64 pages • 2 hours read
The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage
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Background
Series Context: His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust
La Belle Sauvage is the first volume in The Book of Dust trilogy and is a prequel to Pullman’s acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy. The first installment in His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (published under the title The Northern Lights in the United Kingdom), was published in 1995 and has since become one of the English language’s most celebrated fantasy series for young adults. It tells the story of the precocious 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua and her friend Will Parry as they journey through parallel worlds and fight against the oppressive Magisterium. The trilogy is a coming-of-age story that explores loss of innocence, the nature of consciousness, religious authority, and the power of love.
Both The Book of Dust trilogy and the His Dark Materials trilogy feature a unique, alternate reality home to the main characters. In this version of the reader’s world, all people have dæmons, an outward expression of one’s soul in the form of an animal. Dæmons, with few exceptions, are the opposite gender of their human companion. Dæmons, being an extension of the self, can speak and feel, and their senses are aligned with that of their human. When one is a child, their dæmon can shapeshift into any animal according to feeling or need. Once their human reaches maturity, however, dæmons settle into one form that most represents the core of who their person truly is.
Aside from the existence of dæmons, Pullman’s world is a parallel of modern-day reality. There are no cars, for example, but there are steampunk-style flying crafts and advanced, unique technologies. In His Dark Materials, Pullman also introduces the concept of alternate realities, and how the world of the reader is simply an alternate, one in the same, able to be accessed by magic. A core aspect of Pullman’s world is the existence of alethiometers, seemingly magical, truth-telling devices with a compass-like appearance. Alethiometers are highly coveted, ancient devices, and few understand how they work and how to read them. Possession and understanding of an alethiometer allows one to have complete knowledge of truth, equivalent to power in an oppressive world governed by religion.
La Belle Sauvage takes place 12 years before The Golden Compass begins and it introduces Lyra, the protagonist of His Dark Materials, as a six-month-old baby. The novel charts the development of the authoritarian Magisterium, which controls England throughout Lyra’s childhood, and introduces key plot points, such as the study of Dust and the use of the alethiometers. La Belle Sauvage also features prominent characters from His Dark Materials, such as Coram van Texel, Lord Asriel, and Mrs. Coulter. It explains how Lyra arrives at Jordan College, where she spends her childhood and resides when The Golden Compass begins.The Book of Dust trilogy continues with The Secret Commonwealth, published in 2019, which takes place after the events outlined in His Dark Materials, with Lyra as a 20-year-old undergraduate. The trilogy’s third and final installment has yet to be published.
Authorial Context: Philip Pullman’s Writing and Controversies
Sir Philip Pullman is an acclaimed English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, which has won numerous literary awards and been adapted for both film and television. Born in Norwich, England, in 1946, Pullman worked as a middle school teacher before quitting to become a full-time writer. His experience working with children greatly shaped his career, and he continues to lecture on creative education practices and the need for high-quality children’s literature.
Pullman is a self-proclaimed atheist, and organized religion is often painted as the antagonist in his writing. In both His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust, England is governed by a violent and authoritarian church known as the Magisterium. His Dark Materials is a loose retelling of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, with the fall of man and the induction of original sin repainted as a celebration of life and maturity. The series concludes with the apparent death of God and touches on many other sensitive subjects, such as violence and sexuality. Because of this subject matter, Pullman has often been considered a controversial figure, and his books have been included on many lists of banned books. In La Belle Sauvage, Pullman continues to critique organized religion. However, instead of speaking against specific religious ideas, the novel argues against any authoritarian system of government that doesn’t allow for diverging viewpoints or intellectual freedom.
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