Which C.S. Lewis book presents retellings of the Cupid and Psyche myth?

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

Published in 1956, the novel is narrated by Orual, queen of the fictional kingdom of Glome. Its plot reworks the ancient story of Psyche, known especially from the Roman writer Apuleius’s Metamorphoses. Lewis gives the myth a new setting, a psychologically complex narrator, and a sustained examination of love, jealousy, accusation, and self-knowledge.

The title comes from the novel’s concern with identity and truthful self-understanding. Orual’s account gradually exposes how personal grievance can shape a person’s interpretation of events. Unlike the Narnia books, the novel was written primarily for adults and uses a darker, more introspective style.

Lewis regarded Till We Have Faces as one of his best works. It is sometimes described simply as a version of the Cupid and Psyche story, but that label can obscure the book’s independent structure and its deliberate engagement with the ancient source.