That Hideous Strength

***That Hideous Strength*** (subtitled *A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups*) is a science fiction novel by Irish author Clive Staples Lewis, published in 1945 by the Bodley Head, during the aftermath of WW2. It is the final book in Lewis's theological science fiction Space Trilogy, and by far the longest of the three, leading Lewis himself to produce an abridged version called *The Tortured Planet* for the mass market.

The events of this novel follow those of *Out of the Silent Planet* and *Perelandra* (also titled *Voyage to Venus*) and once again feature the philologist Elwin Ransom. Yet unlike the principal events of those two novels, the story takes place on Earth/Thulcandra itself rather than in Space or on other planets in the Field of Arbol. The story involves an ostensibly scientific institute, the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments, which is a front for sinister and destructive forces. Its connection to *The Dark Tower* of uncertain authorship is less obvious, but both contain themes of dehumanisation, technocratic dictatorship and a more Earth-bound setting. *The Dark Tower* also features Andrew MacPhee (in a slightly different form).

The novel was heavily influenced by the writing of Lewis's friend and fellow Inkling Charles Williams, and is markedly dystopian in style. In the book's preface Lewis acknowledges science-fiction writer William Olaf Stapledon and his work: "*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.*"

In the foreword, Lewis states that the novel's point is the same as that in his non-fiction work *The Abolition of Man* which argues that there are natural laws and objective values, which education should teach children to recognise.

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## Title

The novel's title is taken from a work by Scottish Renaissance poet, Sir David Lyndsay in 1555, *Ane Dialog betuix Experience and ane Courteour*, also known as *The Monarche*. The couplet in question, "*The shadow of that hyddeous strength, sax myle and more it is of length*", refers to the Tower of Babel.

## Chapters

1. Preface
2. Sale of College Property
3. Dinner with the Sub-Warden
4. Belbury and St. Anne's-on-the-Hill
5. The Liquidation of Anachronisms
6. Elasticity
7. Fog
8. The Pendragon
9. Moonlight at Belbury
10. The Saracen's Head
11. The Conquered City
12. Battle Begun
13. Wet and Windy Night
14. They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Heads
15. "Real Life Is Meeting"
16. The Descent of the Gods
17. Banquet at Belbury
18. Venus at St. Anne's

## Plot

The book, written during the final period of World War II, takes place at an undetermined year "after the end of the [ second world ] war".

Mark Gainsby Studdock is a young academic who has just become a Senior Fellow in sociology at Bracton College in the University of Edgestow. The fellows of Bracton are debating the sale of a portion of college land to the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), whose staff already includes some college faculty. The sale is controversial since the land in question (Bragdon Wood) is an ancient woodland believed to be the resting place of Merlinus Ambrosius at Merlin's Well. After the deal is struck, a N.I.C.E. insider called Lord Feverstone proposes a possible post for Mark at the Institute. (It is gradually revealed that Feverstone is the new title of Richard Devine, who accompanied Professor Weston on the trip to Mars in *Out of the Silent Planet*, but not on the trip to Venus in *Perelandra*.)

Mark's wife Jane Tudor Studdock (a PhD student at the university) has suffered a peculiar nightmare involving a severed head. She meets Mrs. Dimble, the wife of one of her former tutors, who is being evicted due to sale of land to the N.I.C.E. When Jane talks about her dreams, Mrs. Dimble leads her to seek counsel from Grace Ironwood, who lives in the Manor as part of a Company in the nearby town of St. Anne's on the Hill. An argument between Jane and Mark shows how their marriage is deteriorating.

Lord Feverstone introduces Mark to the N.I.C.E., where he becomes acquainted with the top brass at their headquarters at Belbury, near Edgestow. Here and throughout his time with them, Mark can never find out what his place in the organisation is; he has no office or duties and seems to be alternately in and out of favour. A scientist named William Hingest, who is resigning from the N.I.C.E., warns Mark to get out. As he drives home that night, Hingest is mysteriously murdered.

At the same time, Jane works up the courage to visit Miss Ironwood at the Manor. Miss Ironwood, who is dressed in black just as Jane had dreamed of her, is convinced that Jane's dreams are not psychological but visions of genuine events. Later, Jane is introduced to Elwin Ransom, the protagonist of the first two books in Lewis's space trilogy. He has become the legitimate Pendragon of Logres, the heir of Arthur the King, and the Director of the Company living in the Manor at St. Anne's. He is in communication with the Oyéresu (singular "Oyarsa"), angelic beings who guide the planets of the Solar System. Earth has been in quarantine: its rebellious Oyarsa and his Dark Eldila could not travel beyond the orbit of the Moon, and the other Oyéresu could not come to Earth.

Mark is finally given work: his main duty is to write pseudonymous newspaper articles supporting the N.I.C.E., including two for use after a riot they intend to provoke in Edgestow. The riot takes place as planned, allowing the N.I.C.E.'s private police force to take over the town. They arrest Jane, whom the N.I.C.E. are interested in (as revealed later) for her psychic abilities, which they fear will get into their opponents' hands. The head of the N.I.C.E. police, a woman known as Fairy Hardcastle, starts to torture Jane but is forced to release her when rioters turn in her direction.

Mark is once again out of favour in the N.I.C.E., but after a conversation with an Italian scientist named Filostrato he is introduced to the Head of the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments. This turns out to be a literal head – that of a recently guillotined French scientist (as Jane dreamt) which Filostrato erroneously believes he has restored to life by his own efforts.

From Jane's dreams that people were digging up the grave of a long-buried man and that the man had left, Ransom concludes that the N.I.C.E. is looking for the body of Merlinus Ambrosius, who truly is buried in Bragdon Wood under Merlin's Well, though not dead but in a timeless state. Jane will guide members of the group to the place she dreamt of.

The N.I.C.E. bosses now try to strengthen their hold over Mark by showing him trumped-up evidence that he murdered William Hingest. This however backfires, as the moment of crisis finally gives Mark the courage to leave Belbury. He returns to Edgestow in search of Jane only to find their apartment empty and the town under N.I.C.E. control. Later he meets Cecil Dimble, part of the Company in the Manor at St. Anne's on the Hill, who despite his misgivings offers to help him. Unfortunately Mark deliberates too long over Dimble's proposal and he is found and arrested for Hingest's murder.

That night, during a heavy storm, both the Company of the Manor and N.I.C.E. personnel are on the trail of Merlin, who has apparently revived. He has taken the clothes of a tramp known only as the Sleeper through his powers of hypnosis and acquired a wild horse. He meets the Company of the Manor but rides away. Members of the N.I.C.E. capture the Sleeper, believing him to be Merlin.

Mark, while contemplating his upcoming trial and execution, discovers that he has not been arrested by the real police but by officials of the N.I.C.E. who (he now guesses) are the true murderers of Hingest. Much to his surprise he is now told that he is to be initiated into the group's Inner Ring. In preparation for this he begins a bizarre program of training intended to cultivate absolute objectivity by relegating emotion to the status of a chemical phenomenon. He outwardly participates in these rituals (knowing that he will otherwise be killed) but inwardly begins to reject everything the N.I.C.E. stands for.

Merlin arrives at the Manor ahead of his pursuers, where he and Ransom converse in broken Latin. Ransom reveals that there are Satanic forces behind the N.I.C.E. and that Merlin is to be possessed by the Oyéresu; since the forces of darkness broke the lunar barrier in the earlier books, the heavenly beings may also cross the barrier and intervene in human affairs. Jane then has two mystical experiences; the first with the earth-bound counterpart of the Oyarsa of Perelandra, and the second with Urendi Maleldil. After discussions with Mrs. Dimble and the Director, she becomes a Christian.

Merlin, now possessed by the Oyéresu, disguises himself as a Basque priest and answers the N.I.C.E.'s advertisement for an interpreter of ancient languages. He hypnotises and interviews the Sleeper (who the N.I.C.E. still believe may be the real Merlin) and the two of them are brought to a banquet. There Merlin pronounces the curse of Babel upon the assembled N.I.C.E. leaders, causing all present to speak gibberish, and also liberates the many animals on which the N.I.C.E. were experimenting. The bigger animals kill most of the N.I.C.E. staff and Mr. Bultitude destroys the Head.

As earthquakes destroy the building, Lord Feverstone flees to Edgestow but is killed when that too is engulfed. Merlin helps Mark escape and sends him to the Manor. The Oyarsa of Venus lingers at the Manor, as Elwin Ransom is now to be transported back to that planet. When Mark arrives, a vision of Venus leads him into a bridal chamber that Jane has been preparing for him.

## Characters

* **Mark Gainsby Studdock** – Protagonist; sociologist, and ambitious to the point of obsession with reaching the "inner circle" of his social environment.
* **Jane Tudor Studdock** – Protagonist; Mark's wife. Jane is supposedly writing a Ph.D. thesis on John William Donne, but since her marriage she has become effectively a housewife. In the course of the book she discovers herself to be a clairvoyant.
* **Sleeper** – a tramp and a tinker.

### The N.I.C.E.

* **François Alcasan** – "The Head", a French-Algerian scientist executed for murder early in the book. His head is recovered by the N.I.C.E. and appears to be kept alive by the technology of man while actually having become a communication mechanism for the Macrobes.
* **John Wither** – Long-winded bureaucrat, Deputy Director of the N.I.C.E. He is the true leader of the N.I.C.E. and a servant of the Macrobes. Long association with them has "withered" his mind, and his speech and thinking are characterized by vagueness and jargon. He hardly ever sleeps, but instead maintains a continual dreamy wakefulness that affords him the ability to maintain a shadowy, supernatural presence throughout the Institute.
* **Professor Augustus Frost** – A psychologist and assistant to Wither, he is the only other N.I.C.E member who knows the true nature of the Head and of the Macrobes. He views emotions and values as mere chemical phenomena to be ignored as distractions from scientific inquiry. He is coldhearted and unemotional and he has an exact, precise manner of speech and thinking.
* **Miss/Major Hardcastle** (a.k.a. "The Fairy") – The sadistic head of the Institutional Police and its female auxiliary, the Women's Auxiliary Institutional Police. Torture is her favorite interrogation method, and she takes special pleasure in abusing prisoners.
* **Professor Filostrato** – An obese Italian eunuch physiologist who has seemingly preserved Alcasan's head. He believes the Head to be truly Alcasan. His ultimate goal is to free humanity from the constraints of organic life.
* **Lord Feverstone** – The politician, recently ennobled businessman, and nominal academic who lures Mark into the N.I.C.E. Feverstone was one of the two men who kidnapped Ransom in *Out of the Silent Planet*, and the person responsible for getting Mark Studdock his fellowship at Bracton College. A classic sociopath, he is motivated in all circumstances by the perceived benefit to himself. Although he is aware of the Macrobes, having encountered their benign counterparts on Mars, he has no interest in them.
* **Reverend Straik** – the "Mad Parson". He believes that any sort of power is a manifestation of God's will. Straik is ready to obliterate that "organisation of ordered Sin called Society." When Mark objects that he must not want to preserve Society because he believes in an afterlife, Straik objects that Jesus's real teaching was justice here and now. Emphasis on an afterlife has, he thinks, emasculated and sidetracked the real meaning of Jesus's teaching. This belief, along with other beliefs, makes him a suitable candidate for introduction to the Macrobes. Straik was "a good man once", but became deranged by the death of his daughter.
* **Horace Jules** – A Cockney novelist, tabloid reporter, and pseudo-scientific journalist who has been appointed as the Director of the N.I.C.E. He studied science at theUniversity of London, but clearly never advanced beyond an elementary level. He fondly imagines himself to be the actual leader of the N.I.C.E., but as he is not aware of its true nature he is easily manipulated by Wither and Frost. He has a strong anti-clerical bias and objects to Wither appointing "parsons" (such as Straik) to the Institute. He is in part a caricature of Herbert George Wells, whose book *The Shape of Things to Come* presented the systematic persecution of Christianity (and all other religions) by a future world government as a positive activity.
* **William Hingest** – A distinguished chemist who is recruited by the N.I.C.E. but soon decides to resign, since he was expecting N.I.C.E. to be about science, but found some kind of political conspiracy instead; he makes no secret of his disdain for the Institute. He is murdered by N.I.C.E. agents.

### Company at the Manor

* **Dr. Elwin Ransom** (also known as the Pendragon of Logres and the Director) – A former Cambridge don who is the Head of the Company at the Manor. He alone communicates with the benevolent *eldila*, whom he met during his earlier voyages to Malacandra and Perelandra . He has changed his surname to Fisher-Kingand has a wound in his foot, received on Venus, that will not heal till he returns there. His heavenly experiences have made him a kingly figure among his small band of followers, and he attributes his following to Urendi Maleldil.
* **Grace Ironwood** – The stern but kind psychologist and doctor who helps Jane interpret her dreams. Her name is probably inspired by the Járnviðr ("Iron-Wood") of Norse mythology, its bleak connotations ameliorated by the Christian name "Grace".
* **Dr. Cecil Dimble** – Another academic, an old friend of Ransom, and close adviser on matters of Arthurian scholarship and pre-Norman Britain. He is fond of Jane Tudor Studdock, who was once his student, and feels guilty that he dislikes her husband Mark.
* **Margaret "Mother" Dimble** – The wife of Cecil Dimble. The Dimbles have no children, much to their sadness, but have compensated by their kindness to students. She is very maternal, and shows fondness towards Cecil's male and female students alike.
* **Ivy Maggs** – Formerly a part-time maid for Jane Studdock; now driven out of the town by the N.I.C.E. and living at the Manor. Jane is puzzled at first by her status as an equal at the house. Ivy's husband, Tom Maggs, is in the County Jail for petty theft.
* **Merlinus Ambrosius** – The wizard Merlin, awakened and returned to serve the Pendragon and save England. Receives the powers of the Oyéresu. He has been in a deep sleep since the time of Arthur the King, and both sides initially believe he will join the N.I.C.E. His appearance at the Manor comes as a surprise.
* **Andrew MacPhee** – A scientist, skeptic, and rationalist, who is a close friend of Dr. Ransom and joins him at St. Anne's. Though not religious, he is deeply influenced by his Presbyterian family background. His uncle was a high official in the Church of Scotland, and, allowing for the differences in religious profession, was equally skeptical. He is mentioned parenthetically in *Perelandra*, and he appears in *The Dark Tower* as an Ulsterman. MacPhee, like Ransom, was an officer in the First World War. MacPhee desires to fight the N.I.C.E. with human powers. He is an argumentative character who claims to have no opinions, merely stating facts and illustrating implications. His position in the Company is to be skeptical, testing every hypothesis and Jane's dreams; however, the awakened Merlin believes MacPhee to be Ransom's "fool" (jester), because MacPhee is "obstructive and rather rude...yet never gets sat on". The character may have been based on William T. Kirkpatrick, former headmaster of Lurgan College and an admired tutor of the young Lewis.
* **Mr. Bultitude** – Last of the seven bears of Logres, who escaped from a zoo and was tamed by Ransom, who has regained man's legendary authority over the beasts. He is captured by the N.I.C.E., escapes, and destroys the Head.
* **Arthur Denniston** – An academic at Edgestow and a former friend of Mark Studdock from student days. He and Mark were rival candidates for a fellowship at Bracton College, which Mark won through the influence of Lord Feverstone. They drifted apart before Jane entered the picture and Studdock became obsessed with reaching the Inner Circle at Bracton and the NICE.
* **Camilla Denniston** - The wife of Arthur Denniston, very tall and beautiful. She is the first person Jane meets at St. Anne's.

## Philosophy

The main human antagonists of *That Hideous Strength* believe in scientific materialism, that is, that nothing exists apart from physical matter and energy. They also believe, somewhat like the early Gnostics, that the human body is frail and corrupted. Like modern transhumanists, they believe that humanity can be perfected by migrating out of its body of flesh and blood and into a machine. Lewis portrays the results of these ideas in a highly dystopian manner.

In contrast, Lewis portrays reality in the book as supporting essential Christian beliefs, such as the inherent sinfulness of humanity, the impossibility of humans perfecting themselves apart from God, the essential goodness of the physical body (though currently corrupted by sin), the omnipotence of God against the limited powers of evil, and the existence of angels and demons. Within this Christian framework, Lewis also incorporates Roman mythological figures into the hierarchy of angelic beings who serve God, as well as elements of the legend of Arthur the King, which according to the book derive from true stories of human interaction with angels and demons. In this way, Lewis essentially presents an integration of Christian, Roman, and British conceptions of reality, true to his identity as an Irish Christian student of antiquity.

In chapter 12 Ransom makes a passing reference to Owen Barfield's "ancient unities" when discussing the feelings of the bear "Mr Bultitude".

## Reception and influence

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, was very unappreciative of it, calling it "That Hideous Book".

Works such as *1984* or *Fahrenheit 451*, bear some resemblance to this novel, but this book came first: and right about the time of the atomic bomb. George Orwell actually wrote a complimentary review (titled "The Scientists Take Over") and sang the book's praises, with the caveat that he objected to the ending in which N.I.C.E. is overthrown by divine intervention: "[Lewis] is entitled to his beliefs, but they weaken his story, not only because they offend the average reader’s sense of probability but because in effect they decide the issue in advance. When one is told that God and the Devil are in conflict, one always knows which side is going to win. The whole drama of the struggle against evil lies in the fact that one does not have supernatural aid". The book is riddled with Christian allegory, although less overtly so than *Perelandra* was.

Perhaps it may be most generously summed up in the words of Lewis's friend and fellow Anglican apologist, the crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers who described it as "less good but still full of good stuff."

Leonard Bacon, reviewing *That Hideous Strength*, described the book as "a ghastly but in many places a magnificent nightmare". He criticised the character of Studdock as uninteresting, noting that "it is hard to get excited about the vagaries of a young, insecure and ambitious academic figure whose main concern is to get into a inner circle, any inner circle", but praised the plotting of the book: "The hunt of Ransome's remnant for the real Merlin while the villains capture the false one is as vivid as a passage in Stevenson." Although Bacon regarded the book as somewhat inferior to its two predecessors, he concluded: "This is just the sort of thing that pleases Mr. Lewis's admirers. And they are right to admire him. Win, lose or draw—and the reviewer doesn't think that this book is wholly victorious—Mr. Lewis adds energy to systems he comes in contact with".

Floyd C. Gale wrote that the book "bears the authentic stamp of its creator's awesome imagination".[8]

## In popular culture

* Physicist Freeman Dyson cites *That Hideous Strength* and the N.I.C.E. on pages 141–143 of his book *A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe* (University of Virginia Press, 2007) as an example of theofiction.
* The post-hardcore band Thrice based their song "That Hideous Strength" (a b-side from their The Illusion of Safety recordings and released on their EP, If We Could Only See Us Now) on Lewis's novel. The song "The Earth Will Shake" performed by Thrice is based on his poem "The Prudent Jailer", with many other songs relating to his work including "The Abolition of Man", "That Hideous Strength" and "As The Ruin Falls".
* Christian Progressive Death Metal band Becoming the Archetype's 2008 album *Dichotomy* is based heavily on the book.
* English electronic musician Belbury Poly takes his name from the town of Belbury. Many of his peers on the Ghost Box Music label pay similar homage to Lewis' mythology of Belbury.
* The progressive rock band Glass Hammer has a song titled *That Hideous Strength* on their concept album *Perelandra*, which is based on the stories of *The Space Trilogy* and *The Chronicles of Narnia*.
* Christian horror punk band Blaster the Rocket Man, whose lyrics frequently subsist on monster themes, borrowed heavily from The Space Trilogy in their album *The Monster Who Ate Jesus*. Their song entitled "March of the Macrobes," alludes to macrobes and the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments's attempts to disembody the heads of those who wish to gain immortality with lines such as, "Leave flesh behind / There's only mind / Or set the brain apart / To elevate the heart / Whatever happened to the individual? (N.I.C.E.) / Where is his soul? (R.A.P.E.)."
* Becoming the Archetype, a Christian progressive death metal band, produced an album titled *Dichotomy* which was inspired by The Space Trilogy. The album explores themes that are prevalent in the trilogy: biology versus technology and man versus machine.
* Progressive rock band Glass Hammer have based the concept of their album Perelandra on the stories of The Space Trilogy and *The Chronicles of Narnia*.
* The Christian band Massivivid has two songs that contain quotes from *That Hideous Strength*.
* There is also DJ That Hideous Strength [1]

## Publication history

* 1945, UK, The Bodley Head, N/A, Pub date ? December 1945, hardback (first edition)
* 1946, USA Macmillan Publishing Co. New York, NY
* 1996, USA Scribner Classics
* 1996, USA, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-83367-0, pub date 28 October 1996, hardback
* 1996, USA, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-82385-3, pub date 1 June 1996, paperback
* 2012, USA, HarperCollins, ISBN 9780062196941, Publication date, April 2012, electronic book.
* 1946 Paperback edition abridged by the author published in the USA under the title *The Tortured Planet* by MacMillan and under its original title in Britain by PAN books.

## Cover art gallery

That Hideous Strength13.jpgThat Hideous Strength14.jpg
## Quotations

* "Why you fool, it's the educated reader who *can* be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they're all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in Mayfair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the highbrow weeklies, don’t need reconditioning. They're all right already. They’ll believe anything."
	+ Ch. 5: Elasticity, section 1

* "They would say," he answered, "that you do not fail in obedience through lack of love, but have lost love because you never attempted obedience."
	+ Ch. 7 : The Pendragon, section 2

* "The cardinal difficulty," said MacPhee, "in collaboration between the sexes is that women speak a language without nouns. If two men are doing a bit of work, one will say to the other, 'Put this bowl inside the bigger bowl which you'll find on the top shelf of the green cupboard.' The female for this is, 'Put that in the other one in there.' And then if you ask them, 'in where?' they say, 'in there, of course.' There is consequently a phatic hiatus."
	+ Ch. 8 : Moonlight at Belbury, section 2

* "They have an engine called the Press whereby the people are deceived."
	+ Ch. 13 : They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Heads

* "Their own strength has betrayed them. They have […] pulled down Deep Heaven on their heads."
	+ Ch. 13 : They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Heads

* Not till then did his controllers allow him to suspect that death itself might not after all cure the illusion of being a soul—nay, might prove the entry into a world where that illusion raged infinite and unchecked. Escape for the soul, if not for the body, was offered him. He became able to know (and simultaneously refused the knowledge) that he had been wrong from the beginning, that souls and personal responsibility existed. He half saw: he wholly hated. The physical torture of the burning was not fiercer than his hatred of that.
	+ Ch. 16 : Banquet at Belbury, section 6

## External links

* Britannica article on That Hideous Strength
* Women of the west: CS Lewis and Femininity in That Hideous Strength
* Summer rerun review of That Hideous Strength
* A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups: C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength