July 28: Till We Have Faces
Summer Discussion Schedule:
July 26: Till We Have Faces (Lewis's retelling of the myth of Cupid & Psyche)
August 23: The Mirror, the Mask, and the Masterpiece: A Guide to C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces (Peter Kreeft's new book)
For first-time readers of TWHF: Here's Google's description of Till We Have Faces:
Till We Have Faces is C.S. Lewis's final and most mature novel, a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of Psyche's older, unattractive, and embittered sister, Orual, in the fictional kingdom of Glome. The story is framed as Orual's complaint against the gods, exploring themes of love, jealousy, self-deception, and faith as she recounts her possessive love for Psyche and her struggle to understand the gods' actions, ultimately leading to a profound journey of self-discovery and spiritual revelation.
It's a happy thing to be on one's first read of a great novel, experiencing the narrative intrigue of a story and taking in the imaginative element. And reading TWHF is a bit like reading The Divine Comedy—When you finish reading it, you're now ready to read it. There's so much there!
For those wanting help understanding the story, we have a letter from Lewis, and we have work from Lewis scholars.
* * * If you don't want help, skip over the following section. * * *
For those still with me, Joel Heck's Chronologically Lewis has 70 hits on the term Till We Have Faces. Here is the 6th:
April 2 [1955] Saturday: Jack writes to Katharine Farrer about paganism, giving up his Phoenix story, and starting Till We Have Faces, “the story of every nice, affectionate agnostic whose dearest one suddenly ‘gets religion,’ or even every lukewarm Christian whose dearest gets a Vocation” [Collected Letters, III, 590].
And here's the full letter in Collected Letters, III. Lewis is writing to Katharine Farrer:
I've given up the Phoenix story for the present, an old, 25 year old, idea having just started into imperative life. My version of Cupid & Psyche. Apuleius got it all wrong. The elder sister (I reduce her to one) couldn't see Psyche's palace when she visited her. She saw only rock & heather. When P. said she was giving her noble wine, the poor sister saw & tasted only spring water. Hence her dreadful problem: 'is P. mad or am I blind?' As you see, tho' I didn't start from that, it is the story of every nice, affectionate agnostic whose dearest one suddenly 'gets religion', or even every lukewarm Christian whose dearest gets a Vocation. Never, I think, treated sympathetically by a Christian writer before. I do it all thro' the mouth of the elder sister. In a word, I'm v. much 'with book': Juno Lucina fer opem
Footnote: Juno Lucina fer opem: Terence, The Woman of Andros act 3, scene 1, line 473: 'Juno Lucina [Goddess of childbirth], help me.'
In addition, Lewis scholars offer help with TWHF:
Peter Schakel (2003):
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...
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 01 July 2026.]
Andrew Lazo says that TWHF is Lewis's best book. Here's his 2025 talk: "Is Till We Have Faces C. S. Lewis's Best Book?"
Andrew Lazo, David Bates, and Matt Bush of Pints With Jack discuss Till We Have Faces in S8E34. The episode includes a link to Andrew's Wade Center talk on "C. S. Lewis and the Myth of Love."
Peter Kreeft—by way of his new book— will be our guide to TWHF at our Aug. 23 meeting.
This Friday, July 10, 7 pm ET (6 pm CT) via Zoom
Josiah Peterson will speak at the meeting of the New York C. S. Lewis Society on the topic "Lewis the World Builder." The Zoom link is here. Johnny and I enjoyed meeting Josiah last summer at a C. S. Lewis conference at Houston Christian University. We attended his excellent session on "The Metaphysics of Metaphor: C. S. Lewis on Language and Reality." We are looking forward to hearing Josiah speak on Lewis as a World Builder this Friday evening.
And now for a Narnia item:
In this 8-minute interview, Michael Ward explains "How to Read Narnia in the RIGHT Order . . . and Why Publishers are Wrong!" Ward says that the original publication order is the best order in which to read the Chronicles of Narnia. Consider, for example, that after Mr. Beaver says, "They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed," the narrator says:
And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different (LWW p67).
For the narrator's comment to have veracity, the reader must have read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before reading any other Chronicle. Ward gives other reasons as well. Ward is correct, and I say, "It's all in media res, all in media res: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!" Also, it seems to me that the publishers demonstrate a different type of "chronological snobbery."
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