Rating: ****
Tags: Fiction, General, Visionary & Metaphysical, Fantasy, Magicians, Literary, Historical, Contemporary Women, Romance, Circus, Games, Circus Performers, Lang:en
Summary
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede
it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the
black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique
experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called
Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at
night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is
underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and
Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this
purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them,
this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the
circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination
and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble
headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the
lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as
brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of
everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus
performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended
as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel
is a feast for the senses and the heart.
Amazon Best Books of the Month, September
2011: Erin Morgenstern’s dark, enchanting debut
takes us to the black and white tents of
Le Cirque des Reves, a circus that arrives without
warning, simply appearing when yesterday it was not there.
Young Celia and Marco have been cast into a rivalry at
The Night Circus, one arranged long ago by powers they
do not fully understand. Over time, their lives become more
intricately enmeshed in a dance of love, joy, deceit,
heartbreak, and magic. Author Morgenstern knows her world
inside and out, and she guides the reader with a confident
hand. The setting and tone are never less than mesmerizing. The
characters are well-realized and memorable. But it is the Night
Circus itself that might be the most memorable of all. --
Chris Schluep
Praise for THE NIGHT CIRCUS:
"
The Night Circus made me happy. Playful and intensely
imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have
always longed for and she has populated it with dueling
love-struck magicians, precocious kittens, hyper-elegant
displays of beauty and complicated clocks. This is a marvelous
book."
"If this novel is just cotton candy, it's cotton candy spun
from strands of edible silver...With no more lust than a late
volume of
Harry Potter, Morgenstern manages to conjure up a love
story for adults that feels luxuriously romantic. When Celia
calls their circus a 'wonder and comfort and mystery all
together,' she could have been talking about this book."
"A Romeo and Juliet tale drenched in magic realism,
The Night Circus defies both genres and expectations.
In short, it's a showstopper."
“Erin Morgenstern's debut novel,
The Night Circus, is quietly, enchantingly
perfect…reading this novel is like having a marvelous
dream, in which you are asleep enough to believe everything
that is happening, but awake enough to relish the experience
and understand that it is magical.”
“[A] dark and extravagantly imagined debut…The
plot follows the separate and then intertwining lives of Celia
and Marco, both forced to spend their lives pitting their
unusual talents against each other in a cruel competition. But
their world is Morgenstern’s most vivid creation, a
fantastical circus featuring illusionists whose powers
transcend mere sleight of hand; like those performers, the
author entices her audience to suspend disbelief and rewards
its members with captivating pleasure.”
"Morgenstern's exquisitely realized world will have the
reader wishing to run off and join this circus."
"Morgenstern’s Circus is the stuff that dreams are
made of, and nothing short of a wild ride."
"[A] few pages into this story of a mysterious circus and
its two stars, a young man and a woman who are both capable of
real magic, and you know you are in the presence of an
extraordinary storyteller."
“Morgenstern’s novel feels crafted from the
fabric of a dream, and the circus itself never fails to
astound. For me, the only real disappointment was that I
couldn’t buy a ticket.”
"[T]he world of The Night Circus is elaborately designed,
fantastically imagined and instantly intoxicating -- as if the
reader had downed a glass of absinthe and leapt into a
hallucination."
"Two star-crossed magicians, Celia and Marco, duel for
supremacy against the backdrop of a big top unlike any other.
Morgenstern conjures up a world of dark enchantment and romance
in this dazzling foray into the dreamscape of illusion."
"A beguiling, gripping read...Ms. Morgenstern has
crafted a thrilling and transporting tale. In so doing she
makes it clear that of all the shapes magic may take,
storytelling is often the most powerful of them all."
"Debut author Morgenstern doesn't miss a beat in this
smashing tale of greed, fate, and love...a giant, magical story
destined for bestsellerdom. This is an electric debut on par
with
Special Topics in Calamity Physics."
“To enter the black-and-white-striped tents of Le
Cirque des Rêves is to enter a world where objects really
do turn into birds and people really do disappear…Debut
novelist Morgenstern has written a 19th-century flight of fancy
that is, nevertheless, completely believable. The smells,
textures, sounds, and sights are almost palpable. A literary
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, this read is completely
magical.”
"This big and compelling first novel ushers in a
menacing tone with its first sentence: "The circus arrives
without warning."...With appeal for readers not particularly
geared to fantasy but who plainly enjoy an unusual and
well-drawn story, this one will make a good crossover
suggestion."
"
The Night Circus is a very atmospheric tale in which
things are seen in the half-light of another century's lamps.
Morgenstern makes much of these shadows. She also clearly
savors objects such as unusual clocks, vanishing rings, flaming
cauldrons and strange carousels, and will make you savor them
as well."
"Puts me in mind of Ray Bradbury's
Something Wicked This Way Comes lightened up by
Harry Potter. This will be big."
"This dueling-sorcerers premise brings to mind Susanna
Clarke's magnificent 2004 novel,
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell...[Morgenstern]
employs her supple prose to conjure up a series of wonders: A
maze made of clouds, a ship of books floating on a sea of ink,
a tent that seems to contain a vast desert."
"Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus is a
standout. With echoes of Alice Hoffman (fairy tale magic),
Audrey Niffenegger (teleporting) and J.K. Rowling (young
wizards, here magicians), Morgenstern's debut is lifted by its
poetic writing, winking literary allusions and thematic
cohesion."
"Erin Morgenstern has crafted a debut that is original and
surprising and fitted it with a wonderful conclusion. She's
revealed herself as a writer worthy of notice."
"If the preamble -- so aptly titled 'Anticipation' --
doesn't make you sit right down on the floor of your library
or bookstore to see what Morgenstern conjures up next, you
may not be the right reader for this novel. I'll wager,
however, that you will fall quickly under her spell."
"So should you read Erin Morgenstern's debut novel,
The Night Circus? The short answer: 'Yes.' The Book is
engaging and magical, entrancing the reader every step of the
way."
"The circus is a veritable cornucopia of sights and
sounds and appetizing scents. It is a fantasia, a fairy tale
writ large and come to life."
"The Night Circus *succeeds on a grand scale...Morgenstern's
lush descriptions are magnetic, as if conjured by spell. The
joy of reading this book is its offer of pure escapism."
Amazon.com Review
Review
-- Audrey Niffenegger, author of *The Time
Traveler’s Wife*
--Ron Charles, *The Washington Post*
*--The Boston Globe
--Newsday
--
People magazine
--USA Today
--
Elle magazine
"Magical. Enchanting. Spellbinding. Mesmerizing."
--Associated Press
*--The Daily Beast
--The Christian Science Monitor
--Rachel Syme for NPR.org
--
Family Circle
*--The Economist
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
*
"Self-assured, entertaining debut that blends genres and
crosses continents in quest of magic… Generous in its
vision and fun to read. Likely to be a big book—and,
soon, a big movie, with all the franchise trimmings."
—Kirkus* Reviews, starred review
—
Library Journal, starred review
--
Booklist, starred review
“‘Dark as soot and bright as sparks,’
The Night Circus still holds me willingly captive in a
world of almost unbearable beauty. This is a love story on a
grand scale: it creates, it destroys, it ultimately transcends.
Take a bow, Erin Morgenstern. This is one of the best books I
have ever read.”
—Brunonia Barry, author of
The Lace Reader
“A riveting debut. The Night Circus pulls
you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but
still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave
it.”
—Téa Obreht, author of *The Tiger’s Wife
"Every once in awhile you find a novel so magical that there is
no escaping its spell. The Night Circus
is one of these rarities -- engrossing, beautifully written
and utterly enchanting. If you choose to read just one novel
this year, this is it."
—
Danielle Trussoni, author of *Angelology
"Pure pleasure...Erin Morgenstern is a gifted, classic
storyteller, a tale-teller, a spinner of the charmed and
mesmerizing -- I had many other things I was supposed to be
doing, but the book kept drawing me back in and I tore through
it. You can be certain this riveting debut will create a
group of rêveurs all its own."
—Aimee Bender, author of *The Particular Sadness of Lemon
Cake
“
The Night Circus is a gorgeously imagined fable poised
in the high latitudes of Hans Christian Anderson and Oscar
Wilde, with a few degrees toward Hesse’s
“Steppenwolf” for dangerous spice. The tale is
masterfully written and invites allegorical interpretations
even as its leisurely but persistent suspense gives it
compelling charm. An enchanting read.”
—Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love
*--Los Angeles Times
--*Library Journal*
*--Salon.com
--The Kansas City Star*
*--The Denver Post
--Star Tribune
--Huffington Post
--Slant Magazine
--Nashville Scene