The Book Everyone Wanted to Duplicate But Nobody Could

I remember reading an interview or an essay by Erin Morgenstern about her journey to find an agent for The Night Circus. It might have been sent as a long-gone NaNoWriMo email, but you can find an account here. The point is that this book that became such a sensation almost didn’t get published, and I would bet money that the success of The Night Circus took Morgenstern completely by surprise. It came at just the right time, when there weren’t a lot of titles like it but the hunger for an adult fantasy novel that melded the familiar, accessible magic of the circus with the unreachable magic of the magician, alongside star-crossed lovers on a collision course, was vast.

We’ve got irresistible ingredients sandwiched between that unforgettable cover: Victorian-era finery, dueling magicians, trains, and a circus as ephemeral as its name. Le Cirque des Rêves is home to Celia and Marco, protégés of two great and dueling magicians. They’re embroiled in a power struggle, a game that sets them against each other and might even imperil them. I found the goings on, the trappings, and the cast of the circus so captivating. Morgenstern’s descriptions of this dreamy and unpredictable attraction were exclusive tickets into the place. It felt so real and I wanted so badly to climb through the book into those breathtaking spaces. Celia and Marco’s story would entice any romantic but, for me, it was everything happening on the sidelines and around them that turned this into a rich and unique tale.

Now that I’m revisiting this book, I can’t believe an adaptation never came to fruition, and I wonder how the story would be changed for today’s audience. Appetites have shifted toward darker fantasy, but this was and is just the right temperature for me.