Chapter 1: Lucy Looks Into a Wardrobe

Narnia Read-Along Vol. 1, Issue 2

As we explore “The Chronicles of Narnia,” I want to give you inspiration and application for each individual chapter, as well as entire books. What was going on in C.S. Lewis’ life as he wrote this? What works and events contributed to his thinking? What ideas were Lewis trying to “sneak past the watchful dragons” of the reader? What can we draw from the books for our own lives? So let’s dive into the first chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, “Lucy Looks Into a Wardrobe.”

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Inspiration for “Lucy Looks Into a Wardrobe”

“Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.” But before that, there were four children whose names were Ann, Martin, Rose and Peter. In C.S. Lewis’ first attempt at what would become The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe around 1939, he gave the children different names but many of the same story elements remained, according to the four sentences preserved in Walter Hooper’s C.S. Lewis: A Companion Guide.

Obviously, the name “Peter” remains in the final version, as does a focus on the youngest child. But Peter becomes the oldest and Lucy the youngest. The original paragraph also noted the children were sent away to live with an old professor in the country because of the air raids in the city. But after those few sentences, Lewis became stuck for eight years, until he started having dreams of lions. Those dreams brought Aslan into the story, and, as Lewis said, the lion pulled everything else in with him.