Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold - Paperback

by C. S. Lewis (Author)

This twist on an old story, is an exploration of love--between sisters, between friends, between teacher and pupil, between men and women. Till We Have Faces is retold through the eyes of Psyche's oldest sister, Orual.

Orual was born ugly and even though she's a princess, she struggles with the death of her mother and the friction between her sisters. There are two lights in Orual's life. One is her tutor, the Fox, a Greek slave captured through war. The other is her much younger sister Istra, later nicknamed Psyche, born from Orual's father's second marriage. Istra is beautiful and sweet and good but far from being jealous of her, Orual loves her as a daughter. When the priest of Ungit says that Psyche's great beauty is an insult to the goddess and she must be sacrificed, Orual fights to prevent this. When Orual expects to find her sister dead, she finds her well and thriving. But, why can't Orual see what everyone else sees? Blinded by her jealous love, Orual castes blame on the duplicity of gods. What is the truth? What is real?

Lewis's novel is a brilliant examination of envy, loss, betrayal, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. Why must holy places be dark places? Lewis reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives. "Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood."

Back Jacket

Fascinated by the myth of Cupid and Psyche throughout his life, C. S. Lewis wrote this, his last novel, to retell their story from the perspective of Psyche's sister, Orual: "I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer . . . Why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?" Lewis provides an engaging retelling of one of the most popular myths from antiquity with what The Saturday Review called "new meaning, new depths, new terrors." With his trademark insightfulness, Lewis reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives.