Perhaps this is an embarrassing thing for a reader to admit, but I often choose books based more on their cover illustrations than on the back cover blurb. This is a fairly hit-and-miss approach to books, but in the case of The Night Circus, it was an absolutely inspired choice.
Against a black cover dotted with white stars, the figures of a man and a woman walk away from each other, looking back over their shoulders. There is a black and white circus tent behind them. The man is tipping his bowler hat to the woman, whose red scarf – the only flash of colour on the cover – is trailing behind her, snaking almost seductively towards the young man. Although the figures have no features, the image suggests incredible longing; desire; a connection that has flared between two people without them really understanding how such a thing could have happened.
And so it is for Marco and Celia, the leading man and woman in this breathtaking, playful, dark and delicious novel. The two are inextricably bound by a strange magical jousting contest between two old illusionists.
The two older men are real magicians – they are able to bend form and time to their will, and the “tricks” they perform are real. Their art, their illusion, is to convince audiences that they are merely brilliant at sleight-of-hand – that everything their awestruck audiences see has a logical explanation. Celia possesses natural magical ability, too; Marco has to undergo years of intensive training to learn the craft. The two are pawns in a game they cannot understand – their job, individually, to prove that their skills (and, by association, those of their masters) are superior.
The scene for their magical battle is the Night Circus of the title.
The circus is actually the central character in this story; a living, breathing thing whose attractions are determined by the whims of Marco and Celia – the two create new tents, filling them with magical wonders, in a bid to outshine the other. Celia has no idea who her opponent is; to her mind, Marco is merely the quiet assistant to the man who first conceived the idea of a night circus.
Marco knows full well that Celia is the woman he must defeat to emerge victorious in a game that seemingly has no end – and no rules.
Morgenstern has created an astonishing cast of characters, who are all drawn together by the circus. Central to the circus are its devoted fans, nicknamed “rêveurs”.
The circus is more properly known as “Le Cirque des Rêves” – the Circus of Dreams.
So, the people who follow it around the world, chasing hints and rumours (the circus doesn’t advertise, arriving in towns and cities around the world as if by, well, magic, and setting up in empty fields overnight), are dreamers. They wear small splashes of red to distinguish themselves from other visitors – red scarves, or roses tucked into their buttonholes.
They form a community of dreamers, people who believe powerfully in the magic and escape that the circus provides.
Any circus needs performers, and of course they are a strange and wonderful bunch.
But ultimately, they are puppets, strung along in a high-stakes game between Marco and Celia – a situation which invariably leads to tragedy.
And, of course, the inevitable happens: the game becomes even more complicated when the attractive young circus illusionist, Celia, and the attractive young assistant, Marco, begin to move inextricably towards each other – drawn in not by magic but by desire.
I devoured this book.
Erin Morgenstern has created an astonishingly rich fantasy world that wavers between humdrum reality and something far more primal and magical.
The Night Circus is absolutely essential reading – and the cover art is pretty fantastic, too. - The Argus