| Susan Pevensie | |
| Series: | Narnia |
| First: | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) |
| Last: | The Horse and His Boy (1954) |
| Creator: | C. S. Lewis |
| Race: | Human |
| Gender: | Female |
| Queen Susan the Gentle Queen Susan of the Horn | |
| Family: | Mr & Mrs Pevensie (parents) Peter, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie (siblings) Eustace Scrubb (cousin) |
| Nationality: | English |
Susan Pevensie is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series. Susan is the elder sister and the second eldest Pevensie child. She appears in three of the seven books—as a child in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, and as an adult in The Horse and His Boy. She is also mentioned in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Last Battle. During her reign at the Narnian capital of Cair Paravel, she is known as Queen Susan the Gentle or Queen Susan of the Horn. She was the only Pevensie that survived the train crash (because she was not on the train or at the station) on Earth which sent the others to Narnia after The Last Battle.
Susan was born in 1928 and is 12 years old when she appears in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. By The Last Battle, she is 21 years old, as the final novel takes place in 1949.
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan and her brother Peter only discover Narnia after their younger siblings have already been there. Father Christmas gives Susan a bow with arrows that never miss their target, and a magical horn that brings aid when blown. Susan is advised to stay out of the battle. After the battle, she is crowned as Queen of Narnia by Aslan, and becomes known as Queen Susan the Gentle.
In Prince Caspian, Susan and the other Pevensies are magically transferred to Narnia from a railway station in England. She is described as being gentle and tender-hearted and she immerses herself in their adventures as deeply as in the first book.
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Susan accompanies her parents on a trip to America, while Peter is being tutored by Professor Digory Kirke.
In The Horse and His Boy, set during the Pevensie siblings' reign in Narnia, Susan plays a minor part. She is asked to make a diplomatic marriage to the Calormene Prince Rabadash. She finds him gallant at tournaments in Narnia, but tyrannical and repellant on his home ground.
In The Last Battle, Susan is conspicuous by her absence. Peter says that she is "no longer a friend of Narnia". Thus, Susan does not enter the real Narnia with the others at the end of the series. It is left ambiguous whether Susan's absence is permanent.
In his Companion to Narnia, Paul F. Ford writes at the end of the entry for Susan Pevensie that "Susan's is one of the most important Unfinished Tales of The Chronicles of Narnia."
Lewis himself stated that:
Lewis further elaborated on Susan's fate in a 19 February 1960 letter to Pauline Bannister, who wrote to Lewis, upset that Susan was excluded from her brothers and sister from Aslan's country. He stated:
Fantasy author Neil Gaiman's 2004 short story "The Problem of Susan" depicts its protagonist, Professor Hastings (who strongly resembles an adult version of Susan), dealing with the grief and trauma of her entire family's death in a train crash, as she is interviewed by a college literature student regarding her opinion on Susan's place in the Narnia books.[1] Since the publication of Gaiman's story, "the problem of Susan" has become used more widely as a catchphrase for the literary and feminist investigation into Susan's treatment.
Authors J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman, both of whom were influenced by Lewis, have also commented on the issue: