That Hideous Strength begins realistically enough. Its central characters are Mark and Jane Studdock, a pair of trendy but shallow modern intellectuals in an empty marriage. As the story unfolds, they undertake opposite pilgrimages. After Jane meets Ransom and joins the community at St. Anne’s, she begins her arduous ascent of purification and self-understanding. Meanwhile, her husband Mark assumes he is climbing the organizational ladder at the National Institute of Coordinated Sciences (NICE), when he is actually descending into hell.
