Rating: 
Summary: A powerful novel
Review: You may find this book slow-going at first, but stay with it. As Orual begins to "find her niche" she develops into a fascinating character and a strong protagonist. I thought this novel was extremely moving and highly enjoyable. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys C.S. Lewis, mythology, or a story featuring a strong and likable female protagonist.
Rating: 
Summary: This Book is a Diamond Waiting to Be Cut
Review: When you pick up this book and begin reading, you might labor at first, trying to get through the beginning chapters, but then the story begins to grow on you and the more you read the more involved you become in what is unfolding. Lewis has a style that is patient, not premature as to move too quickly to the climax, but savoring all the details in order to develop, in the long run, a wonderfully elaborate and captivating tale. This book is a retelling of an all too famous mythological tale of love (between Cupid and Psyche). While Lewis adds his own spices, the story essentially remains the same. It is a tale of love, sadness, fascination of beauty, betrayal, regret, shame, depravity, and finally triumph. The story centers around two sisters, the older very ugly, and the younger, half-sister, very beautiful. Their father, a king, demonstrates his impatience at not having an heir (a son) and he (the father) torments his daughters for being just what they are, daughters. However, the eldest daughter, Orual, is very ugly in appearance, while the youngest daughter, Psyche, is the most beautiful in the whole region, and the story mainly centers around these two characters and what evolves into a tragedy and at the same time a triumph of decisions, emotions, thoughts, and actions (I don't want to give too much of the story away). Even though this is a story that has already been told, Lewis adds his own dimensions to it and gives it a refreshing type of life and vigor. If you are a fan of Lewis' writings then you will certainly enjoy this work. However, even if you have never read Lewis, you will still enjoy this masterful piece. Unfortunately, this piece from Lewis, has not received the attention and status as a great piece of literature that it deserves. This is an intense and very eloquent novel which is, I believe, one of the greatest of this century.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible...
Review: This was one of those all nighter's for me. It's an incredible myth woven beautifully. Lewis nevers ceases to amaze me. Using the old tale of Cupid and Psyche he has written a haunting novel. Written as a testament against the gods, it's the story of Queen Orual, she gives a careful account of her life and of her greivances with the gods. It's a little slow going at first, but trust me, it's well worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: A chameleon (in the best possible sense)
Review: If you've read the reviews, wondered why everyone raves about TILL WE HAVE FACES, stick with the book till Chapter Ten. It's a little sluggish till you reach Chapter Ten, but make no plans once you turn that page. You won't put it down after that point. I am amused, I think, by the rigid assertions of some reviewers, as to what Lewis was trying to say with this tale. If you are put off by any of those assertions, ignore them. Plain and simple, don't listen to what a single person on here says the book means. Because the first time you read it, you'll understand it one way. The next time, after you yourself have grown, changed, aged, oh sigh, yes even matured, you will understand it another way. You will identify with one character more than another depending on who you are and are becoming, you will read the philosophy/theology differently depending on what you believe at that moment. But -- once read, it's likely you will read it again.
Rating:
Summary: C.S. Lewis' best work of fiction
Review: C.S. Lewis used fiction to lay bare the soul in ways his more apologetic work could not. The cast of characters in The Great Divorce, for example, or in the "Space Trilogy" invariably remind us of people we know - and give us insights into what makes them tick. Nowhere in Lewis' works is the soul explored better than in Till We Have Faces, Lewis' masterwork of fiction and a stunning psychological and spiritual odyssey. TWHF retells and enriches the myth of Cupid and Psyche, although a lack of familiarity with the myth in no way diminishes from the enjoyment of the book. In Lewis' hands, the story sorts through issues of family, jealousy, gender, faith, and ultimate meaning, culminating with a frightening and yet wonderful 'face to face' scene that gives rise to, and explains, the book's title. Readers who are looking for the kind of in-your-face Christian symbolism that characterized the Chronicles of Narnia will be disappointed with TWHF. Although I appreciate and am nourished by Lewis' Christian parables and apologetics, the theology in TWHF is pagan, at least on its surface. Underneath the surface, however, Lewis does a masterful job of intertwining the traditional beliefs of the main characters - including a stand-in for Greek rationalism - with rumors of a much more intimate and beautiful way of knowing the gods. The climactic scene itself plays off the biblical phrase, "Now we see in a glass dimly, but then face to face" - a phrase that comes, in fact, from I Corinthians 13, the famous chapter on Love in the New Testament. So Lewis does indeed lead the reader toward the One who is love, but he uses the carrot of intrigue and spiritual longing rather than the steamroller (if you will pardon the mixed metaphor) of too-obvious symbolism. This is my favorite of Lewis' works of fiction and was, reportedly, Lewis' favorite as well. Few books can nourish the soul the way Till We Have Faces can. Just one caveat: you really will need to read it twice ... and you will understand why once you have read it through the first time.
Rating:
Summary: A review of Til l We have Faces
Review: I bought Till We Have Faces based only on a familiarity with the Narnia chronicals that I read as a kid. Knowing nothing of the "classic myth of Cupid and Psyche", I let this book sit on my bookshelf for months before I opened it one rainy day. What a mistake! I was drawn in by Lewis' elegant, simple story of two sisters and how their relationship colors their lives. The plot and characterization are accessible to the casual reader, but the allegorical relationship to the ancient myth gives it deeper meaning. This is one of the rare novels which nourishes your soul while providing pure enjoyment.
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Summary: A BRILLIANT book by a BRILLIANT man.
Review: In order to understand what a truly amazing book this is you have to realize three things: (1) The author was an INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT man, (2) he was an INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT scholar of medieval and ancient literature and (3) he is one of the most brilliant fiction writers of all time. How Brilliant is Lewis? So Brilliant that I can't imagine him writing this story at all and let alone so beautifully. After all what does a staid, middle age typically British male have in common with a young girl from a far less repressed culture? Lewis is known as a scholar and lecturer on Christian theology, but I can just about bet that future generations are not going to remember him for that. What they will remember is the powerful ability that Lewis had to tell a tale. Besides, if there is anything of Christian Dogma in this work it is the aspects of it that are universal to all societies and religions. The story is described as the retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, but it is in actuallity a story about a young woman who grows up to discover that not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, but the elements of ones personality are what make a person "beautiful". In the end, individuals are respected for their character and the actions that they display. What kept me involved in this story (I too read it in one sitting)was Lewis' masterful prose. While Lewis wanted us to believe in the vibrancy and color of the sights and sounds of Narnia, here he wants us to believe in the workings of the main characters mind. Lewis' use of language also draws the reader in and keeps one riveted to each page. One other highlight here is all the research that Lewis did on Hellenic (Ancient Greek style) cultures to bring authentisity to the story. My recommendation is to read this book more than once. There is so much there to experience.
Rating:
Summary: A fairy-tale of a myth!
Review: You'd think this was just another myth. But not if it's written by CS Lewis! Somewhat of a cross between the story of Cupid and Psyche and a science fiction novel, you travel through the mind and heart of a woman who begins as the ugliest woman in the world, and becomes one of the most beautiful. Often dark and sad, the allegory surprises you into understanding of the human and the divine.
Rating:
Summary: Myth as a light on human nature
Review: A Lewisian telling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the viewpoint of one of Psyche's sisters, drawn as a very sympathetic character. As always, Lewis writes well, with insight into the depths and heights of human psychology, and with subtle allegory and a taste for grand and weighty endings. It's a good book, not ponderous but sometimes deep, easily worth the time. Also as always, I have the feeling that Lewis has introduced some quiet saboteur memes into my brain, and that some day they'll all join together and I'll wake up and find myself a Christian. It hasn't happened yet, though! Perhaps, having been brought up on the Narnia books, I've developed some immunity...
Rating:
Summary: Very Deep & Beautiful
Review: 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 over to the character. If you are reading this for Lewis's style, don't. In an amazing feat of creation, Lewis used his God-given gift, and has completely come into Orual's mind. This is some of the best characterization I have ever read, with Lewis completely laying down his own style, and yielded to that or Orual. Although that may be disquieting to some, it reveals the true creative power God gave that fine Christian brother. He immerses us into her world, told from her eyes. The book is very, very deep, demanding several rereadings. The plot of the book is a daughter is born to a king, named Psyche. He already has two other daughters, Orual and Redival. Her older sister, Orual, becomes very loving of her. Yet this love is exactly what it ought not to be: a selfish love. Psyche, seemingly a goddess in the eyes of the people, must be taken to sacrifice to the god of the grey mountains. Orual is very distraught. They take and leave her. Then Orual, along with another character named Bardia, go up to the mountain, and Orual finds Psyche, in love with the god of the mountain. Orual, being blind (although not physically), cannot see the palace. In the end, she has Psyche, who loves with selfless love, the truest and deepest and most real of all loves, look upon Eros, the god of the mountain, and Psyche is exiled because of her sin against the god. She was not to look or cast light upon him, but she did for Orual's sake. The king is an impotent ruler, and only after Orual takes over the kingdom does Glome become something of a powerful place. All things considered, Orual really does help Glome politically and financially, and is a much better ruler than her father was. He is an abusive man, and is an evil father. He cares nothing of his daughters, and wishes for a son. He especially resents Orual for her ugliness. The Fox is a Greek philosopher brought into educate the girls as well as help the King. Redival is least interested. He examines through the Fox the rational point of view. The Fox can never live up to his beliefs, and is constantly violating them. He is out of balance, placing to much on reason and logic and not enough on faith. He greatly influences Orual. Redival is a selfish one, and wants what is best for her. This is exactly what not to be. Orual: A much more complex character, and the narrator of the book. She loves with a jealous love, a love tainted by sin and ungodliness. She wishes Psyche for herself, and she cannot understand why she must go away. The book is about how she moves away from that selfish love and into the love of Jesus Christ. She is also marked by ugliness, and later starts wearing a veil to hide herself. After many years, people begin to think her wearing the veil for, ironically, great beauty, or something more mysterious, no face at all. This is representative of her spiritual life. She is ugly because of the taint of sin. Yet, because she is made in the likeness of God, the beauty that God gave her can be placed through. But as long as she remained uncured, as long as she remained [unstilled] hidden away, she could not come face to face with God. How could she when had no face. She refused to acknowledge her selfish love. For much of her life she worth both a physical and a spiritual veil. Only when old age approached, did she set down an account of the "evils" done to her by the gods in Part I. Then, in Part II, she lays down her veil, and begins to examine her life, and in the end comes to peace with God. Psyche is the mostly Godly character, full of selfless love for others. It is she that is Orual's love. There is much to learn from Psyche. In this book, we have what Lewis wrote in his nonfiction The Four Loves. These were written and published about the same time, and he had met Joy Davidman, who was to be his wife. Erotic love, that had so long passed him by, had suddenly and out of nowhere appeared on his doorstep. So love weight heavily on his mind during this period of his life. To have a deeper appreciation of this book, read both this and his The Four Loves, because basically he tackled the same subject in two separate genres: fiction and nonfiction. In that book, he says friends and lovers are essentially different, although bound by the same reality. Friends are friends because they have a bond, yet they are not whole concerned with the other. They are comrades, and do things side by side. Lovers are intensely interested in the others, looking at each other, not working side by side. This is illustrated in Orual's relationship with Bardia. Bardia, a prime solider, is a close friend of her, and the closest to a sexual relationship she ever obtained. Yet he is married, and so Orual cannot know erotic love as did Redival and Psyche. She is friends with him, and will not destroy his family. In this way, God is helping her to the point where she will drop the veil and let him put a face on her. Through the course of the years, she is showing more character in her relationship with Bardia than in her relationship with Psyche. She will not destroy the man she loves although she did destroy her sister's happiness. Already God was gently prodding her to a more real and honest place with him.
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