What is the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1942 satirical novel about a senior demon advising a junior tempter?

The Screwtape Letters is C.S. Lewis’s 1942 satirical novel about a senior demon advising a junior tempter.

The book is presented as a series of letters from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his nephew Wormwood. Their correspondence discusses how to tempt a human subject and how to exploit ordinary distractions, anxieties, pride, and self-deception. Lewis uses the inverted viewpoint to create satire rather than offering a straightforward demonic narrative.

The work began as a series of pieces connected with wartime broadcasting and was published as a book in 1942. Its fictional correspondence format makes it different from Mere Christianity, which developed from radio talks, and from The Great Divorce, which is an allegorical fantasy about heaven and hell.

The letters are widely read as Christian apologetics and moral reflection. Lewis later wrote a preface explaining that the subject was difficult because readers might mistake the demons’ perspective for reliable moral guidance. The book remains one of his most frequently cited works.