- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday
- First Edition/First Printing edition September 13, 2011
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.
I put down Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern right away. Having both books in the forefront of my mind, the only comparison I can draw is they are both written in third person, and there's magic. Oh, and a train. So if you think you're getting a dose of dueling wizards battling it out to the death in the name of good against evil with bolts of electricity flaring from wands, you'll be sorely disappointed. The press is drawing the comparison for publicity and money. Let's all just admit there will never be another Harry Potter, and move on to embrace the new.
That's you, publishers and media!
Erin Morgentstern's The Night Circus is not the traditional circus you know. It's a beautifully imagined, intricately detailed, magical place that enchants all who enter. The circus is as much a character in the story--if not more so--than all the other characters combined. I never use to understand people saying they wished they could live in a certain favorite fictional world. Until now. I would SO run away with this circus, easily donning black with a splash of scarlet to become a reveur, giving up my predictable life to follow the Night Circus to all its exotic and romantic locales: Constantinople, London, Munich, Sydney, Paris, to name a few. Morgenstern was sure to involve all the senses when describing the circus. It's such a disappointment that it isn't real.
Two rival magicians--Prospero the Enchanter and a man known only as Mr A. H-- decide to throw down and have a contest to see who can produce the better student of magic. Chosen as children, Celia and Marco are kept separated, training their whole lives for the competition, but the rules are never explained.
One sorta major detail left out in their education is only one can survive. (The Night Circus is as similar to The Hunger Games as fried chicken is to beignets. Just saying.) The circus venue is announced and the competition begins, although no one knows anything about it save student and mentor.
There are cloud mazes in the air, a wishing tree, forests of sonnets. Practically everything is controlled by magic, but the beauty of it is it's real magic disguised to look believable. A person's grip on reality can be a fragile thing; it's best to leave others alone in their safe perceptions. Years pass as Celia and Marco keeping adding more and more magical entertainment, learning to respect and care for each others talent long before they meet. Once they do meet, their romance is slow to grow as both are aware it would complicate things if they collaborated on projects.
I enjoyed how Morgenstern occasionally used the very rare second person POV, putting readers directly into the story, experiencing the circus for themselves:
"You feel the warmth of breath on your neck, but when you turn no one is there."
Harry Potter feels like a wild, epic adventure whereas, to me, The Night Circus and its cast of characters is a controlled execution, proper and refined, just how the Victorians are often portrayed, and this absolutely fits the story.
“The silence that falls between them is a comfortable one. He longs to reach over and touch her, but he resists, fearful of destroying the delicate camaraderie they are building.”
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