Pilgrims Regress

The Pilgrim's Regress was C.S. Lewis's first work after his conversion to Christianity. In it he presents a very forward allegory for his conversion to Christianity. John, the protagonist, lives in land controlled by the landlord. The stewards of the land make arbitrary rules and enforce them for the landlord. The rules can be bizarre and contradictory, but everyone must obey, or they will be cast out. However, some people say that the landlord never existed, and he is just something made up. These people can have names like "reason". John goes on to experiment with the beliefs of others as he desires to learn and do more. The work is not bad, but it is not up to the standards that Lewis would set with his later apologetic Christian works. It may be more accurate to compare it to the Narnia books, which also provide Christian allegory in the context of a literary story. However, even with this comparison it comes up short. Perhaps it is just Lewis having fun, experimenting with his own retelling of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.