Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

A moving myth told anew, plumbing the depths of the self-centred human heart. While I feel I need to look closer at the original myth that Lewis is playing on in greater detail to catch all of what he is doing in its retelling, I would totally recommend the book for the heartbreaking, tantalizing moments that the protagonist forces on herself. Lewis's Orual is frustrated that the ethereal world of the god who loves her sister, and Orual's own world poisoned by her insecurity, cannot even interact with one another. Lewis can really write about jealousy; sweet scenes of sisterhood between Psyche and Orual rot into the gall of confusion and disappointment with a turn of the page. I feel that Lewis is at his best writing in the domain of mythology; his Wellsian sci-fi phase during which he wrote the Space Trilogy was an interesting venture, but back with gods, curses, and ancient courts he is really in his element. There are also profound philosophical, theological, and scientific issues that the novel throws up, to do with perception of the gods and their motives. And all these issues Lewis ties expertly to Orual's first sin: her selfish, half-baked attempt to see what her beloved Psyche sees, while Cupid steals Psyche's heart. "Narnia for grown ups" is a handy label, and in defense of it there are present in the novel majestic palaces hidden in plain sight (c.f. Voyage of the Dawn Treader) along with other regular Lewis elements like a the strong moral of not letting jealousy crowd in and ruin a perfectly beautiful love. Yes Orual progresses plenty during the course of the novel, but only through standing in the painful bare light of the denouement - and anyone who has ever mixed love and jealousy faces their own judgement day right along with her. This is a beautiful rendition of an ancient story, done in a way over which Lewis had been pondering for a long time. "Till We Have Faces" is how you do fiction, in case you was wondering.

Great book. Well worth the money. A book I'll return to again.

Wonderful re-telling

To me this story illustrates how angry one can get with God when they are not troubled with the doubt of the existence of God but rather, knows God is real yet despises how He makes decisions. It shines a light on the fallibility of mans owns morals and understanding of love, which I feel is so necessary in modern society. I loved it and it moves me. I have read it three times and every time something new emerges. It was also C S Lewis' favourite book which says more about it then I ever could. The story centres on a great strong female lead, her love for her sister and rule of her people. Go for it, read and enjoy.

I read it in a couple of sittings, makes most of Lewis' other writings look comparatively immature. A true classic.

It's a lovely story, gripping and deep at the same time. However there were 2 pages missing, fortunately it was at the beginning and I think I didn't miss anything too important...

I read that this was one of the best novels of the 20th century and I would agree, very thought provoking and different.

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)

El producto ha venido en un estado pésimo para el precio que tiene. Las hojas mal cortadas, salidas, los cantos de las hojas ennegrecidos, y los de la cubierta desgastados. Esto no es estado para vender un libro como "nuevo" en absoluto.

Scritto divinamente ( e non poteva essere altrimenti) Till we have faces unisce le due passioni di Lewis, la classicità e il fantasy. A tratti un po' noioso, sembra più adatto a chi conosce già il mito di Amore e psiche e vuole leggere l'ennesima variazione sul tema, e non è certamente l'ideale per tutti, ma più un divertissiment per classicisti; decolla dopo un po'.

Der letzte Roman von C. S. Lewis: ein Meisterwerk!

It's a very interesting book ...set in Barbaric times ...

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