Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
“I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer . . . Why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” Haunted by the myth of Cupid and Psyche throughout his life, C.S. Lewis wrote this, his last, extraordinary...
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“I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer . . . Why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” Haunted by the myth of Cupid and Psyche throughout his life, C.S. Lewis wrote this, his last, extraordinary novel, to retell their story through the gaze of Psyche’s sister, Orual. Disfigured and embittered, Orual loves her younger sister to a fault and suffers deeply when she is sent away to Cupid, the God of the Mountain. Psyche is forbidden to look upon the god’s face, but is persuaded by her sister to do so; she is banished for her betrayal. Orual is left alone to grow in power but never in love, to wonder at the silence of the gods. Only at the end of her life, in visions of her lost beloved sister, will she hear an answer. "Till We Have Faces succeeds in presenting with imaginative directness what its author has described elsewhere as ‘the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live’ . . . [It] deepens for adults that sense of wonder and strange truth which delights children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and other legends of Narnia." —New York Times "The most significant and triumphant work that Lewis has . . . produced." —New York Herald Tribune
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Format: ebook
ISBN:
9780547564067 (0547564066)
Publish date: July 9th 1980
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
Pages no: 324
Edition language: English
A friend recommended this as his favorite retelling when he found out I liked them, and another friend seconded his suggestion. I acquired a copy from Paperbackswap soon after, and then, of course, let it gather dust on my shelf until something brought it to my attention. This time, it was the Into ...
This book is not so instantly approachable as others by Lewis, but once I got into it, I found it amazing. The story is deceptively simple at times, but laden with darkness and symbolism. On the one hand, I could tell you that this is the tale of Cupid and Psyche, told through the eyes of Psyche's h...
I love this novel, perhaps more than I can express--although I'll try. And that despite that I'm an unbeliever, and Lewis famously a Christian apologist who weaves Christian themes into his fiction. He's such an elegant, thoughtful writer though that I always find him at least interesting, and in th...
4.5 stars. Very much worth reading. I can see how it is said that this is Lewis at his best.
Breathtaking. One of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. And yes, I cried quite a bit. This is a proper retelling.