completed by the end of march 1949 and published by geoffrey bles in london on 16 october 1950, "the lion, the witch and the wardrobe" tells the story of four ordinary children: peter, susan, edmund, and lucy pevensie, who have been evacuated to the english countryside from london in 1940 following the outbreak of world war ii. they discover a wardrobe in professor digory kirke's house that leads to the magical land of narnia. the pevensie children help aslan, a talking lion, save narnia from the evil white witch, who has reigned over the land of narnia for a century of perpetual winter. the children become kings and queens of this new-found land and establish the golden age of narnia, leaving a legacy to be rediscovered in later books.