Northern Lights E-Book

Antoine Thibaut

• Herausgeber: BrightSummaries.com
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 33

Beschreibung

What should we learn from Northern Lights , the first part of an initiatory trilogy? Find everything you need to know about this work in a complete and detailed analysis.

You will find in this file :
- A complete summary
- A presentation of the main characters such as Lyra Belacqua, Lord Asriel or Iorek Byrnison
- An analysis of the specificities of the work: a novel at the crossroads of genres, a complex narrative and actancial scheme, the political-religious issue

A reference analysis to quickly understand the meaning of the work.

Leseprobe

PHILIP PULLMAN

ENGLISH WRITER

•Born in 1946 in Norwich, England

•Some of his works:

°The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials – Volume 2) (2000), novel

°The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials – Volume 3) (2001), novel

°La Belle Sauvage (2017), novel

Philip Pullman's father, a Royal Air Force pilot, was posted to Africa when the writer was a child. The family spent a few years there, but when his father died, his mother decided to return to England. Philip is marked by the figure of his grandfather, an Anglican clergyman, a great storyteller to whom he owes his taste for narration.

He studied philology at Oxford University. From the 1970s he began teaching and writing plays for his students, and in the 1980s was awarded a professorship at Oxford and Westminster. After the publication of The Curse of the Ruby (1986), he turned his attention to writing.

Passionate about stories, he writes mainly (but not exclusively) for young people, but does not consider himself a 'writer': this term seems inappropriate to him, so he says he 'writes stories' (presentation of the author, p. 503).

He is now one of the most widely read children's authors in the world.

NORTHERN LIGHTS (HIS DARK MATERIALS – BOOK 1)

FIRST PART OF AN INITIATION TRILOGY

•Genre: novel

•Reference edition: Les Royaumes du Nord. À la croisée des mondes (tome 1), translated from English by Jean Esch, Paris, Gallimard Jeunesse, 2007, 500 p.

•1st edition: 1995

•Themes : Fantasy, initiation novel, magic, adolescence, steampunk, parallel worlds

Northern Lights (titled The Golden Compass in some countries) is the first volume of the His Dark Materials trilogy. It is a novel of initiation and is part of the youth fantasy trend.

It follows the adventures of Lyra, an eleven-year-old girl who sets out for the far north to rescue her friend Roger, who has been kidnapped by the mysterious Gobblers. It is set in “a world similar to our own – but different in many ways.” (p. 7)

The book, although criticised at the time of its release by conservative Catholic circles, was a great success. Translated into 40 languages, with nearly 20 million copies sold, it is the second biggest success of the children's fantasy genre, after the Harry Potter saga.

Northern Lights has been adapted for film (The Golden Compass, 2007), theatre, radio, comics and video games.

SUMMARY

The story begins in England, at a time that may correspond to the second half of the 19th century (Victorian era). Eleven-year-old Lyra, a fair-haired, fearless girl with little interest in cleanliness, grows up in the city of Oxford at Jordan College, where she is taught, rather than raised, by the Scholars, a brotherhood of theologians. They, and in particular the Master, are responsible for the girl's education, as her parents are said to have died in an air crash. Lyra discovers the truth later: thirsting for power and recognition, they have preferred to abandon their daughter in favour of their own interests.

Lyra is always accompanied by Pantalaimon, her dæmon: in Pullman's world, every human being is linked to an animal that follows him everywhere and can change form according to the circumstances. With Roger the kitchen boy, her best friend, she is one of the only children living in the establishment. Not very obedient, she spends her time wandering around the city with her gang of friends. But mysterious child kidnappers, known as the Gobblers, are rampant in the region and the number of disappearances is increasing. One day, it is Roger's turn to be kidnapped.