A retelling of Cupid and Psyche, based on its telling in a chapter of The Golden Ass of Apuleius. This story had haunted Lewis all his life, because he realized that some of the main characters' actions were illogical. As a consequence, his retelling of the story is characterized by a highly developed character, the narrator, with the reader being drawn into her reasoning and her emotions.
The first part of the book is written from the perspective of Psyche's older sister Orual, as an accusation against the gods. The story is set in the fictive kingdom of Glome, a primitive city-state whose people have occasional contact with civilized Hellenistic Greece. In the second part of the book, the narrator undergoes a change of mindset and understands that her initial accusation was tainted by her own failings and shortcomings, and that the gods are lovingly present in humans' lives.
Clive Staples or C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a British literary scholar and novelist. He was a fellow of Magdalen College, a prestigious school at Oxford University. His strong religious background influenced such books as "The Problem of Pain" and "The Screwtape Letters". He is better known for his adult science fiction trilogy: "Out of a Silent Planet", "Perelandra", and "That Hideous Strength". This series is heavily influenced by Christian thinking and was inspired by his friendship and association with fellow writers J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Williams. But perhaps his best known stories belong to a series of children's books known as the Chronicles of Narnia which begins with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". The series is peppered with Christian allegory and ethics and rates among the most important writing for children in the 20th century. (Oxford Companion to English Literature, Chambers Biographical Dictionary)
