| The Night Circus | |
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Front cover of the first edition |
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| Author(s) | Erin Morgenstern |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 387 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0385534635 |
The Night Circus is a 2011 fantasy novel by Erin Morgenstern.
Contents |
The Night Circus is a phantasmagorical fairy tale set near an ahistorical Victorian London in a wandering magical circus that exists only from sunset to sunrise. Le Cirque des Rêves features such wonders and "ethereal enigmas" as a blooming garden made all of ice and a fire-breathing paper dragon. Its truly magical nature is occluded under the guise of legerdemain. The curious circus develops avid fans who distinguish themselves to each other by wearing the black and white of the circus tents, with a splash of red. The magicians Prospero the Enchanter and the enigmatic Mr. A.H— groom their young proteges, Celia and Marco, to proxy their rivalry with the exhibits as a stage. At stake is a question of the proper approach to magic: whether as an innate talent, represented by Prospero's daughter Celia, or whether as a skill that can be taught, represented by Mr. A.H—'s orphan ward Marco. The two generate nightly wonders for the circus and for each other. Unaware of their mentors' designs and deadly wager, Celia and Marco fall in love; the magical courtship strains the fate laid out for them and endangers the circus.
The book has been extensively promoted, often with mention of Harry Potter or Twilight, but also in comparison to Neil Gaiman, Something Wicked This Way Comes, or Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.[1][2][3][4] Ron Charles writing for The Washington Post compares Morgenstern's imagery to Steven Millhauser's, albeit with "more playful and more dramatic surrealism".[5] Olivia Laing writing for The Observer compares the book to an "eminently intriguing cabinet of curiosities" with an intricate but unmoored setting and colorful but clockwork characters.[6] Laura Miller writing for Salon likewise praises the "aesthetic fantasia with all the trimmings" but not the plot itself.[7] Sarah Stegall writing for SFScope praises the vivid imagery, predicting that it should be nominated for literary awards.[8] Richard Peabody writing for The Washington Independent Review of Books describes the narrative as nonlinear, with frequent shifts in points of view, tangential vignettes, and short almost cinematic chapters.[1] PopCultureMonster.com describes the novel as "very filmic" with "well timed shifts from scene to scene" and "an extremely visual feel".[9]
The Night Circus was a candidate for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award.[10]
An audiobook version of The Night Circus is read by Jim Dale.[11]
The UK publisher, Harvill Secker, contracted Failbetter Games, creators of Echo Bazaar!, to create a puzzle game to accompany the book.[12][13] The site went live on September 1, 2011, two weeks before the book was published.[14]