(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 mysteries. Lewis attempted to retell the story earlier, as…
1353 words
Citation: 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 26 November 2024.]
