Introduction 1

INTRODUCTION The novel “Northern Lights” by Philip Pullman is the first book of the trilogy “His Dark Materials”, published in 1995. It is a fantasy novel with a story that takes place in our parallel universe. The novel won the Carnegie Medal (a literary award for outstanding books for children and young adults) one year after it was published. It was adopted into a Hollywood feature film in 2007 under the title “Golden Compass” along with an accompanying video game. Both the trilogy and the film were faced with controversy because some critics claim they are sending a negative image of religion. I have chosen this book for my paperwork because I have already read it in Croatian and really enjoyed the story of a universe where every human has its own “daemon” or animal companion. With that companion you are never alone; you always have someone to talk to and someone that will always help you when you find yourself in difficult situations. In that way this universe, where we are surrounded with hundreds of people every day and yet we feel alone, would seem much more fulfilled. 1 1. PHILIP PULLMAN Philip Pullman is an English writer born in Norwich, England on 19th of October, 1946. His father, a Royal Airforce Pilot, was killed in a plane crash when he was seven years old. When his mother remarried they moved to Australia where he discovered the art of comic books. From 1957 he was educated in Wales and spent time with his grandfather in Norfolk. During that time he discovered John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost” which became a great influence for his trilogy “His Dark Materials”. From 1963 he attended Exeter College, Oxford and received a Third class Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968. He got married in 1970 and started teaching middle school children (ages 9 to 13) at Bishop Kirk Middle School in Summertown in North Oxford. During that time he also wrote school plays. He taught part – time at Westminster College, Oxford, between 1988 and 1996. His bibliography includes non – series books: “The Haunted Storm” (1972), “Galatea” (1976), “Count Karlstein” (1982), “How to be cool” (1987), “Spring Heeled Jack” (1989), “The Broken Bridge” (1990), “The White Mercedes” (1992), “The Wonderful Story of Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp” (1993), “Clockwork” / ”All Wound Up” (1995), “The Firework – Maker’s Daughter” (1995), “Mossycoat” (1998), “The Butterfly Tattoo” (1998), “I was a Rat!” / ”The Scarlet Slippers” (1999), “Puss in Boots: The Adventures of That Most Enterprising Feline” (2000), “The Scarecrow and his Servant” (2004), “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ” (2010). His series books are “Sally Lockhart” that consists of “The Ruby in the Smoke” (1985), “The Shadow in the North” (1986), “The Tiger in the Well” (1991) and “The Tin Princess” (1994); “The New – Cut Gang” that consists of “Thunderbolt’s Waxwork” (1994) and “The Gasfitter’s Ball” (1995); and “His Dark Materials” which consists of “Northern Lights” (1995), “The Subtle Knife” (1997) and “The Amber Spyglass” (2000). His 2 companion books are “Lyra’s Oxford” (2003), “Once Upon a Time in the North” (2008) and not yet released “The Book of Dust”. He also wrote plays, non – fiction books and comics. 3 2. ABOUT THE TITLE At first the author named the trilogy “The Golden Compasses” referring to a pair of compasses – the circle drawing instruments, not navigational instruments. Pullman settled on “Northern Lights” as the title for the first book of the series, but continued to refer to the trilogy as “The Golden Compasses”. Both the original and the final title (“His Dark Materials”) for the series were taken from Milton’s poem “Paradise Lost”. The part of the poem from which Pullman took the original title is: “Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand He took the golden compasses, prepared In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things: One foot he centred, and the other turned Round through the vast profundity obscure“ In the United States the publishers had been calling it “The Golden Compass” (not compasses) because they believed it referred to Lyra’s alethiometer, a device that superficially resembles a navigational compass. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Philip Pullman had replaced the title of the trilogy “The Golden Compasses” with “His Dark Materials”. In the US, the publishers had become so attached to “The Golden Compass” that they insisted on publishing the first book under that title, rather than “Northern Lights”, the title used in the UK and Australia. 4 3. PLOT SUMMARY The novel starts with a part of John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost”: “Into this wild abyss, The womb of nature and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless the almighty maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds, Into this wild abyss the wary fiend Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while, Pondering his voyage…” The novel is divided into three parts, depending on Lyra’s location: “Oxford”, “Bolvangar” and “Svalbard”. Those parts are then divided into twenty-three paragraphs in total. 3.1. PART ONE: OXFORD The story of the first part begins with Lyra Belacqua, an 11-year-old girl, and her dæmon Pantalaimon, an animal-formed, shape-shifting manifestation of her soul, sneaking through dark halls of the Jordan College in Oxford. They were on their way to the forbidden Retiring Room of the college, trying their best not to be seen. Lyra’s dæmon Pan was in the shape of a dark brown moth so he wouldn’t easily be seen in the dark, was not pleased with her decision to go into the forbidden room and was trying to 5 persuade her to change her mind. She seemed to take the situation too lightly, touching everything and looking around curiously, even though she could get in a lot of trouble if the Steward found her there. Suddenly, they heard voices outside the doors and hid behind one of the armchairs. The doors opened and Lyra realised it was one of the servants talking to the Master. In the conversation they mentioned Lord Asriel, Lyra’s uncle, a man whom she admired and feared greatly, was coming to the college. When the Master said everything he needed to the servant, he was left alone – or so he thought. Lyra could see his feet moving across the floor from her not-much-of-a-hiding place. A decanter of rich golden wine, Tokay, was sitting on the table. Lyra saw the Master pouring a thing stream of white powder into the decanter and stirring it with a pencil until it had dissolved. He left the room but the Steward’s bell rang soon after, meaning that she cannot get out without anyone noticing. When she heard the Steward’s heavy footsteps she hid in an oak wardrobe. After a while the Butler came in the room to trim the lights and helped himself to a handful of leaf from the smoking-mill when he got surprised by Lord Asriel walking in. A shiver of cold surprise ran down Lyra’s back. After the Butler left, Lyra heard Lord Asriel talking to his dæmon, Stelmaria, a snow leopard, about showing projections and specimens in the Retiring Room. Lyra had no idea what was going on. When she saw her uncle pouring himself a glass of Tokay she cried a quiet: “No!”, before she could stop herself. Lord Asriel heard her so she ran out of the closet to snatch the glass from his hand. He yelled and threatened to break her arm but she said she saved his life. She explained that she saw the Master pouring poison into the Tokay, but had stop before she could finish and hide in the wardrobe again because the Porter was coming. Lord Asriel tripped the bottle of Tokay and made it look like the Porter had broken it. As he left to get something to clean the mess up, Lord Asriel spoke into the wardrobe: “Since you’re in there, you can make yourself useful. Watch the Master closely when he comes in. If you tell me something interesting about him, I’ll keep you from getting further into trouble you’re already in. Understand?”. The Master was the first to come in through the door. Lyra watched him as he glanced across the table to the place the Tokay had been. Lord Asriel explained the Porter knocked it of the table but that it was his fault. The rest of the Scholars entered 6 after the Master. After a buzz of conversation Lord Asriel was to show his slides. The Master was seated near the wardrobe so Lyra could hear him tell the Librarian: “The devil! He knew about the wine, I’m sure of it!”. Lord Asriel showed slides of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and the mysterious elementary particles called Dust. Lyra still didn’t know what her uncle was talking about but the Scholar’s gasps of disbelief assured her it was something really incredible. On the slide showing Aurora Borealis taken with a special emulsion they saw an outline of a city just in the middle of the lights. It was voted that Lord Asriel is to be given funds to go back North and continue his expedition. Lyra fell asleep in the wardrobe. Her uncle shook her shoulder and she woke up. She asked if she could come with him to the North but he wouldn’t let her.

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