Orual is the narrator and central character of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces.
Published in 1956, the novel retells the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of Psyche’s older sister. Orual becomes queen of the fictional kingdom of Glome and looks back on her life, relationships, jealousy, and complaints against the gods.
The book’s title comes from its concern with identity, self-knowledge, and the masks people use when facing one another and the divine. Lewis considered it one of his best literary works, and it differs in tone from the children’s fantasy of Narnia.
Psyche is a major character, but she is not the narrator. Lewis based the novel broadly on the myth preserved by Apuleius in The Golden Ass, while creating a psychologically detailed first-person account through Orual.