The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials by…

The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials (original 1995; edition 2001)

by Philip Pullman (Author)

Series: His Dark Materials (1)

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Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

The Golden Compass

Original title

Northern Lights

Alternative titles

The Golden Compass (US title)

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

His Dark Materials (2019 | IMDb)

Epigraph

Into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, not shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the almighty maker them ordain,
His dark materials to create more worlds,
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while,
Pondering his voyage...

— John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II

Dedication

First words

Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.

Quotations

We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not...or die of despair.

...this was in the seventeenth century. Symbols and emblems were everywhere. Buildings and pictures were designed to be read like books. Everything stood for something else.; if you had the right dictionary you could read Nature itself.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Originally published as Northern lights in the UK and in the USA as The golden compass (from a title submitted to the publisher). Translations into other languages have used both, including Het noorderlicht (Dutch), La bussola d'oro (Italian) and Der goldene Kompass (German).

This is the record for the unabridged book and associated unabridged audio-books. Other versions, including abridgements, the BBC radio drama (2003), the movie (2007), the TV series (2019), each have their own records. Please distinguish between them.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC