That horrid power

An English university town, a powerful scientific institute, a young couple at odds, and Aslan awakening in the woods. The strangest and most prophetic of Lewis’s novels. Mark Studdock, an ambitious young sociologist at Bracton College in Edgestow, longs to join the "inner circle" of those who matter. He is offered a position at the N.I.C.E., a National Institute for Coordinated Experiments that buys up college land and claims to reorganize society. His wife, Jane, who has abandoned her thesis, has troubling dreams that prove true. While Mark gets drawn into the intrigues at Belbury, the seat of the institute, where the private police of the "White Witch" Hardcastle and a severed head kept alive hold sway, Jane finds refuge at St Anne’s Manor. A small community has gathered there around a mysterious Director—none other than Ransom. Both sides seek the same thing: Merlin, asleep for fifteen centuries beneath the woods of Bragdon. The ending is both apocalyptic and comic.

• Original Title — *That Hideous Strength*
• First Publication — 1945
• Genre — Novel (science fiction, Arthurian fantasy, academic satire)
• First English Edition — The Bodley Head, London, 1945; subtitle "A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups"
• Availability in Bookstores — Out of print (as of 2024); available used.
• Reading Level — Challenging — a long, dense novel for adults
• For Whom — For adult readers who enjoyed the first two books and enjoy idea-driven novels. Can also be read on its own, as a campus novel that turns into fantasy.

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Family

Other Names

• *That Hideous Strength*
• Novel (science fiction, Arthurian fantasy, academic satire)
• Fiction

In Brief

## How to approach it

Level

Demanding — a long, dense novel for adults. For adult readers who enjoyed the first two books and enjoy idea-driven novels. Can also be read alone, as a campus novel that turns fantastical.

In brief

Mark Studdock, a young ambitious sociologist at Bracton College in Edgestow, longs to join the “inner circle” of those who count. A scientific institute called the N.I.C.E. buys land from the college and claims it will reorganize society. His wife Jane, who neglects her thesis, has disturbing dreams that turn out to be true. While Mark descends into the intrigues of Belbury, the seat of the institute, ruled by the private police of the “Fairy” Hardcastle and a talking severed head, Jane finds refuge at St Anne’s Manor. A small community gathers there around a mysterious director — none other than Ransom. Both sides seek the same thing: Merlin, asleep for fifteen centuries beneath Bragdon Wood. The ending is both apocalyptic and comic.

The story

Written during the war, under the influence of Charles Williams, whose mystical universe is recognizable, and drawing on Arthurian legend beloved by the Inklings. Lewis explicitly presents the novel as a fictionalized version of his lectures on The Abolition of Man (1943). The title comes from a line by the Scottish poet David Lyndsay about the shadow of the Tower of Babel.

Trivia

The ending, in which freed animals storm the N.I.C.E. banquet, evokes the talking beasts of Narnia. Mr. Bultitude, the most endearing character in the book, seems to step straight out of Narnia. The confusion of languages foreshadows the tricks of the ape Shift in The Last Battle.

Going further

A young researcher willing to do anything to join the “inner circle”, an institute that promises to reorganize society in the name of science, and a language that distorts meaning: today’s reader will recognize contemporary anxieties. The novel is not an anti-science pamphlet, but a critique of the limitless power of those who claim to serve it.

Did you know

That the novel baffled critics at the time: George Orwell wrote a review both admiring and annoyed, praising the description of a scientistic regime but regretting the intrusion of the supernatural. It is now often cited in debates on technocracy, surveillance, or transhumanism.

Key ideas

• The “inner circle”: the desire to belong to those who count, and what it costs.
• Technocracy and the manipulation of opinion (press, police, euphemisms).
• Science without morality, a fictional extension of The Abolition of Man.
• Marriage, humility, and equality within the couple.
• Arthurian legend: Logres versus official Britain.

Read it in English

• That Hideous Strength, in The Cosmic Trilogy, HarperCollins, 1997, trans. Maurice Le Péchoux
• That Hideous Strength, Scribner, 2003, trans. Maurice Le Péchoux

On screen

No filmed adaptation.

See also

• Beyond the Ice Planet
• Perelandra
• The Abolition of Man
• The Weight of Glory
• A Medievalist at the Inklings: Charles Williams
• A Medievalist in the Pulps: Lewis, Arthur C. Clarke, and the quarrel over space