The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
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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. They have spent most of the time attempting to ignore him, but as chance or fate has it, the three children are pulled simultaneously into a maritime-themed painting which is in fact 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, particularly given his tendency to seasickness...
In this volume Lewis writes movingly on Eustace's repentance (when he gets turned into a dragon by accident), and the analogy of Aslan to Jesus is revealed further; He appears at the end as a lamb, a Biblical image for Jesus. There are also symbolic references to Holy Communion (pictured as a feast hosted by a living star) and other Christian themes, but chiefly it works on the level of an exciting children's adventure story, and a re-working on the themes of the great sea-voyages of classical mythology, particularly the story of Jason and the Argonautica.
| The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis | ||
| The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | Prince Caspian | The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair | The Horse and His Boy | The Magician's Nephew | The Last Battle | ||
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