Phillip Pullman published The Golden Compass, known as Northern Lights outside of North America, in 1995. The novel is the first book in what would become a trilogy entitled His Dark Materials, which also includes The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. Intelligent Life magazine described the trilogy as “a creation myth for the 21st century”. It deals with themes such as the creation of the world, the nature of the human soul and the fulfillment of destiny.
The trilogy’s first book found far greater success than its author could have hoped for. In 1995 The Golden Compass received the Carnegie Award for children’s literature. In 2003 it was voted as the third-most-loved book in the United Kingdom by the British Broadcasting Company’s “Big Read” program. Then, in 2007, The Golden Compass was voted as the single best Carnegie Award winner in the award’s history. The story has been adapted for theater, film and even as a video game, all to great success.
However, the book has also produced great controversy. Catholic organizations around the world have urged their members to boycott the stage and film adaptations and to forbid their children from reading the book. This is due to Pullman’s apparent criticisms of the Church. Pullman argues that what he actually criticizes is “cruelty, oppression, intolerance, unkindness, narrow-mindedness,” and that the Church is merely a foil to attack those harmful qualities.
The book opens with a quote from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. In an interview in Intelligent Life magazine, Pullman explains that The Golden Compass is really a retelling of Milton’s poem that expresses different values from the original. Pullman insists that he worked on the same themes as Milton from his own perspective, “and a long time ago the original writer of the book of Genesis had been working on the same story."
The Golden Compass has introduced millions of young readers to ideas of humanism, complex theoretical physics and the cruelty of some large political organizations. It enables readers to explore a fantasy world while remaining safely tethered to the reality around them.
