Introduction

Walter Hooper presents in his book, C. S. Lewis: Companion & Guide (p. 403), a rough sketch of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which he discovered in one of Lewis's surviving notebooks.  That rough sketch reads as follows:

Plots

SHIP.  Two children somehow got on board a ship of ancient build.  Discover presently that they are sailing in time (backwards): the captain will bring them to islands.  Attack by enemies.  Children captured.  Discover that the first captain was really taking them because his sick king needs blood of a boy in the far future.  Nevertheless prefer the Captain and his side to their soi-disant  rescuers.  Escape and return to their first hosts.  The blood giving, not fatal, and happy ending.  Various islands (of Odyssey and St Brendan) can be thrown in.  Beauty of the ship the initial spell. To be a very green and pearly story.

PICTURE.  A magic picture.  One of the children gets through the frame into the picture and one of the creatures gets out of the picture into our world.

INVERTED.  Ordinary fairy tale K., Q. and court, into which erupts a child from our world.

SEQUEL TO L. W. W.  The present tyrants to be Men.  Intervening history of Narnia told nominally by the Dwarf but really an abstract of his story which amounts to telling it in my own person.

Obviously these notes eventually worked their way into becoming separate stories--Prince Caspian as the sequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and then Voyage of the Dawn Treader  following Prince Caspian.  But this rough sketch from Lewis's notebook reveals that he had aspects of The Voyage in mind at least as soon as he had finished writing The Lion.  Lewis finished the manuscript of The Voyage by the end of February 1950 and gave it to his friend and former student, Roger Lancelyn Green, to critique.  This third Narnian book, which Lewis said was about the spiritual life, especially in Reepicheep, was published in 1952.

Voyage received mixed reviews when it was first published.  Louise Bechtel wrote in The New York Herald Tribune Book Review: "The strange symbolism will not often be understood, but it is well worth that place at the back of the child's mind where it will linger until suddenly it is clear."  The book reviewer for the New Yorker called Voyage "A juvenile odyssey that in excitement and beauty surpasses even the preceding volumes."  However, Chad Walsh, despite being a friend of Lewis, wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "My favourite was the first book of the trilogy -- indeed, it seems destined to become a modern fairy tale classic.  The second was, by comparison, a let-down.  The present book is better than its immediate predecessor, though perhaps not up to the very high level of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."  Walsh is probably correct in his assesment from an adult, literary perspective, but I doubt that all children would share that perspective.  As a child I think I liked Prince Caspian best.  It took me a long time, and many readings before The Voyage held a very high place in my Narnian affections, but now I think it one of the Narnia books with some of the greatest spiritual lessons of all.

Discussion Questions

1. If the theme of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is redemption accomplished, and the theme of Prince Caspian is faith in an age of doubt, what do you think is the theme of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? Why do you think so?
2. Why do you suppose Lewis has the action in this story take place largely on a small sailing vessel? What is the significance of the name of the ship?
3. Who do you think is the main character in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? Why? What does this character teach us?
4. What do you think the children's enslavement on The Lone Islands is an image of? Why?
5. What do you think Eustace turning into a dragon is symbolic of? What about Eustace's attempts to remove his dragon flesh? And Aslan turning Eustace into a boy again? What message do you think Lewis is trying to convey through this part of the story?
6. What does the incident at Deathwater give us a picture of?
7. What does the great and ancient book which Lucy found in the house of the old magician remind you of? Why?
8. In the chapter on The Three Sleepers what do you think the banquet table is symbolic of? Do the crimson cloth and the stone knife give you any clues? What is the significance of the fact that some people have fallen asleep at this table? Whose attitude toward the table do you think Lewis would want us to emulate? Why?
9. What is the biblical parallel to the Lamb's fish breakfast at the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? Why do you suppose Lewis has the children meet a lamb who, a few moments later, turns into Aslan?
10. What do you think the Lamb means when he says that there is a way into Aslan's country from all the worlds?
11. At the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Aslan tells the children that in their world he has another name. "You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there." What do you think Aslan's other name is in our world? What does this statement from the lips of Aslan tell us about Lewis's purpose in writing The Chronicles of Narnia?