C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

Peter Schakel (Hope College)
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Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

(1956) was C. S. Lewis's last work of fiction, and the one he considered his best. It was not well received initially, probably because of its difficulty and its differences from his earlier narratives, and remains the least popular of his fictional works, though it is the most highly praised by literary critics. The book retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche, which had haunted Lewis all his life. From the first time he heard the myth, he knew that the traditional story, told first by Apuleius in

The Golden Ass

, had a key point wrong: Psyche's sisters could not have seen the palace of Cupid to which she was carried by the West Wind; they could not have seen it because they did not believe in divine mysteries. Lewis attempted to retell the story earlier, as…

1353 words

Citation: Schakel, Peter. "Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12321, accessed 14 December 2024.]

12321 Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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