What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1956 novel about Queen Orual?

C.S. Lewis’s 1956 novel about Queen Orual is Till We Have Faces.

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold is Lewis’s final novel. It retells the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche from the viewpoint of Orual, the ruler of the fictional kingdom of Glome. Orual’s account challenges the story’s familiar arrangement by making her the narrator and by placing her jealousy, grief, resentment, and search for understanding at the center.

The book was published in 1956, the same year Lewis entered his civil marriage with Joy Davidman. It differs noticeably in tone from the Narnia books: it is a serious psychological and philosophical novel, with a setting inspired by the ancient world rather than a children’s fantasy land.

The title comes from the novel’s concern with identity, self-knowledge, and the barriers people place between themselves and others. Readers sometimes confuse it with Lewis’s Space Trilogy, but Till We Have Faces is a separate work and is not science fiction.