Which 1956 novel did C.S. Lewis dedicate to his wife, Joy Davidman?

Till We Have Faces is the 1956 novel C.S. Lewis dedicated to his wife, Joy Davidman. Its subtitle, A Myth Retold, signals that it is Lewis’s imaginative reworking of the Cupid and Psyche story from classical mythology.

The narrator is Orual, a queen who reflects on her relationship with her half-sister Psyche and on the gods she believes have treated her unjustly. The novel explores love, jealousy, identity, sacrifice, and the difficulty of seeing oneself honestly.

Lewis considered Till We Have Faces one of his best works. It differs sharply from the Narnia books because it is an adult literary novel rooted in a fictional ancient kingdom rather than a children’s portal fantasy.

The dedication to Joy Davidman appeared in the year they married in a Christian ceremony. Davidman died four years later, in 1960, after which Lewis wrote A Grief Observed about bereavement and faith.