What 1956 book by C.S. Lewis retells the Cupid and Psyche myth from a woman’s viewpoint?

Till We Have Faces is C.S. Lewis’s 1956 retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth from a woman’s viewpoint.

The novel is narrated by Orual, a princess who becomes queen of the fictional kingdom of Glome. Its plot reworks the ancient story of Cupid and Psyche, especially the relationship between a mortal woman and a mysterious divine or supernatural husband.

Lewis divided the book into two parts. The first presents Orual’s accusations against the gods, while the second revisits those accusations through a painful process of self-recognition. The title refers to the idea that people cannot truly speak or be understood until their hidden motives and identities are exposed.

Till We Have Faces is often regarded as Lewis’s most mature novel and one of his most psychologically complex works. It differs sharply in tone from the children’s fantasy of Narnia. Lewis drew on the classical myth associated with Apuleius’s Metamorphoses, but created a new setting, narrator, and moral perspective.