71 pages 2 hours read

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1950

Enhance your reading of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with this comprehensive Study Guide. Supported by detailed chapter summaries, our in-depth analysis helps you understand the title’s themes, characters or key figures, symbols, and important quotes. Every Study Guide is written, edited, and verified by SuperSummary experts.

Summary and Study Guide

Overview

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the best-known work of author and literary critic Clive Staples (C. S.) Lewis. Published in 1951, the novel presents complex moral conundrums through the genre of children’s fantasy. Lewis later noted that his inspiration for the novel came from a recollection of images that he found particularly striking, such as a picture of a faun holding an umbrella in a snow-covered wood. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is full of vivid images that recognize the child reader and are intended to delight the imagination. The work also reflects Lewis’s interest in fairy tales and his study of Greek and Latin literature while at Oxford University, which gave him a deep knowledge of mythological creatures, such as the fauns, satyrs, dyads, and naiads that inhabit Narnia.

Written against a backdrop of the postwar years, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe emerged at a time of economic and social hardship. By 1947, food rations fell below wartime levels due to global food shortages, and Britain was undergoing a period of intense austerity. Furthermore, society entered a collective spiritual crisis, with faith in a loving God and the moral absolutism of good and evil challenged by wartime horrors.

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