Self Condemned

Self Condemned, originally published in 1954, tells the story of Professor Ren? Harding and his wife, Essie, as they find themselves in Momaco, a fictionalized version of Toronto, following Ren?'s resignation as an academic in London, England. Reduced to a position at the second-rate University of Momaco, Ren? and Essie suffer through a bleak and oppressive isolation in a dreary and alien city.

The novel, a devastating, disturbing satire of life in wartime Canada, explores the difficulty individuals face as they struggle to adapt to new surroundings while preserving their sense of wholeness, as well as the bond that develops between people during a shared experience of isolation. Hailed by T.S. Eliot as "the greatest prose writer of my generation," Lewis wrote Self Condemned after he lost his vision in 1951