letters to malcolm

One of Lewis’ works of allegorical fiction, Till We Have Faces is a reinterpretation of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Psyche’s great beauty incurs the wrath of the goddess Venus, who sends her son Cupid to punish her. Cupid falls in love with Psyche…

In Lewis’ version, the central character becomes an ugly, jealously loving sister of Psyche named Orual, in whose words the story is told. She asks: ‘How can the gods meet us face to face till we have faces?’