Which C.S. Lewis book retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche from a new narrative viewpoint?
Answer
Till We Have Faces
Answer
Till We Have Faces
Till We Have Faces retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche from a new narrative viewpoint. C.S. Lewis published the novel in 1956, and it was his last completed work of fiction.
The story is narrated by Orual, a princess in the fictional kingdom of Glome. Lewis adapts the ancient tale associated with Apuleius’s The Golden Ass, but shifts the emphasis toward Orual’s jealousy, grief, love, and accusation against the gods.
The title comes from the novel’s treatment of identity, self-knowledge, and the masks people use when confronting one another and the divine. The first-person narrative makes Orual’s perspective central, rather than presenting Psyche’s story as a simple fairy tale.
Readers sometimes classify the book as straightforward Christian allegory, but Lewis resisted reducing his fiction to a one-to-one symbolic code. Its classical source, psychological depth, and unusual narrator make it distinct from the Narnia books and from Lewis’s more directly apologetic works.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026