Which C.S. Lewis book is a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche story?

Till We Have Faces is C.S. Lewis’s retelling of the Cupid and Psyche story.

Published in 1956, the novel reworks a myth recorded by the Roman writer Apuleius in The Golden Ass. Lewis changes the viewpoint and gives the central role to Orual, Psyche’s sister, allowing the story to explore resentment, possessive love, and the difficulty of seeing one’s own motives clearly.

The novel’s subtitle, A Myth Retold, signals its relationship to the classical source. It is not a direct translation or simple modernization; Lewis substantially reshapes the narrative, setting, and psychology while preserving the myth’s central family and divine conflict.

Because Lewis is most associated with Narnia, readers sometimes overlook this adult novel. He regarded it as a particularly successful fusion of myth and literary fiction, and it remains one of his most critically discussed works.