Dedicated to Lucy Barfield

Clive S. Lewis

Chapter one
Lucy peeks into the wardrobe

Once upon a time there were four guys in the world, their names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This book tells about what happened to them during the war, when they were taken out of London so that they would not suffer from air raids. They were sent to an old professor who lived in the very center of England, ten miles from the nearest post office. He never had a wife and lived in a very large house with a housekeeper named Mrs. MacReady and three maids, Ivy, Margaret, and Betty (but they had little to no part in our story). The professor was very old, with disheveled gray hair and a disheveled gray beard almost to the very eyes. Soon the guys fell in love with him, but on the first evening, when he came out to meet them at the front door, he seemed very wonderful to them. Lucy (the youngest) was even a little scared of him, and Edmund (the next in age after Lucy) could hardly help laughing - he had to pretend that he was blowing his nose.
When they said goodnight to the professor that evening and went upstairs to the bedrooms, the boys went into the girls' room to chat about everything they had seen that day.
“We're pretty lucky, that's a fact,” Peter said. - Well, we'll live here! We can do whatever you want. This grandpa won't say a word to us.
“I think he's just adorable,” said Susan.
- Shut up! Edmund said. He was tired, although he pretended not to be, and when he was tired he was always out of sorts. - Stop talking like that.
- How so? Susan asked. “Anyway, it’s time for you to sleep.
“You think you are a mother,” said Edmund. Who are you to tell me? It's time for you to sleep.
"We'd better all lie down," Lucy said. “If they hear us, we will get hit.”
"It won't," said Peter. “I tell you, this is the kind of house where no one will look at what we are doing. Let us not be heard. From here to the dining room is not less than ten minutes walk through all sorts of stairs and corridors.
- What is this noise? Lucy suddenly asked.
She had never been in such a huge house, and at the thought of long corridors with rows of doors to empty rooms, she felt uneasy.
“Just a stupid bird,” said Edmund.
"It's an owl," Peter added. - There should be all sorts of birds apparently-invisibly. Well, I'm going to bed. Listen, let's go scouting tomorrow. In places like here, you can find a lot of things. Did you see the mountains when we drove here? And the forest? Here, right, and eagles are found. And deer! And the hawks for sure.
“And badgers,” Lucy said.
“And foxes,” said Edmund.
“And rabbits,” Susan said.
But when morning came, it turned out that it was raining, and so often that neither the mountains nor the forest could be seen from the window, not even the stream in the garden, and that was not visible.
“Obviously, we can’t do without rain!” Edmund said.
They had just had breakfast with the professor and went upstairs to the room he had set aside for them to play in, a long, low room with two windows on one wall and two on the opposite wall.
“Stop grumbling, Ed,” Susan said. “I bet whatever you want, it will clear up in an hour. In the meantime, there is a receiver and a bunch of books. What's bad?
“Well, no,” Peter said, “this is not my occupation. I'll go scouting around the house.
Everyone agreed that the game couldn't be better. And so their adventure began. The house was huge - it seemed there would be no end to it - and it was full of the most amazing corners. At first, the doors they opened led, as one would expect, to empty guest bedrooms. But soon the guys got into a long, long room, hung with paintings, where there were knightly armor; behind it was a room with green curtains, in the corner of which they saw a harp. Then, descending three steps and ascending five, they found themselves in a small hall with a door to a balcony; behind the hall was a suite of rooms, all the walls of which were lined with bookcases - these were very old books in heavy leather bindings. And then the guys looked into the room, where there was a large wardrobe. You have certainly seen such wardrobes with mirrored doors. There was nothing else in the room but a dried blue fly on the windowsill.
“Empty,” Peter said, and they left the room one after the other…everyone except Lucy. She decided to try to see if the closet door would open, although she was sure it was locked. To her surprise, the door immediately swung open and two balls of mothballs fell out.
Lucy looked inside. Several long fur coats hung there. More than anything, Lucy loved ironing fur. She immediately climbed into the closet and began to rub her face against the fur; she left the door open, of course, because she knew there was nothing more foolish than locking oneself in a closet. Lucy climbed deeper and saw that behind the first row of fur coats a second one was hanging. It was dark in the closet, and, afraid to hit something with her nose, she held out her hands in front of her. The girl took a step, another and another. She waited for her fingertips to rest against the back wall, but her fingers still went into the void.
“Well, a huge closet! thought Lucy, parting her fluffy fur coats and making her way farther and farther. Something crunched under her foot. - I wonder what it is? she thought. “Another moth ball?” Lucy bent down and began to fumble with her hand. But instead of a smooth wooden floor, her hand touched something soft and crumbling and very, very cold.
“How strange,” she said, and took two more steps forward.
In the next second, she felt that her face and hands rested not on the soft folds of fur, but on something hard, rough and even prickly.
- Just like the branches of a tree! Lucy exclaimed.
And then she noticed a light ahead, but not where the closet wall should be, but far, far away. Something soft and cold fell from above. A moment later, she saw that she was standing in the middle of the forest, snow under her feet, snow flakes falling from the night sky.
Lucy was a little scared, but curiosity was stronger than fear. She looked over her shoulder: behind, between the dark tree trunks, she could see the open closet door and through it - the room from which she came here (you, of course, remember that Lucy left the door open). There, behind the closet, it was still daylight.
I can always come back if anything goes wrong, Lucy thought and moved forward. “Crunch, crumble,” the snow crunched under her feet. About ten minutes later she came to the place where the light came from. In front of her was… a lamppost. Lucy rolled her eyes. Why is there a lantern in the middle of the forest? And what should she do next? And then she heard a slight creak of footsteps. The steps were getting closer. A few seconds passed, and a very strange creature appeared from behind the trees and entered the circle of light from the lantern.

It was a little taller than Lucy and held an umbrella over its head, white with snow. The upper part of his body was human, and his legs, covered with black shiny hair, were goat's, with hooves at the bottom. It also had a tail, but Lucy didn't notice it at first, because the tail was neatly draped over the hand—the one in which the creature held the umbrella—to keep the tail from dragging through the snow. Wrapped around his neck was a thick red scarf, the color of reddish skin. He had a strange but very nice face with a short pointed beard and curly hair, horns peeking out of his hair on either side of his forehead. In one hand, as I said, it held an umbrella, in the other - several packages wrapped in brown paper. Bags, snow all around—it looked like it was coming from a Christmas shop. It was a faun. At the sight of Lucy, he shuddered in surprise. All packages fell on the snow.
- Fathers! the faun exclaimed.

Chapter Two
What Lucy found on the other side of the door

“Hello,” Lucy said. But the faun was very busy - he was picking up his packages - and did not answer her. Gathering them all to one, he bowed to Lucy.
“Hello, hello,” said the faun. “Excuse me… I don’t want to be too curious… but I’m not mistaken, are you Eve’s daughter?”
“My name is Lucy,” she said, not quite understanding what the faun meant.
“But you… forgive me… you… what is it called… a girl?” the faun asked.
"Of course I'm a girl," Lucy said.
“In other words, are you a real human Human?”
"Of course I'm human," Lucy said, still puzzled.
“Of course, of course,” said the faun. How stupid of me! But I have never met a son of Adam or a daughter of Eve. I am delighted. That is ... - Here he fell silent, as if he almost accidentally said something that he should not have, but remembered it in time. - Delighted, delighted! he repeated. - Let me introduce myself. My name is Mr Tumnus.
“Very pleased to meet you, Mr. Tumnus,” said Lucy.
- Allow me to inquire about Lucy, daughter of Eve, how did you get to Narnia?
- To Narnia? What is it? Lucy asked.
“Narnia is a country,” said the faun, “where we are now; all the space between the Lamppost and the great castle of Cair Paraval on the eastern sea. Did you... come from the wild western forests?
“I… I came through the wardrobe from an empty room…”
“Ah,” said Mr. Tumnus sadly, “if I had learned geography properly as a child, I would no doubt have been all about these unknown countries. Now it's too late.
"But it's not a country at all," Lucy said, barely able to keep from laughing. “It's a few steps away… at least… I don't know. It's summer there now.
“Well, it’s winter here in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and it’s been going on for an eternity. And we'll both catch a cold if we stand and talk here in the snow. Daughter of Eve from a distant land of the Empty Room, where eternal summer reigns in the bright city of Platencase, would you like to come to my place and drink a cup of tea with me?
“Thank you very much, Mr. Tumnus,” said Lucy. But I guess it's time for me to go home.
“I live a stone's throw from here,” said the faun, “and I have a very warm place... a fire burning... and toasted bread... and sardines... and a pie.
“You are very kind,” said Lucy. But I can't stay long.
“If you take my arm, O daughter of Eve,” said Mr. Tumnus, “I can hold the umbrella over both of us.” Us here. Well, let's go.
And Lucy set off on her way through the forest, arm in arm with the faun, as if she had known him all her life.
Soon the ground under their feet became uneven, with large stones sticking out here and there; the travelers now went up the hill, then went down the hill. At the bottom of a small hollow, Mr. Tumnus suddenly turned aside, as if he was going to go straight through the rock, but, coming close to it, Lucy saw that they were standing at the entrance to the cave. When they entered, Lucy even closed her eyes - the firewood burned so brightly in the fireplace. Mr. Tumnus stooped down and, taking a firebrand with polished tongs, lit the lamp.

“Well, now soon,” he said, and at the same moment put the kettle on the fire.
Lucy had never seen such a cozy place. They were in a small, dry, clean cave with walls of reddish stone. There was a carpet on the floor, two armchairs (“one for me, one for a friend,” said Mr. Tumnus), a table and a kitchen sideboard, and over the fireplace hung a portrait of an old faun with a gray beard. There was a door in the corner (probably to Mr. Tumnus's bedroom, Lucy thought), next to it was a shelf of books. While Mr. Tumnus set the table, Lucy read the titles: The Life and Letters of Silenus, The Nymphs and Their Customs, A Study of Common Legends, Is Man a Myth.

“You are welcome, daughter of Eve,” said the faun.
What was not on the table! And soft-boiled eggs—an egg for each—and toasted bread, and sardines, and butter, and honey, and a sugar-coated cake. And when Lucy was tired of eating, the faun began to tell her about life in the forest. Well, these were amazing stories! He told her about the midnight dances, when the naiads who live in wells and the dryads who live in trees come out to dance with the fauns; about hunting for a deer white as milk, which fulfills all your desires, if you manage to catch it; about pirates and treasure hunting with dwarves in caves and mines deep underground; and about the summer, when the forest stands green and Silenus comes to visit them on his fat donkey, and sometimes Bacchus himself, and then wine flows instead of water in the rivers and a holiday lasts week after week in the forest.

“Only now it’s always winter here,” he added sadly.
And to cheer up, the faun took from a case that lay on the cabinet, a strange little flute, apparently made of straw, and began to play. Lucy immediately wanted to laugh and cry, dance and fall asleep - all at the same time.
Apparently, more than one hour passed before she woke up and said:
“Ah, Mr. Tumnus… I hate to interrupt you… and I really like the tune… but really, I have to go home.” I was only there for a few minutes.
“It’s too late to talk about it now,” said the faun, putting down his flute and shaking his head sadly.
- Late? Lucy asked and jumped up from her seat. She became scared. - What do you mean by that? I need to go home immediately. Everyone is probably worried. - But then she exclaimed: - Mr. Tumnus! What's wrong with you? “Because the brown eyes of the faun filled with tears, then tears rolled down his cheeks, dripped from the tip of his nose, and finally he covered his face with his hands and wept aloud.
- Mister Tumnus! Mr Tumnus! – terribly upset, said Lucy. - Don't, don't cry! What happened? Are you unwell? Dear Mr. Tumnus, tell me please, tell me what's the matter with you?
But the faun continued to weep as if his heart were breaking. And even when Lucy came up to him and hugged him and gave him her handkerchief, he did not calm down. He only took a handkerchief and rubbed his nose and eyes with it, squeezing it onto the floor with both hands when it got too wet, so that soon Lucy was in a big puddle.

- Mister Tumnus! Lucy shouted loudly into the faun's ear and shook him. - Please stop. Stop now. Shame on you, such a big faun! Why, why are you crying?
– Ah-ah-ah! roared Mr. Tumnus. “I am crying because I am a very bad faun.
“I don't think you're a bad fawn at all,” said Lucy. “I think you are a very good faun. You are the sweetest faun I have ever met.
“Ah, you wouldn’t say that if you knew,” answered Mr. Tumnus, sobbing. - No, I'm a bad fawn. There was no such bad faun in the whole wide world.
- What have you done? Lucy asked.
- My father ... this is his portrait there, over the fireplace ... he would never have done that ...
- How so? Lucy asked.
“Like me,” said the faun. “Went into the service of the White Witch—that’s what I did.” I'm on the payroll of the White Witch.
- The White Witch? Who is she?
- She is? She is the one who has all of Narnia under her shoe. The same one, because of which we have eternal winter. Eternal winter, but there is still no Christmas. Just think!
- Terrible! Lucy said. But what does she pay you for?
"That's the worst part," said Mr. Tumnus with a deep sigh. “I'm a kidnapper, that's why. Look at me, daughter of Eve. Is it possible to believe that I am capable, having met a poor innocent child in the forest who has done me no harm, pretend to be friendly to him, invite him to my cave and put me to sleep with my flute - all in order to give the unfortunate one into the hands of Belaya Witches?
“No,” Lucy said. “I'm sure you're incapable of doing that.
“But I did so,” said the faun.
“Well,” said Lucy, after a pause (she did not want to tell a lie and at the same time did not want to be very harsh with him), “well, that was not good of you. But you regret what you did, and I'm sure you'll never do it again.
“Oh, daughter of Eve, don’t you understand? the faun asked. “I have never done this before. I do so now, at this very moment.
- What do you want to say?! Lucy cried out and turned as white as a sheet.
“You are that child,” Mr. Tumnus said. - The White Witch ordered me, if I suddenly see the son of Adam or the daughter of Eve in the forest, to catch them and hand them over to her. And you are the first person I met. I pretended to be your friend and invited me to tea, and all this time I waited until you fell asleep so that I could go and tell her everything.
"Ah, but you won't tell her about me, Mr. Tumnus!" Lucy exclaimed. “It’s true, won’t you tell me?” Don't, please don't!
“And if I don’t tell her,” he picked up, starting to cry again, “she will certainly find out about it.” And he orders me to cut off my tail, saw off the horns and pluck my beard. She will wave her magic wand and my pretty cloven hooves will turn into hooves like a horse's. And if she gets especially angry, she will turn me to stone, and I will become a statue of a faun and I will stand in her terrible castle until all four thrones in Cair Paraval are occupied. And who knows when it will happen and if it will happen at all.
“I'm sorry, Mr. Tumnus,” said Lucy, “but please let me go home.
"Of course I'll let you go," said the faun. “Of course I have to do it. Now it's clear to me. I didn't know what Humans were until I met you. Of course, I can't hand you over to the Sorceress now that I've met you. But we need to leave soon. I'll escort you to the Lamppost. You will find the way from there to Platenshkaf and the Empty Room, won't you?
“Of course I will,” said Lucy.
“We must go as quietly as possible,” said Mr. Tumnus. The forest is full of her spies. Some trees, and those on her side.
They didn't even clear the table. Mr. Tumnus opened his umbrella again, took Lucy by the arm, and they walked out of the cave. The way back was not at all like the way to the cave of a faun: without exchanging a word, they crept under the trees almost at a run. Mr. Tumnus chose the darkest spots. Finally they reached the Lamppost. Lucy breathed a sigh of relief.
“Do you know the way from here, O daughter of Eve?” asked Mr. Tumnus. Lucy peered into the darkness and saw in the distance, between the trunks of trees, a bright spot.
“Yes,” she said, “I see an open wardrobe door.
"Then hurry home," said the faun, "and... can you... can you forgive me for what I was about to do?"
"Well, of course," said Lucy, shaking his hand warmly, from the bottom of her heart. "And I hope you don't get in too much trouble because of me."
“Good luck, daughter of Eve,” he said. “May I keep your handkerchief as a memento?”
“Please,” Lucy said, and ran as fast as she could towards the distant patch of daylight. Soon she felt that her hands were parting not thorny tree branches, but soft fur coats, that under her feet it was not creaky snow, but wooden planks, and suddenly - bang! - she found herself in the very empty room where her adventures began. She closed the closet door tightly and looked around, still unable to catch her breath. It was still raining, and the voices of her sister and brothers could be heard in the hallway.
- I'm here! she screamed. - I'm here. I'm back. Everything is good.

Chapter Three
Edmund and the wardrobe

Lucy ran out of the empty room into the hallway where everyone else was.
“It's all right,” she repeated. - I'm back.
- What are you talking about? Susan asked. - I don't understand anything.
- How about what? Lucy said in surprise. "Weren't you worried where I disappeared to?"
So you were hiding, weren't you? Peter said. “Poor Lou hid, and no one noticed! Hide a little longer next time if you want people to start looking for you.
“But I haven't been here for many hours,” Lucy said.
The boys rolled their eyes at each other.
- I'm crazy! said Edmund, tapping his forehead with his finger. - Completely crazy.
What do you mean, Lou? Peter asked.
“What I said,” Lucy replied. - I climbed into the closet right after breakfast, and I was not here for many hours in a row, and I drank tea at a party, and all sorts of adventures happened to me.
“Don't talk nonsense, Lucy,” Susan said. “We just left this room, and you were there with us.
“She doesn’t talk,” Peter said, “she just made it up for fun, didn’t she, Lou?” Why not?
"No, Peter," Lucy said. - I didn't write anything. This is a magic closet. There is a forest and snow inside. And there is a faun and a sorceress, and the country is called Narnia. Go take a look.
The guys did not know what to think, but Lucy was so excited that they returned with her to an empty room. She ran to the closet, flung open the door and shouted:
"Get in here and see with your own eyes!"
“What a fool,” said Susan, sticking her head into the closet and parting her fur coats. - Ordinary wardrobe. Look, here is his back wall.
And then everyone else looked inside, and parted their fur coats, and saw - but Lucy herself didn’t see anything else right now - an ordinary wardrobe. There was no forest or snow behind the fur coats - only the back wall and hooks on it. Peter climbed into the closet and tapped the wall with his knuckles to make sure it was solid.
“Well, you played us well, Lucy,” he said, climbing out of the closet. - Fiction is what you need, you will not say anything. We almost believed you.
“But I didn’t make it up,” Lucy protested. - Honestly. A minute ago, everything was different here. It was true, actually.
“Enough, Lou,” Peter said. - Don't overdo it. You played a good joke on us, and that's enough.
Lucy flushed, tried to say something, although she really did not know what, and burst into tears.
The next few days were sad for Lucy. It cost nothing for her to make peace with the others, she only had to agree that she had invented everything for a laugh. But Lucy was a very truthful girl, and now she firmly knew that she was right, so she could not bring herself to retract her words. And her sister and brothers believed that this was a lie, and a stupid lie, and Lucy was very hurt. At least the two elders did not touch her, but Edmund was sometimes quite mean, and this time he showed himself in all his glory. He teased Lucy and pestered her, endlessly asking if she had discovered any countries in other wardrobes. And what is more offensive - if not for a quarrel, she could have had a wonderful time these days. The weather was beautiful, the guys were in the air all day. They bathed, fished, climbed trees and rolled on the grass. But Lucy wasn't nice. This continued until the first rainy day.
When the boys saw in the afternoon that the weather was unlikely to change for the better, they decided to play hide-and-seek. Susan drove, and as soon as everyone scattered in different directions, Lucy went to an empty room where there was a wardrobe. She was not going to hide in the closet, she knew that if she was found there, the rest would again begin to remember this unfortunate story. But she really wanted to look into the closet one more time, because by this time she herself began to think if she had dreamed of a faun and Narnia.
The house was so big and confusing, it had so many nooks and crannies that she could well look into the closet with one eye, and then hide in another place. But before Lucy entered the room, footsteps were heard from outside. All she had to do was quickly climb into the closet and shut the door behind her. However, she left a small gap, because she knew that locking herself in a closet was very stupid, even if it was a simple, not a magic closet.
Well, the steps she heard were Edmund's; entering the room, he managed to notice that Lucy had disappeared into the closet. He immediately decided to climb into the closet too. Not because it was so convenient to hide there, but because he wanted to once again tease Lucy with her imaginary country. He flung open the door. Fur coats hung in front of him, there was a smell of mothballs, inside it was quiet and warm. Where is Lucy? “She thinks that I am Susan and will catch her now,” Edmund said to himself, “here she is hiding at the back wall.” He jumped into the closet and slammed the door behind him, forgetting that it was very stupid to do so. Then he began to fumble between the fur coats. He expected to immediately grab Lucy, and was very surprised not to find her. He decided to open the closet door to make it brighter, but he couldn't find the door either. He did not like it, and how! He rushed about in different directions and shouted:
Lucy, Lou! Where are you? I know you are here!

Clive Staples Lewis. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Chronicles of Narnia - 2

Lucy peeks into the wardrobe

Once upon a time there were four guys in the world, their names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This book tells about what happened to them during the war, when they were taken out of London so that they would not suffer from air raids. They were sent to an old professor who lived in the very center of England, ten miles from the nearest post office. He never had a wife and lived in a very large house with a housekeeper and three maids - Ivy, Margaret and Betty (but they hardly took part in our story at all). The professor was very old, with disheveled gray hair and a disheveled gray beard almost to the very eyes. Soon the guys fell in love with him, but on the first evening, when he came out to meet them at the front door, he seemed very wonderful to them. Lucy (the youngest) was even a little scared of him, and Edmund (following Lucy in age) could hardly restrain himself from laughing - he had to pretend that he was blowing his nose. When they said goodnight to the professor that evening and went upstairs to the bedrooms, the boys went into the girls' room to chat about everything they had seen that day.

We're very lucky, that's a fact," said Peter. - Well, we'll live here! We can do whatever you want. This grandpa won't say a word to us.

I think he's just adorable," said Susan.

Shut up! Edmund said. He was tired, although he pretended not to be at all, and when he was tired, he was always out of sorts. - Stop talking like that.

How so? Susan asked. “Anyway, it’s time for you to sleep.

You imagine that you are a mother,” said Edmund. Who are you to tell me? It's time for you to sleep.

We'd better all lie down," said Lucy. - If they hear us, we'll get hit.

It won't," said Peter. - I tell you, this is the kind of house where no one will look what we are doing. Let us not be heard. From here to the dining room is at least ten minutes walk along all sorts of stairs and corridors.

What is this noise? Lucy suddenly asked. She had never been in such a huge house, and the thought of long corridors with rows of doors leading to empty rooms made her feel uneasy.

Just a bird, stupid,” said Edmund.

It's an owl," Peter added. - There should be visible-invisible mo of all kinds of birds. Well, I'm going to bed. Listen, let's go scouting tomorrow. In places like here, you can find a lot of things. Did you see the mountains when we drove here? And the forest? Here, right, and eagles are found. And deer! And the hawks for sure.

And badgers," said Lucy.

And foxes, said Edmund.

And rabbits, Susan said. But when morning came, it turned out that it was raining, and so often that neither the mountains nor the forest could be seen from the window, even the stream in the garden was not even visible.

Of course, we can't do without rain! Edmund said. They had just had breakfast with the professor and went upstairs to the room he had allocated for them to play, a long, low room with two windows on one wall and two on the opposite wall.

Stop grumbling, Ed,” Susan said. - I'll bet whatever you want, in an hour it will clear up. In the meantime, there is a receiver and a bunch of books. What's bad?

Well, no, - said Peter, - this occupation is not for me. I'll go scouting around the house. Everyone agreed that the game couldn't be better. And so their adventure began. The house was huge - it seemed that there would be no end to it

And it was full of the most unusual corners. At first, the doors they opened led, as one would expect, to empty guest bedrooms.