Novel
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C. S. Lewis · 1950
Synopsis
During the war, four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, are sent away from the London air raids to stay with an old professor. One rainy day, Lucy enters a large wardrobe full of coats and comes out into a snowy wood, where a faun invites her to tea before confessing that he was supposed to hand her over to the White Witch, who holds the country in a winter without Christmas. Edmund follows her and meets the Witch, who offers him enchanted Turkish delight. When the four finally pass through the wardrobe, beavers tell them that Aslan, the lion, is on the move.
Context
The image of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in the snow had, he said, stayed with him since he was sixteen. In September 1939, children evacuated from London were housed with him, and he then sketched out a story; he did not write it until 1948 and 1949. Tolkien, his friend, did not like this mixture of fauns and Father Christmas. The book is dedicated to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield. It was published on 16 October 1950 by Geoffrey Bles, with drawings by Pauline Baynes, and was the first of a cycle of seven.
Who it is for
About two hundred pages, illustrated; only one French translation in circulation since 1980, that of Anne-Marie Dalmais.
Prizes and reception
Ninth in the BBC's great poll in 2003, selected by Time among the hundred best English-language novels since 1923, and adapted for the cinema in 2005.
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