Which C.S. Lewis book retells the Christian story through a fictional senior demon’s advice?

The Screwtape Letters is the C.S. Lewis book that presents Christian temptation through a senior demon’s advice.

First published in book form in 1942, the work consists of letters from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his inexperienced nephew Wormwood. Screwtape gives instructions about tempting a human known only as “the Patient,” while the fictional correspondence indirectly examines pride, distraction, habit, anxiety, and self-deception.

Lewis created the work during the Second World War. The letters had previously appeared in the Anglican newspaper The Guardian, where they were published as a series in 1941. Their satirical form lets Lewis discuss moral and spiritual ideas by reversing the usual viewpoint.

The book is sometimes mistaken for a conventional novel or a direct theological treatise. It is neither: its structure is an epistolary satire, and the demonic narrator is deliberately unreliable. The humor depends on readers recognizing that Screwtape’s advice reveals destructive habits rather than wisdom.