The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

A year after second trip to Narnia, Edmund and Lucy are stuck at the house of their awful cousin, Eustace Scrubb, while their parents and Susan are off to America. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are transported to Narnia via a painting in his house, and find themselves in the midst of King Caspian's voyage to discover what happened to the seven lords that Caspain's evil Uncle Miraz had sent away when he plotted to take over the kingdom. Sailing the unknown east, they discover new islands, peoples, and adventures.

This is the most episodic stories of the series, with every stop on the map a new experience to our main characters. The very first sentence is still one of my favorites in all literature: "There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence show more Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." Ever since I was a child, I loved Eustace's story and felt for Caspian having to balance his own individual wishes with being a king, and especially the return of Reepicheep. Instead of being the rather comedic figure he was in Prince Caspian here we see him as a true Knight, full of courage and ready to jump into every adventure. His goal is to see the utter East and "Aslan's country." Then there are all the secondary characters who were fascinating in their own right. A childhood favorite I will love returning to again and again. show less

This, the third installment in C.S. Lewis's classic fantasy series, is the first of them to achieve true greatness in fantasy, and it is the first that I can heartily recommend to adults. Even the first sentence is of a higher literary order than the previous two books, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian." Though there isn't much of a plot, the characters are better, the individual stories (told, usually, in several chapters), and the imagination are all of a higher order. And the moral sense has also reached new heights. The story of Eustace and the dragon, alone, is worth not only the price of the book, but whatever disutility one may have to embrace by reading the previous books in the series.

A great book.

Oh, show more and note. Though third in the series as written, it's fifth in the series chronologically. I can't say that I recommend reading the books chronologically, though, other than if the reader is especially delighted in weird fantasy, since the chronological sixth book ("The Magician's Nephew"), which takes place first in the imagined chronology, is a mighty strange book indeed.

This is the order I recommend reading the books:

1. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

2. The Horse and His Boy

3. Prince Caspian

4. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

5. The Silver Chair

6. The Magician's Nephew

7. The Last Battle

In this order, if you do not like the first two books, it's probably simply the case that you won't like even the best of them, this, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." show less

4.5 stars

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying reading The Chronicles of Narnia aloud to my siblings, and it was fun to get to read this book recently. Somewhat bittersweet, too, as I know our journey with this series is nearing its completion, but at the same time, it was so much fun to get to share this story together!

Of the books in the series, I think this one just might have the most adventure of any of the books in the series. It’s hard to judge such things, but somehow, it felt like the characters barely managed to squeak out of one danger before they were confronted with another. And oh, the different settings the characters found themselves in—a place of darkness that called like a siren’s song, a place where people were show more invisible, or the spot where things that touch the wrong thing turn to gold. It was all so playful and delightful!

And the allegory…when I first started reading this series, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to figure out the allegorical side—it wasn’t immediately obvious to me. But as the series has gone on, it’s become clearer and clearer. And while Prince Caspian probably still holds my favorite allegorical scene in the series, this one has a very close second. I loved it!

Highly recommended—especially if you get to share this book and series with other people. Such a lot of fun and imagination on Lewis’ part, and in the end, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. show less

I loved this book, both as a child and again as an adult, because it takes me on the kind of adventure I'd love but know I can never have: a long, long sail (cool) into magic lands (über cool).

It's also sprinkled with wonderful, memorable quotes and moments. I loved the bit where Lucy is looking down into the water and sees the mermaid, who looks up just in time to see Lucy looking at her. They can't speak and they're separated almost before they can lock eyes, but it's a moment neither of them will forget. I had a non-boat, non-mermaid related moment like that when I was a child. Perhaps we all have.

I also love when Drinian gets very angry when Reepicheep puts himself in danger. "All this didn't mean that Drinian really disliked show more Reepicheep. On the contrary he liked him very much and was therefore frightened about him, and being frightened put him in a bad temper -- just as your mother is much angrier with you for running out into the road in front of a car than a stranger would be."

I didn't agree with this passage from the chapter "The Dark Island," and I remember that puzzling me very much. Lewis is usually so spot-on when it comes to emotional truth, it seemed odd that he'd fluff something major -- something important to a child, anyway, and bad dreams are very significant to young people. I always felt, and still feel, that my whole day is darkened when I have a bad dream just before waking in the morning. But here's Lewis' beautifully written, wholly opposite take on that:

And just as there are moments when simply to lie in bed and see the daylight pouring through your window and to hear the cheerful voice of an early postman or milkman down below and to realise that it was only a dream: it wasn't real, is so heavenly that it was very nearly worth having the nightmare in order to have the joy of waking, so they all felt when they came out of the dark.

It just occurred to me that this may be part of Lewis' Christian apologia. It's an analogy of life here in "the shadowlands," which may be dark and difficult; but ultimately the pain we suffer will make the release from it that much sweeter. I don't agree with any aspect of this take on human suffering, but it's a lovely passage anyway.

Speaking of things I don't agree with in this book: As an adult reader, I found it deeply amusing to play "Let's Count How Often Lewis Backs The Wrong Horse, Historically Speaking, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

The story starts off with a memorable introduction to Eustace Clarence Scrubb, a boy so nasty that he almost deserves such a name. (The first line of this book really ought to win some sort of award, as should Lewis' ability to create perfect names, which rivals Dickens'.) And what's so horrible about this boy? He's been brought up by terrible, awful, no good very bad parents:

They were vegetarians, non-smokers and teetotallers and wore a special kind of underclothes.

Okay, I have no idea what the underwear is in reference to, but the rest is pretty hilarious. Imagine! People who don't eat meat or drink or smoke! The fiends! And these wretches are being allowed to rear a child!

Lewis is merciless to Eustace, who is admittedly a nasty piece of work (at least at the beginning of the book). When Eustace is flung into Narnia along with Lucy and Edmund, he is terrified and violently ill -- not exactly surprising, considering that he's tossed with no warning into the ocean and then hauled onto a very small ship. The sailors promptly offer this child of about 12 years some wine to make him feel better.

Let me just stop right here and crack up at the idea of a writer trying to pull a stunt like that today -- at least if the writer were making fun of the kid for being such a hopeless prig, he'd actually say no to alcohol. At the age of 12! What a loser! This sounds like exactly the kind of situation contemporary authors would use to demonstrate the horrors of bullying and peer pressure-induced teenage alcoholism; but Lewis clearly thinks the kid should man up, already, and take the booze.

Which doesn't exactly explain why Lucy, who is just as young and thoroughly female, enjoys the cup of hot wine offered to her. I'm not sure what does explain that. But I do find this paean to way-underage drinking entertaining, if only because I haven't noticed anyone else noticing it.

Eustace gets worse, though. He insists that boys and girls are all just people, and ought to be treated as such. It would be one thing if Caspian were giving up his quarters (the best on the ship) and bunking with his sailors because Lucy is royalty. But of course it's because she's a lady. What a loser Eustace is for thinking she's first and foremost a kid. And as a former kid myself, let me say that I'd have been thrilled to be offered a hammock to sleep in, as Edmund and Eustace were. I can have a bed at home. If I'm in Narnia, give me adventure.

But then I've never been sufficiently ladylike.

Lewis seems to think that girls and women are china dolls: they should be treated with great care lest they break, and rejected if they're anything less than exquisitely beautiful. Who wants to make room on the shelf for a homely china doll? Prince Caspian, that paragon of virtue, rejects the idea of marrying a king's daughter because she "squints, and has freckles." That's all we hear about her. That's reason enough for Caspian to hurry off on his next sea voyage.

Speaking of Lewis' habit of hanging on with both hands (and several of his toes) to the good old days when girls were ladies and kids smoked and drank: we know the Dawn Treader has arrived at a dreadful place when we learn that the Lone Islands are governed by, well, a governor. No wonder it's rife with corruption. Fortunately, nothing ever goes wrong when people are ruled by aristocrats; so Caspian announces, "I think we have had enough of governors," and hands the rule of the Lone Islands over to a Duke. And they all lived happily ever after, in a place where smoking and drinking never shortens or damages your life.

Lewis also introduces us in this novel to the Calormenes. "The Calormenes have dark faces and long beards. They wear flowing robes and orange-coloured turbans, and they are a wise, wealthy, courteous, cruel and ancient people." They also talk like people straight out of The Great Big Book Of Middle Eastern Stereotypes, a theme (?) Lewis will expand on later in The Horse and His Boy.

So. What have we learned here? Yes to smoking, drinking, meat-eating primogeniture, aristocracy vs. elected officials, girls being treated as "ladies" from the moment they're born, and female beauty as a prerequisite to marital happiness; no to foreigners, feminism, and "up-to-date and advanced people." I think that covers everything!

Truly, I did love this book. Like all the Narnia novels (well, six of them), it's strong enough to survive its own faults, especially if you approach it with a sense of humor. Just don't let your kids read it. And if you do, don't blame me if they tell everyone what a lousy parent you are for not rearing them on wine and cigars. show less

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favorite of the Narnia books when I was a kid for two reasons: it's a seafaring adventure (however nominally), and it's, well, actually an adventure, with exploration of unknown worlds. I read it when I was about eleven or twelve years old, not long after being introduced to Homer's Odyssey thanks to the Wishbone program on PBS (I think - might've been a prose version that I read in school), and one of the big things about both books that I enjoyed was the strange and enchanting and maybe even dangerous places that the heroes came across.

But as much as I liked the Odyssey parts of the book, and I really really liked them, I didn't care much for the characters themselves. I always felt that everyone show more treated Eustace horridly and that he had every right to be distrustful of Caspian and the others, and every right to be homesick. One of the big problems I had with the Narnia series when I was eleven persists in bugging me now, fourteen years later: everyone who has been to Narnia expects everyone else to automatically know and respect that Narnia is real and Aslan is real (and wonderful) even though there's absolutely no reason for these others to believe.

If Eustace has been told all his life by his mother (one of the authority figures in his life whom he trusts) that the Pevensies are strange children and to be avoided, and if Eustace has never had reason to believe otherwise, why on earth shouldn't he believe that they're just playing a grand game of make believe when they talk about Narnia? I don't know but from the outset of Dawn Treader, I always have much greater sympathy for him than for Lucy or Edmund, and it bothers me that they seem to have absolutely no sympathy for him once they've all landed on the ship. The poor kid has suddenly had his entire perspective on the universe changed, of course he's going to react badly. And, besides, he's already not a very nice kid, even if he's a sympathetic character.

Other than my opinions on Eustace growing stronger with the recent reread, I found my overall preference for this book out of the series growing more distinct as well. I thought the moralities of the islands a bit simplistic and heavy-handed, but other than stupid Aslan poking his head in, this is still the least wearisome of the Narnia books and the most exciting. It's also the best one for sparking an imagination and for the lack of allegory (not to say Lewis didn't stick allegory in wherever he could, it's just not as bad as in the other books).

If I keep any of the Narnia books in my library, it will be this one, though I'm not sure I can bear to read about the way the Pevensies and Caspian treated Eustace again - this last time, my irritation was almost too much to enjoy the book at all. show less

This is my favorite of the series so far. There's so much adventure to get caught up in, even if one doesn't look past the surface, and it's full of magic and fun. It was nice to be able to see characters from the previous book this time (besides the Pevensies and Aslan), namely Caspian and Reepicheep, and the search for the seven Narnian lords who'd been sent off into the east was an good backdrop to the story.

The end to the story was emotional, and I really felt for the Pevensies in their loss. I wonder if it's similar to what the disciples must have felt when Jesus left them on Earth. My favorite part of the book, though, was Eustace's arc. It was brilliant, a true redemption story, and even realistic in that he certainly wasn't show more perfect afterward, but he certainly was changed. While I'm sure I'll need to go back through the series again to catch things I didn't pick up on this first time through, I loved this book and am curious to see how things will change with the four Pevensies all "retired." show less

Much better than the first two for two reasons: first, Eustace makes an amusing spoiled kid, sort of like Edmund in the first book but less nefarious; second, Lewis' episodic island-to-island adventure presents great opportunity for him to create uniquely fantastical situations. His description spends a great deal of time actually describing weird and colorful happenings. It's not vague and simplistic, but when it is vague, it's vague as part of the mystery of a vastly unknowable world. Still, I wish Eustace's redemption took more time. He's humbled within the first third of the book and then becomes a blank character like the rest of the Pevensies and Caspian are. The book was still intermittently engaging beyond that point, due to the show more variety of island curiosities, but when I was on a duller island I had nothing else to invest in but turning the page. show less