I remember this book more than any other book in the Narnia series after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
sees Prince Caspian sailing the seas east of Narnia seeking to find the whereabouts of seven lost Narnian lords. The lords matter only slightly in the story. They are used mostly as impetus to the voyage where Caspian finds multiple adventures on various lands he and his crew encounter. This time around, only Edmund and Lucy travel to Narnia, along with their cousin Eustace Clarence Scrubb (he almost deserved it
). Eustace is a ugly boy; ugly in temperament. He’s the continuing foil in this story, being a proponent of several things that Lewis found wanting, such as calling ones parents by their first names.
There are two stories that I remember most from the book, and enjoyed the most on re-reading it. First is the story of Dragon Island. On the island, Eustace wanders away and gets himself lost. He comes upon a pool at the center of the island where he witnesses a dragon die. Not know where to go, he falls asleep in the dragon’s cave. In the morning, he wakes up as a dragon, with an armband that previously fit loosely on his arm now biting deep into the flesh. Eustace must gain the trust of his companions, who generally will kill dragons first and understand them later.
The second story that I enjoyed was the story of Deathwater Island. The crew travels to the shore of this island to collect water and perhaps game for further travels. On the island, the companions find a man’s discarded clothing and armor. In a nearby pool they find a golden statue in the shape of a man. They quickly deduce that someone has enchanted the man whose armor lay half-buried nearby. Only by a stroke of luck do they discover that the water in the stream has the ability to turn anything dipped in it into gold. They quickly turn to squabbling over who gets it before they come to their senses and realize how dangerous the place is. They leave, naming the island Deathwater Island.
There are plenty of other mini-adventures on the voyage as well. THe format sis a grab-bag of small stories. The variety made for a much better book than Prince Caspian did.
Title: The voyage of the Dawn Treader
Author: C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis)
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Cover artist: Roger Hane
Series: Book 3 of the chronicles of Narnia
Imprint / publisher: Collier Books / Macmillan
Format: Mass market paperback
Publication date: 1970
Length: 216 p.
ISBN-10: 0-02-044260-2
