The Golden Compass: Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition (His Dark Materials #01)

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A gorgeous new edition of a gripping book that's officially for children but adored by adult readers as well. New "document" additions to this edition include letters from Lord Asriel.
Recommended by Robin, Powell's City of Books

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thomasn528, November 27, 2007 (view all comments by thomasn528)
Pullman's books have subject to some angry scrutiny by some Christian and other believers, and this is intended to provide an alternative point of view.

Pullman's "Dark Materials" series is, it's true, in part an attack on _organized_ religion -- on the worldly power it wields when it takes a bureaucratized, theocratized, Catholic Church-like form. True, Pullman goes further, arguing essentially that if such organized religions are truly representative of God... well, then there's a problem with God, too.

But much more importantly, the series is a discussion of the consequences of an obsessive focus on eternal life after death rather than on a productive life before it. And they are a discussion of what it means to grow up and understand that. Indeed, Pullman is more ally than antagonist to Christians (and other believers) in one very important way: he doesn't dispute the notion of a "soul" -- rather, he extends and elaborates on it with the daemons accompanying humans in the alternate universe he describes.

But for those who believe the books are necessarily an "attack on Christianity," there's arguably an even more important point about Pullman's books: there is no mention whatsoever of Jesus in any of his discussions of either the Church or its ethereal counterpart, the Authority. Indeed (or instead), the chief protagonists Lyra and Will play a Christ-like role when they make a great but utterly necessary sacrifice at the end of "Amber Spyglass" -- moreover, after essentially "harrowing" Hell, admittedly with a decidedly different goal in mind than Jesus had in the New Testament.

To me, Pullman's books are ultimately not so much an attack on religion as an alternative vision of spirituality: sentience and mature purpose are the great goods of the universe, to be cherished, husbanded, and multiplied. That, it seems to me, is not such an awful vision for a Christian -- even for a conservative Christian -- to contemplate.

Pullman himself has called his books an attempt to kill God, and God's death is indeed ultimately part of the story -- though a strangely lesser part than one might think. But if your faith in God is unshaken by evil in the real world, it ought to be unshaken by a fantasy trilogy as well. Meanwhile, readers of all faiths (or lacks thereof) would do themselves out of a singular feat of the imagination and a powerful challenge to their beliefs about "children's books" -- if nothing else -- if they don't give these books a fair chance.

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Melissa Kinsey, November 28, 2006 (view all comments by Melissa Kinsey)
I read this book after reading an article in the NYer about Philip Pullman, in which he said that good literature has the responsibility of teaching morals in the context of an engaging story. He lambasted writers who shy away from the big questions as well as those whose stories are not compelling, Tolkien being guilty of the first and C.S. Lewis the second. I wanted to see how he measured up to his own standards. Not a fan of science fiction, I nevertheless devoured not only The Golden Compass but the other two books in this trilogy: The Amber Spyglass and The Subtle Knife. Great stories all, and straight from, as Pullman calls it "the literary school of morals."

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780375838309

Author:

Pullman, Philip

Publisher:

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Subject:

Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic

Subject:

Fantasy

Subject:

Action & Adventure - General

Subject:

Fantasy & Magic

Subject:

Children s-Science Fiction and Fantasy

Edition Description:

Deluxe Tenth An Hardcover

Series:

His Dark Materials

Series Volume:

01

Publication Date:

20061031

Binding:

HARDCOVER

Grade Level:

from 7

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Y

Pages:

432

Dimensions:

9.28x6.34x1.36 in. 1.47 lbs.

Age Level:

12-17