La Belle Sauvage

    Well.

   I've just finished La Belle Sauvage and I'm exhausted - the suspense, the strain of 'hanging on' with our heroes 'til the end, the emotion of it ... It was almost all too much, but the book is terrific.

    I shall be sparing with the details so as not to spoil anything, but as you may well know by now, it is set around 10 years before His Dark Materials when Lyra is a baby. As her role in the new book, though crucial, is thus limited, the principal character this time is a young boy called Malcolm Polstead. If you've read Lyra's Oxford you'll have met the older Malcolm, but in this book he's "a bright boy with a canoe" who lives on the Thames at Godstow where his parents run The Trout Inn*. Malcolm's a steady lad with a sharp brain; quick to pick things up, helpful and willing, shrewd for his age. He's knacky and workmanlike, and tends more to the quietly plodding than the flashy, characteristics which stand both him and the plot in which he features in good stead.

    Across the river from the pub stands the priory whose nuns know Malcolm well. He pops over to do odd jobs for them, helps in the kitchen, and is thus privy to their news. When an infant is suddenly put in their care, Malcolm gives a hand and finds himself captivated by the child. His part in her immediate future will be central to her fate.

    Suffice to say that an adventure begins, and its tightly linked episodes follow one another like beads on a string until on the final page the cord is cut, and ...

    What more can I say? It's supremely inventive, of course, for Philip Pullman is a master storyteller, and the rhythm of his writing is absolutely sure, from sentence level up. He gives every phrase, paragraph, and scene such a clear beat that when he does draw a chapter to its close it requires a moment's pause for the necessary step-change from the reader, almost like the break between movements of a symphony, say. The pulse of the book will quicken or slow, and we must adjust along with it, but look out for the allegro con fuoco of the final pages, and the ending itself which couldn't be more perfect.

    And now we have to wait for volume two.

 

*Yes, there's a real one.

Comments

[Toffeeapple]

I have not started my copy yet, I want to save it for Christmas week when I shall be alone more than usual. But I have started on Nigel and am enjoying it greatly.

Thank you for your review, it has added a little to my expectations.

[Cornflower]

I hope La Belle Sauvage will be a Christmas treat for you, Toffeeapple. I found it quite gripping, and am keen to see how Philip Pullman resolves things in the next book or two.
Meanwhile, I am well on with Nigel, and like you, enjoying him greatly.

[Toffeeapple]

I am confident that it will be, Mr Pullman has never let me down yet.

[Fran H-B]

I missed His Dark Materials trilogy when first published as I was ending my days as a nanny so lost touch with YA fiction. Seeing all the hype about The Book of Dust led me to download the trilogy via Kindle. It proved timely as in recent weeks I have spent much of my time waiting in hospitals for my husband who has recently undergone surgery and plenty of follow up appointments. Usually not a great one for fantasy it has been perfect reading at this time. Planning a short break then on with book 2. La Belle Sauvage is definitely now on the hoped for C******* list of books.

[Katie]

Do I need to have read His Dark Materials trilogy to ‘get’ this book?

[Cornflower]

Best wishes to your husband for a full and speedy recovery, Fran.

[Cornflower]

That is a good question, Katie!
On the whole, I'd say no prior knowledge is necessary. Anyone who has read the trilogy will quickly get their bearings in La Belle Sauvage, but equally, new readers should find their way through Lyra's world and its peculiarities with ease. Philip Pullman is too good a storyteller to allow the reader to flounder from lack of familiarity with his concepts, though knowing the earlier books will certainly enrich the reading of this one.