Till We Have Faces

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold is the last novel C.S. Lewis wrote, and the subject matter is something he thought about for more than three decades before actually writing the story. This novel...

This powerful novel about the life of Orual, sister of Psyche, contains much that can be learnt about humanity and our patterns of relating with others and ourselves. The title of this text relates...

Faith is represented by the character of Psyche and reason is represented by the character of the Fox, Lysias. The result of the tension between the two is simply that reason can not sufficiently...

This encounter between Ansit and Orual comes after Bardia has died, and Orual has admitted that he was the one man she truly loved. When she admits this truth to Ansit, who was Bardia's wife in his...

The Fox is the name given to the Greek scholar and philosopher who is retained by the King of Glome to educate his daughters Orual and Redival and also, later, Istra, called, in Greek, Psyche. The...

Apuleius is the author of The Golden Ass, the Latin language novel that was the basis for C.S. Lewis’s retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche in his novel Till We Have Faces. It is debated...

The King of Glome is relieved to discover that Psyche is the "Accursed," because he will not then have to die as a sacrifice to placate the Shadowbrute, the so-called god of the Mountain. In...

It is here that C. S. Lewis deviates from the original Greek myth. In the original, Psyche's sisters could see the castle. But for C.S. Lewis this phenomenon was inadequate as a metaphor for...

Despite the fact that she's only recently started exercising authority as queen, Orual already seems right at home in her new role. As the king progressively gets weaker, she grows in confidence...

Poobi is Orual's serving girl. She is young and always treated Orual nicely, even when Batta, the old nurse, did not. When Orual gains power, she has Batta hanged, but she frees Poobi. Poobi is not...

The story is about an old woman named Orual who claims she was an ugly little girl who became an ugly woman. She blames the gods. Although she has some negative qualities, she is not as bad as...

Orual's attitudes toward Ungit and the priest are tempered by the education she has received from Lysias (the Fox). As a stoic materialist, the Fox is unable to attribute to Ungit any power or...

One of the central themes of this important text by C. S. Lewis is that of the danger of giving one's life entirely to a vocation and the negative impact this can have on that person. The person in...

What Redival means is that Trom, the King of Glome, is so dependent on the Fox's advice and counsel that the Fox, in effect, is the actual ruler. It is the Fox's bargaining skill that gains Glome...