The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis (1950)
“Four evacuee children walk through a wardrobe into a frozen world where a lion dies to save a traitor — and rises again.”
At a Glance
During the London Blitz, four siblings — Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie — are evacuated to a country house where Lucy discovers a wardrobe that opens into Narnia, a land trapped in eternal winter by the White Witch. Edmund betrays his siblings to the Witch for enchanted Turkish Delight. The children join forces with the great lion Aslan, who sacrifices himself on the Stone Table to redeem Edmund, then rises from the dead through the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time. The children lead Aslan's army to defeat the Witch, become kings and queens of Narnia, and eventually stumble back through the wardrobe to find no time has passed in England.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Published in 1950, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe established the template for modern portal fantasy aimed at children and became one of the best-selling children's books ever written, with over 85 million copies sold in 47 languages. It demonstrated that children's literature could engage directly with theological and philosophical questions without condescending to its audience, and it helped legitimize fantasy as a serious literary form during a period when realism dominated critical prestige.
Diction Profile
Plain, direct prose with periodic rises into formal or liturgical register during Aslan's scenes — Anglo-Saxon vocabulary dominant, Latinate words reserved for solemn moments
Moderate