Which C.S. Lewis book is subtitled “A Myth Retold”?

Till We Have Faces is subtitled “A Myth Retold.”

The full title, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, identifies the book’s relationship to the ancient Cupid and Psyche story. C.S. Lewis published it in 1956, presenting the myth in a new form rather than as a direct translation or simple retelling.

The narrator is Orual, an embittered queen who looks back on her life in the fictional kingdom of Glome. Her account challenges readers to reconsider familiar ideas about beauty, sacrifice, divine silence, and the stories people tell about themselves. The book’s subtitle signals that Lewis is deliberately engaging with an older literary source.

This title is sometimes confused with Lewis’s explicitly Christian nonfiction books or with the Narnia novels. Unlike those works, it is a classical myth-based psychological novel intended for adult readers. Its subtitle is also useful bibliographically because it distinguishes the book from other editions that shorten the title to Till We Have Faces.