Which C.S. Lewis novel features the demon narrator Screwtape’s nephew Wormwood?

The Screwtape Letters features the demon narrator Screwtape’s nephew Wormwood. The book is made up of letters in which Screwtape, a senior tempter, advises Wormwood about influencing a human “patient.”

Lewis creates the novel’s irony by making evil speak in the language of professional expertise. Screwtape analyzes distraction, vanity, resentment, and social pressure as tools of temptation. Because the advice is addressed to a demon, readers are encouraged to reverse its assumptions and recognize how apparently ordinary habits can affect moral life.

Wormwood is not the book’s narrator. He is the inexperienced junior tempter receiving the letters, while Screwtape supplies the confident but often absurd commentary. This distinction is a common source of mix-ups when readers remember the title character but not the structure.

The work began as a series of newspaper pieces in The Guardian in 1941 and appeared in book form in 1942. Lewis later wrote a short sequel, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” first published in 1959. The original book remains the more famous and frequently assigned work.