50 pages 1 hour read

C. S. Lewis

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1952

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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “The Picture in the Bedroom”

Lucy Pevensie and Edmund Pevensie come to stay with their aunt and uncle while their parents are away on vacation. Their cousin, Eustace Scrubb, is a selfish “bully” who likes to tease them about the stories they tell of their previous trips to a land called Narnia. Narnia is a fantastical kingdom only accessible by magic, and Lucy and Edmund’s previous adventures there are related in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) and Prince Caspian (1951).

One day, the Pevensies are staring at a painting of a ship in Lucy’s room and reminiscing about Narnia, as they often do. Eustace comes in and starts mocking them, but he stops when he notices that the picture looks like it is coming to life. He sets out to take it off the wall, and his cousins try to keep him away from it for his own safety. As they fight, they find themselves standing on the edge of the suddenly life-sized painting, and they are pulled into the picture itself. Soon, the three children are caught in the waves, until someone jumps from the ship to rescue them. They are brought aboard the Dawn Treader, and the Pevensies are delighted to see their old Narnian friends:

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