Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (original 1956; edition 1980)

Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. I read it as such, and not as a theological text, though there's elements of that there if that's how you choose to approach it. I chose to approach it as a story, though, as a myth retelling -- and I suspect it's perfectly possible to do both at once.

It's a beautifully told story, and one that feels real, psychologically and in terms of feeling like a real place, with real people. The basic details of the original story are that Psyche is very beautiful, and Aphrodite is jealous, and has her people sacrifice her. Cupid falls in love with her, though, and saves her, but she is never allowed to see his face and know who he is. When her sisters find her, they are jealous and persuade her to light a lamp when she is with him. She does so, and he is so beautiful that she can't look away, and carelessly spills some oil on his skin. He wakes and is angry, and leaves her to wander the world and face Aphrodite's wrath. Eventually, they are reunited and she becomes a goddess.

Lewis' retelling is questioning what it would have been like if the sister had told Psyche to light a lamp not out of jealousy, but out of love and concern for her. His Orual loves very jealously, true, and is not blameless by any means, but she does what she does out of concern for Psyche and love for her.

He adds a lot to the myth. The women are less foolish, for example, and even central: Orual becomes queen in her own right. And there's obviously a lot more by way of interpersonal relationships: Psyche and Orual, Orual and Bardia, Orual and the Fox.

It made my heart ache quite a lot. Like I said, it's beautiful. ( )

Yay, I started this and then it fell behind my dresser and I didn't find it for a few weeks. Restarting now. :)

This was totally absorbing. It was difficult and painful. I loved it. ( )

It's so good and have me so much to think about that as soon as I finished it, I started it again. ( )

"How can they (the gods) meet us face to face till we have faces?" I love the title line in the book. After reading the bulk of the book and then reading that line I was deeply inspired to work harder as a Christian. CS Lewis has a way of getting the best out of his readers which for an author is an incredible feat. ( )

This is my favorite book. It follows the story of two seemingly different sisters and their relationships with the Gods. One sister is sacrificed to the Gods while the other must toil away on earth. It has a great twisted ending compared to the original myth. ( )