From Our Editors
The questions, discussion topics, and author information that
follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of The
Golden Compass. We hope that this guide will help you to
navigate - alongside the story's young protagonist, Lyra Belacqua -
Philip Pullman's richly imagined universe, populated by armored
bears, gyptians, witches, and human beings, whose dæmons are never
far from their side.
Dæmons are one of the most striking, charming, and powerful images
in The Golden Compass. These spirit-creatures,
which seem like physical representations of the human soul, can
change form to reflect the myriad of emotional states their humans
go through as children. But in adulthood, each dæmon settles into
the animal form that best reflects the inner nature of its human
counterpart. It is in this unusual and imaginative creation that
Pullman turns his sharpest mirror back onto his readers, helping us
to imagine our own souls as precious, living extensions of
ourselves that we can love, challenge, or even betray.
The Golden Compass is a complex story that turns
on a simple word: "Dust." This Dust does not gather in the unswept
corners of Jordan College, Lyra's Oxford home. Rather, this Dust
seems to reveal - or perhaps contain - the thing that makes each
human being a unique creature. The concept of Dust provokes fear in
some; others realize that mastery over Dust could be the source of
great power. Although she does not quite realize it, Lyra - along
with her dæmon Pantalaimon - finds her life inextricably entangled
with the exploration of Dust. And as her understanding of Dust and
her mastery over a mysterious tool called the alethiometer
increases, the dangerous journey that she seems destined to make
takes some astounding twists and turns.
From the Publisher
When Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon decide to spy on a
presentation her uncle, the commanding Lord Asriel, is making to
the elders of Jordan College they have no idea that they will
become witnesses to an attempted murder--and even less that they
are taking the first steps in a journey that will lead them into
danger and adventure unlike anything Lyra''s unfettered imagination
has conjured up.
Though she has been reised at the college in an atmosphere of
benign neglect that has allowed her to become a half-wild child of
the streets, Lyra soon finds herself apprenticed to the elegant
Mrs. Coulter--and in possession of a strange device called the
alethiometer, a "golden compass" that reads not true worth, but
truth itself.
But truth is a precious commodity, and before long Lyra and Pan are
running for their lives, the object of an obsessive hunt by
mysterious forces who have been stealing children for dark purposes
that no one understands. Lyra will need all her street-learned
wiles if she and Pan are to survive.
An international sensation from the moment it was published,
The Golden Compass comes to spectacular new life in this
unabridged recording, narrated by Philip Pullman himself, with the
support of some of the finest actors of the London stage.
From the Jacket
When Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon decide to spy on a
presentation her uncle, the commanding Lord Asriel, is making to
the elders of Jordan College they have no idea that they will
become witnesses to an attempted murder--and even less that they
are taking the first steps in a journey that will lead them into
danger and adventure unlike anything Lyra''s unfettered imagination
has conjured up.
Though she has been reised at the college in an atmosphere of
benign neglect that has allowed her to become a half-wild child of
the streets, Lyra soon finds herself apprenticed to the elegant
Mrs. Coulter--and in possession of a strange device called the
alethiometer, a "golden compass" that reads not true worth, but
truth itself.
But truth is a precious commodity, and before long Lyra and Pan are
running for their lives, the object of an obsessive hunt by
mysterious forces who have been stealing children for dark purposes
that no one understands. Lyra will need all her street-learned
wiles if she and Pan are to survive.
An international sensation from the moment it was published, "The
Golden Compass comes to spectacular new life in this unabridged
recording, narrated by Philip Pullman himself, with the support of
some of the finest actors of the London stage.
About the Author
The author of numerous books for young readers, including the popular Sally Lockhart trilogy, Philip Pullman lives in Oxford, England. A graduate of Oxford University and former teacher at Westminster College, he has also written a number of plays, novels and picture books.
Bookclub Guide
The questions, discussion topics, and author information that
follow are intended to enhance your group''s reading of The
Golden Compass. We hope that this guide will help you to
navigate - alongside the story''s young protagonist, Lyra Belacqua
- Philip Pullman''s richly imagined universe, populated by armored
bears, gyptians, witches, and human beings, whose dæmons are never
far from their side.
Dæmons are one of the most striking, charming, and powerful images
in The Golden Compass. These spirit-creatures,
which seem like physical representations of the human soul, can
change form to reflect the myriad of emotional states their humans
go through as children. But in adulthood, each dæmon settles into
the animal form that best reflects the inner nature of its human
counterpart. It is in this unusual and imaginative creation that
Pullman turns his sharpest mirror back onto his readers, helping us
to imagine our own souls as precious, living extensions of
ourselves that we can love, challenge, or even betray.
The Golden Compass is a complex story that turns
on a simple word: "Dust." This Dust does not gather in the unswept
corners of Jordan College, Lyra''s Oxford home. Rather, this Dust
seems to reveal - or perhaps contain - the thing that makes each
human being a unique creature. The concept of Dust provokes fear in
some; others realize that mastery over Dust could be the source of
great power. Although she does not quite realize it, Lyra - along
with her dæmon Pantalaimon - finds her life inextricably entangled
with the exploration of Dust. And as her understanding of Dust and
her mastery over a mysterious tool called the alethiometer
increases, the dangerous journey that she seems destined to make
takes some astounding twists and turns.
The author of numerous books for young readers, including the
popular Sally Lockhart trilogy, Philip Pullman lives in Oxford,
England. A graduate of Oxford University and former teacher at
Westminster College, he has also written a number of plays, novels
and picture books.
Audio Book (Cassette)
4.18 x 6.1 x 2.6 IN
October 5, 1999
Random House Audio Publishing Group
English
0807281808
9780807281802