Which C.S. Lewis work uses a demon’s letters to advise his nephew Wormwood?

The Screwtape Letters uses a demon’s letters to advise his nephew Wormwood.

Published in book form in 1942, the work consists of letters from Screwtape, an experienced tempter, to Wormwood, a junior demon. The letters discuss how to influence a human subject away from Christian belief and moral attention. Lewis presents the advice ironically, allowing readers to recognize the distortions in demonic reasoning.

The unusual viewpoint makes the book a work of satire and Christian apologetics rather than a conventional supernatural adventure. Screwtape’s confident recommendations frequently expose pride, distraction, self-deception, and the misuse of ordinary experiences.

The book is sometimes mistaken for Mere Christianity because both explain Lewis’s Christian ideas. Their forms are very different: Mere Christianity grew from radio talks, while The Screwtape Letters is fictional correspondence. Lewis dedicated the book to J.R.R. Tolkien, although the dedication also contains playful criticism of Tolkien’s influence on him.