Which C.S. Lewis book is a fictional account of a senior demon advising a junior tempter?

The Screwtape Letters is C.S. Lewis’s fictional account of a senior demon advising a junior tempter.

The book was published in 1942 and consists of letters from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his nephew Wormwood. Screwtape offers advice about tempting a human patient, while Lewis uses the demonic perspective to criticize pride, distraction, self-deception, and spiritual complacency.

Lewis’s method reverses the usual viewpoint of religious writing. The reader is not given direct advice from an angel or preacher; instead, the lessons emerge from recognizing that the demons’ strategies are manipulative and destructive.

The work began as a series of letters and was first published in the Anglican newspaper The Guardian. Lewis later said that writing from Screwtape’s viewpoint was an unpleasant experience, and he did not want to repeat that technique.