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Book Home  Books Information Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a fantasy novel by
C. S. Lewis. It is the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia, and
the fifth in chronological order. It was originally published in 1952.
The two younger children from the previous stories,
Lucy and Edmund Pevensie, are sent on holiday to the house of their
obnoxious cousin Eustace Scrubb. As chance or fate has it, the three
children are pulled simultaneously into a maritime-themed painting
which is a portal to the world of Narnia. The ship depicted in the
painting is the Dawn Treader, and it is onto this ship that the three
children are fished out of the sea.
Once safely on board, Lucy and Edmund are overjoyed
when they are greeted by their dear friend Prince Caspian, now King
Caspian X, who, having shepherded his kingdom to peace and prosperity,
has undertaken a quest to find the seven lost lords who were the loyal
retainers of his late father, King Caspian IX. Eustace, however, is
much less enthusiastic.
In this volume Lewis describes Eustace's conversion
(when he gets turned into a dragon and is saved by Aslan). The role
of Aslan as a Christ-like figure is developed further; he appears
at the end as a lamb, a Biblical image for Jesus. Chiefly, the story
is an exciting adventure story in the tradition of the great sea-voyages
of classical mythology, particularly the story of Jason and the Argonauts.
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