The Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape Letters

First edition dust wrapper
Author	C. S. Lewis
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Epistolary novel, Christian apologetics, satire
Publisher	Geoffrey Bles
Publication date	1942 1961 (first omnibus)
Media type	Print (hardcover & paperback)
Pages	160 (1st) 157 (1st omnibus)
LC Class	BR125
Followed by	Screwtape Proposes a Toast

The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetic novel by C. S. Lewis. It is written in a satirical, epistolary style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Christian theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it. First published in February 1942, the story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior Demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a Junior Tempter. The uncle's mentorship pertains to the nephew's responsibility in securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the Patient".

In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, seen from devils' viewpoints. Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts as a mentor to his nephew Wormwood, an inexperienced (and incompetent) tempter. In the thirty-one letters which constitute the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and of promoting sin in "the Patient", interspersed with observations on human nature and on Christian doctrine. In Screwtape's advice, individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon can comprehend God's love for man or acknowledge human virtue.

Versions of the letters were originally published weekly in the Anglican periodical The Guardian, in wartime between May and November 1941, and the standard edition contains an introduction explaining how the author chose to write his story.