmic Trilogy* (1997), translated by Maurice Le Péchoux.

In France, during this time, Lewis remained almost unknown. As the researcher Anne-Frédérique Caballero explains, his Christian books circulated mainly in evangelical Protestant circles, which were very small. Major generalist publishers showed little interest, except for Gallimard, for Narnia and for a single work of literary criticism.

Second period (1998-2010): Mont-Pèlerin

Raphaël, at Mont-Pèlerin, above Vevey, directed by Denis Ducatel, who was also the translator of at least seven of Lewis’s books, published between 1998 and 2010 about ten titles, including several first translations (*Reflections on the Psalms*, *The Four Loves*). Raphaël has since ceased its activities. The 2005 film introduced Narnia to the French public and revived interest in its author.

Third period (since 2010): publishers today

• Empreinte temps présent: *The Devil’s Tricks* (2010), *Miracles* (2018), *God on Trial* and *Reflections on the Psalms* (2020), *The Bus to Paradise* and *Demoncratic(ally) Yours* (2025).
• Téqui: *The Four Loves* (2019), *The Problem of Pain* (2020), *Letters from the Land of Narnia* (2020).
• Cerf: *Learning about Death* (pocket edition, 2019).
• Antigone14: *The Black Tower and Other Stories* (2020).
• League for Bible Reading (LLB): *Foundations of Christianity* (since 1985).
• Gallimard Jeunesse: *The World of Narnia*.

Inventory of the French-speaking reader

Out of print, but findable

*The Cosmic Trilogy*, *A Face for Eternity* / *Till We Have Faces*, *Surprised by Joy*, *Letters to Malcolm*, *An Experiment in Criticism*: to be found second-hand, in libraries or Christian bookshops.

Never translated

• The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933), the only work of fiction never translated.
• All scholarly criticism except one title: The Allegory of Love, A Preface to Paradise Lost, The Discarded Image, Studies in Words…
• Poetry (Spirits in Bondage, Dymer, Poems).
• Boxen, the diary, the complete correspondence.
• The vast majority of the approximately 120 essays: only about twenty exist in French.

Our worksheets give a descriptive French title to untranslated books (for example L’Image du monde for The Discarded Image): these are working translations, not official edition titles.

Why titles change

Successive translations have given several titles to the same book: The Great Divorce becomes The Bus to Paradise; Till We Have Faces is sometimes *A Face for Eternity*, sometimes *Till We Have Faces*; Mere Christianity was first translated as *Being or Not Being*, then *That’s Why I’m a Christian*, and finally *Foundations of Christianity*. Our worksheets always list the most well-known title and the others.

Reading on Lewis in French

Some references, detailed in our annotated bibliography: Irène Fernandez, Mythe, ardent Reason (Ad Solem, 2005); Suzanne Bray, C.S. Lewis or the Vocation of the Bestseller (2007); Daniel Warzecha, C.S. Lewis and the Spiritual Imaginary (2010); Anne-Frédérique Caballero, The Gospel according to C.S. Lewis (2011); Jean-Yves Lacoste, Narnia, theological world? (2005); Philippe Maxence, The World of Narnia Decrypted (2005, reprinted in 2021).

Online, resources remain scarce: the Quebec-based website Samizdat by Paul Gosselin, the group “C.S. Lewis in French-speaking world” run by A.-F. Caballero, and the YouTube channel “La table de Pierre”. Our website hopes to help fill this gap.

What is most lacking

If a publisher were to listen to us, here are three translations we are waiting for: The Discarded Image, to understand the world of Narnia; Of Other Worlds, where Lewis tells the birth of Narnia; and The Pilgrim’s Regress, the allegorical story of his conversion.

See also

• French editions of Narnia
• C.S. Lewis in French: the war, translations, readers
• Annotated bibliography: reading about Narnia and Lewis
• Bibliography of C.S. Lewis
• What to read by C.S. Lewis after Narnia
• The Screwtape Letters
• The Pilgrim's Regress (title not published in French)
• The Discarded Image (title not translated in French)
• Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (title not translated)