Orual is the main character in C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces.
Published in 1956, Till We Have Faces is Lewis’s retelling of the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche. Orual, the eldest daughter of the king of Glome, narrates the novel and later becomes queen. Her account examines love, jealousy, religious belief, political power, and the difficulty of seeing oneself honestly.
Unlike the Narnia books, this novel is written for adults and is set in a fictionalized ancient kingdom. Orual is not an ordinary heroic narrator: her intelligence and devotion exist alongside possessiveness and resentment. The book’s title refers to the movement from hidden or distorted self-understanding toward truthful self-recognition.
Lewis regarded the novel as one of his best works, although it was less immediately popular than some of his Christian apologetic books. Readers sometimes confuse Orual with Psyche, whose story she narrates. Psyche is central to the myth, but Orual is the novel’s principal voice and protagonist.