What was the name of C.S. Lewis’s wartime allegorical book featuring a senior demon?

The Screwtape Letters is C.S. Lewis’s wartime allegorical book featuring a senior demon.

The book is a fictional collection of letters from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his inexperienced nephew Wormwood. The letters advise Wormwood on how to tempt a human being. Lewis presents the material from a demonic point of view, using irony to expose habits such as distraction, vanity, resentment, and self-deception.

The letters were first published in the Anglican newspaper The Guardian in 1941 and appeared in book form later that year. Lewis dedicated the book to J.R.R. Tolkien, although Tolkien reportedly disliked the work’s premise and style.

The unusual viewpoint can lead readers to misremember who writes to whom. Screwtape is the senior adviser, while Wormwood is the junior tempter. The book is not a conventional novel with a continuous narrated plot; its structure is epistolary, meaning it is presented through letters.