Which C.S. Lewis book was published in 1956 as his retelling of Cupid and Psyche?

Till We Have Faces was published in 1956 as C.S. Lewis’s retelling of Cupid and Psyche.

The novel reworks the ancient myth associated with the Roman writer Apuleius. Lewis tells the story mainly through Orual, a queen whose perspective shapes the reader’s understanding of love, jealousy, worship, and complaint against the gods. The setting is a fictional ancient kingdom called Glome.

Lewis considered the book one of his strongest works of fiction. Unlike the Narnia novels, it is aimed at adult readers and uses a psychologically complex narrator whose interpretation changes as the story develops. Its title comes from the idea that self-knowledge and honest encounter require people to confront their true identities.

The book is sometimes overlooked because it does not belong to one of Lewis’s famous series. It is also easy to confuse with The Four Loves, a nonfiction work published four years later. Till We Have Faces is Lewis’s final completed novel.