Till We Have Faces
C.S. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of Psyche's older sister, Orual.
Themes & atmosphere
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What you might want to know about Till We Have Faces
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Orual is the ugly older daughter of the king of the small barbarian country of Glome, and her younger sister Istra, called Psyche, is so beautiful the people kneel to her.
Yes. Till We Have Faces (1956) was C.S. Lewis's final novel, written for adults rather than children. He considered it his best work. It is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.
Like all of C.S. Lewis's adult fiction, Till We Have Faces engages with Christian themes through allegory. It is more philosophically searching than the Narnia books and is widely studied alongside Lewis's nonfiction theology.
Till We Have Faces was written by C.S. Lewis, published in 1968 by Kedros.
Till We Have Faces is 24 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Till We Have Faces takes most readers under an hour to finish.
Till We Have Faces is a standalone novel by C.S. Lewis, not part of a series.
Till We Have Faces is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.