THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
C.S. LEWIS
Illustrated by Pauline Baynes
Copyright
Although The Magician’s Nephew was written several years after C.S. Lewis first began THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA®, he wanted it to be read as the first book in the series. HarperCollins is happy to present these books in the order in which Professor Lewis preferred.
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Copyright © 1950 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.
Original interior art by Pauline Baynes; copyright © 1950
C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.
Coloured interior art by Pauline Baynes; copyright © 1998 by C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.
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Source ISBN: 9780006716778
Ebook Edition © MAY 2009 ISBN: 9780007325054
Version: 2018–05–23
To Lucy Barfield
MY DEAR LUCY,
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be
your affectionate Godfather,
C. S. LEWIS
Contents
Copyright
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Chapter One - Lucy Looks into a Wardrobe
Chapter Two - What Lucy Found There
Chapter Three - Edmund and the Wardrobe
Chapter Four - Turkish Delight
Chapter Five - Back on This Side of the Door
Chapter Six - Into the Forest
Chapter Seven - A Day with the Beavers
Chapter Eight - What Happened After Dinner
Chapter Nine - In the Witch’s House
Chapter Ten - The Spell Begins to Break
Chapter Eleven - Aslan is Nearer
Chapter Twelve - Peter’s First Battle
Chapter Thirteen - Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time
Chapter Fourteen - The Triumph of the Witch
Chapter Fifteen - Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time
Chapter Sixteen - What Happened about the Statues
Chapter Seventeen - The Hunting of the White Stag
About the Author
Also by Author
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Open the door and enter a new world.
NARNIA . . . the land beyond the wardrobe door, a secret place frozen in eternal winter . . . a magical country waiting to be set free.
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the Professor’s mysterious old house. At first, her brothers and sister don’t believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Great Lion, Aslan, they realize they’ve been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch’s sinister spell.
Chapter One
Lucy Looks into a Wardrobe
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs Macready and three servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to meet them at the front door he was so odd-looking that Lucy (who was the youngest) was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was the next youngest) wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose to hide it.
As soon as they had said goodnight to the Professor and gone upstairs on the first night, the boys came into the girls’ room and they all talked it over.
“We’ve fallen on our feet and no mistake,” said Peter. “This is going to be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like.”
“I think he’s an old dear,” said Susan.
“Oh, come off it!” said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be tired, which always made him bad-tempered. “Don’t go on talking like that.”
“Like what?” said Susan; “and anyway, it’s time you were in bed.”