The circus isn’t what it once was. Its image has been tarnished, and the magic is gone. We have seen more than the people who lived in a time when the circus was the best chance to see something truly unusual. We have also learned more of its excesses and failings. We know how the animals and often the people were, and sometimes still are, treated, we know how the tricks were done, and even if you discount that there are far more sources of entertainment than there once were.

“The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern returns some of that magic to the circus. It does this by having an unexplained magic system, strange people, and more focus on setting and theme than plot.

The Plot of The Night Circus

Set early in the last century, “The Night Circus” tells the story of a young man and a young woman who are put into a contest of magic. Each is raised by a wizard who trains them to use magic entirely differently. The young woman is talented and learns her magic instinctively while the young man is likely smarter or at least better educated but less talented, learning his magic from books and using tools to accomplish what the young woman does without them.

The two are raised knowing that they will be in conflict but the nature of that conflict or even the person who they are to be working against is not told to them except that it will play out in The Night Circus a place of magic that is constantly growing as each of them adds more piece to the game.

Eventually they discover who their opponent is and while they must continue to work against the other they fall in love. They try to end the game but soon discover that they are bound to it and any attempt to leave causes them great pain. So they attempt to convince their mentors to allow them to end the game. It is then that they discover the game can only end when one of them can not go on any longer.

I will leave the exact nature of the end of the game to the book. Suffice to say that it does not end in how it was originally intended, but it isn’t an entirely happy ending either. It is instead more magical than either a happy or sad ending. Not exactly melancholy but more bittersweet as people get what they want but have to give up a great deal to get it.

The Characters of The Night Circus

The plot of The Night Circus while fine is really more a way to explore the characters. Even the contest that is the center of the plot is really about exploring the character of Celia and Marco the two contestants in the game and while they are exploring magic, it is clear that it is the way they live their lives that is truly under exploration more than their magic.

Propero and Mr. A.H.

Taking the parts of both antagonist and mentor in the story, these two are both quite similar and quite different. They are magicians of great age who have been having these games between each other, likely for centuries. Both are driven and powerful and both believe that their method is the correct one.

To Propero magic is instinctual and an art. He travels as a magician and uses real magic where most magicians use sleight of hand. He discovers early in the story he has a daughter, Celia, and on seeing her strength he decided that is time for another game.

He pushes his daughter to learn to become a master of magic. Some of that pushing is abusive as he cuts her fingers to make her learn to heal them. He seems to believe that things can only truly be learned through direct experience and so ensures she experiences much.

Mr. A.H. When challenged goes to an orphanage and adopts Marco. He locks him away from the world, teaching him from books with rare trips to the museum where he can learn more. He allows him no friends and very few experiences and while it may seem cold and distant, he isn’t as much of either as it may seem.

Marco and Celia

Created as examinations of the two styles of learning they take their places in the story as much as symbols of those styles as people. Celia is an illusionist working in the circus and interacting each day directly with the people who visit it and who are in it. Her influence on the circus which is their battleground is through those relationships.

Marco is never truly part of the circus the way Celia is. He manages it from afar, influencing it in ways that might seem bigger but are not. Among other things, he slows the aging of everyone in the circus so that the contest may continue.

The most important thing about these is that both are equally matched. The question of instinct vr. book learning, of art vr. science and emotion vr. logic isn’t one that can actually be solved in part because they aren’t as opposed as they might at first seem.

Bailey, Poppet and Widget

The second group of important characters are Bailey Poppet and Widget. Bailey is important because he is outside of the story but torn between the same things personally as Marco and Celia are separately. He is a farmer who has been given the chance to go to college and doesn’t know which to do and it is his ability to ignore both options and choose a third that makes him remarkable even though he is not all that remarkable outside of that.

Poppet and Widget are the heart of the circus. While the rest of the people are performers, they are the only children. They grow up among the tents and have magic of their own thanks to being caught in the conflict of the two wizards. They eventually find Bailey and convince him to join the circus which leads to the way out.

The Best of The Night Circus

This entire book is a metaphor about the way people live their lives. Perhaps it could be called introvert and extrovert or intellectual and salt of the earth. It put the idea that you have to experience things for yourself against the idea that the best way to learn is from the experience of others, and it makes the claim that everyone is wrong. That choosing a single path is to limit yourself to conflict in the world or in yourself forever. That the only correct choice is to merge the two together, to both live life in the thick of it and to experience the greater world through the eyes and words of others.

What I liked Less about The Night Circus

Because this is more an exploration of ideas than it is a story, it sometimes got muddy. The exact nature of the conflict is hidden through much of the book and even when it is explained it seems to exist because they have decided it exists. That fits well with the metaphor, but it fits less well in the structure of a story. Beyond that the story is told in small vignettes skipping from place to place and I sometimes felt lost. Again, that fit with the feeling of the story in some ways which evokes the feeling of wandering a circus but isn’t the reading experience I seek. But while there are bits and places that I don’t love overall, this is an excellent book.

Conclusion

The Night Circus is more an experience than almost any book I have ever read. In many places, it genuinely felt like you were visiting the circus. That said, because the style of the book is so pronounced I noticed it far more than in most books. This meant that far more often than I prefer, I was distracted from the story and the character by the prose. This may not be a big deal for most people, but one reason I read is to be drawn in, that made this book a conflict for me. The ability to create a feeling and a place is impressive and does what I love, but sometimes that same ability distracted me from itself. I think that many of those minor flaws would fall away in a second reading and I would encourage anyone to read The Night Circus because while it may not be exactly what I look for in a book it is an experience in book form and I think that was exactly what it wanted to be.