- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Fount; (Reissue) edition (2 Feb 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006280595
- ISBN-13: 978-0006280590
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 825,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘He always tells a good story, and this is a splendid, vehement one, full of stone and wind and spears in an old country, wet mist on the hills.… seems to sum up most of what Dr Lewis has been telling us for years.’
The Tablet
‘One of the most eminently readable pieces of fiction that has come my way for a long time.’
Yorkshire Post
Product Description
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?’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Myths are often a distillation of human experience and knowledge, pared down to an easily digestible story that is both memorable and instructive. No less so here, as Lewis takes the tale of Cupid and Psyche and adds a small change to the basic tale – but that change reverberates and focuses the message that Lewis is imposing on the tale, a message about what love is versus what many normally think it is.
Lewis sets the tale in the ‘barbarian’ country of Glom, with a King obsessed with getting a son, and thereby cursed with three daughters. Orual is the supremely ugly one, Psyche just as beautiful as Orual is ugly, and the third sister is the personification of greed and petty jealousy. But it is Orual that the book follows, down deep into her basic outlook about herself, her relationship with the Gods, and most especially how her feelings for Psyche and her sense of propriety cause her to commit blackmail in the name of love. Lewis clearly shows that love that does not place the desires of the loved one above any personal sense of right/wrong/duty/honor is not a true love, but rather the product of selfishness, of the ‘I know what’s best for my love’ syndrome.
But this is merely the beginning to the layers of philosophy present in this book, as it calls into question not only if there are gods, but just how mortals can or must perceive them if they exist, and how much ‘God’ is present in everyone. Masks are a symbol here, from the veil that Orual takes to wearing, to those masks used by the priesthood when performing their embassies for their god, to the masks that everyone presents to the outside world. Also covered is the value of good deeds versus an irredeemable sin, what vital tasks man is burdened with during his short lifetime, and even the value of philosophy as a field of study. All this and more is hidden underneath this apparently simple story, with little direct exposition of these ideas until this last portion of the book, which is written as a dream allegory.
The characterization of Orual is excellent – she is person you can recognize and feel with, and her dilemmas are ones we all have faced, though perhaps not in such grandiose terms. Psyche, the King, and Fox, the sister’s Greek slave teacher, are drawn with enough depth to understand their motivations, and provide the proper environment so that each person’s actions are understandable and the plot action inevitable.
I did feel that the last section of book went a little too far in the way of symbolism and philosophy, that perhaps a more action-oriented explication of the points Lewis was trying to present in this section would have been better. But this is certainly a book that is good for more than one reading, with a timelessness to its messages, and told with skill and great thought.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an extraordinary work. Compelling, thought-provoking, haunting... in my 20-odd years of reading, only Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' can surpass this for sheer hypnotic power, and both books have similarly fascinating central characters in Heathcliff and Orual respectively.
Not typical CS Lewis fare, but in my opinion (and, apparently, in his) this is the best of his output.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is another of Lewis's stunning works and it offers something just a little different to the reader. It is a delicately told story of the classic myth surrounding Cupid and Psyche, yet it's beautifully written narrative will leave you pleasantly haunted for a long while after putting the book down. You will almost certainly be able to identify yourself in the main character 'Orual', which is perhaps why this book is so engaging, and the lessons taught with such subtelty by Lewis will not fail to leave an impression. It is a tale about love and redemptive love, of overcoming perceived failings in yourself and of the fine line between total adoration and jealousy. To give a plot synopsis could never do this powerful tale any justice. For anyone who loves mythology or is just interested in something a little different, this is a hugely un-discovered book that i only wish more people have read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautiful everytime you read it
I stumbled upon this book about 20 years ago. I loved it from the first time I read it. Everytime i read it I find new points of view to see this story from. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Flippy Bippy
should still be in print
This is a beautiful and wise book, most loved of CS Lewis' work and his personal favourite, if I recall correctly. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2009 by H. Child
Very Deep and Beautiful
TILL WE HAVE FACES, is, simply put, one of the most beautiful books I have read. Its depths are enormous, its truth fantastically illustrated, and the author is completely given... Read more
Published on 2 Nov 2007 by Mike London
Masterly retelling of the legend of Psyche
C.S. Lewis was of course the author of the "Narnia" children's stories, the moral comedy "The Screwtape letters" and a number of other novels and books about religion, most of them... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2006 by Marshall Lord
Highly recommended!
Lewis said that this was one of his favourite works, and I must agree that it is very good. Take it for what it is, a brilliantly written piece that involves the reader. Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2001 by John Calvin
Different
Most reviewers point out that Till We Have Faces is different from most of Lewis' other works, and they are correct to do so. It is a haunting book. Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2001
C.S. Lewis's best novel
This is the best novel of an engaging master of English prose. Like all of Lewis's fiction it mixes mythologies and suffers for it, but Lewis here has kept this peculiarity of his... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 1999
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