#le cirque des reves

[virginiawoolfi]

le cirque des rêves (the circus of dreams), also known as the night circus, is the principal setting of erin morgenstern's novel of the same name.

[the-angry-acrobat]

Celia Bowen is such an amazing character omg. She’s intelligent, and mysterious, and hilariously funny. She’s theatrical. She has anger issues. She loves tea. She yearns. She’s full of love, and she’s full of trauma. She had a really tough childhood. She carries the anger of the women before her. She is constantly scared of breaking things and not being able to fix them. She’s tragic. She is both disaster and miracle. She’s powerful. She’s exhausted all the time. She is always trying to hold things together and lives with the fear of her world falling apart and losing the people she cares about and the people caught up in the game. She’s stubborn. She loves books. She’s lonely. She is hard to reach. She longs to be free. She suffers because of her parents and their own tragedies. She has a monster of a father. She isn’t used to being loved and doesn’t know what to do when she is loved. She cares so deeply about people. No one knows the extent of which she is trying to keep everything together. She suffers from heartbreak and from lack of sleep. She loves birds, especially doves and ravens. She’s always observing people. She’s always trying her hardest. She’s so complex and interesting. I love her so much <3

[faeriesandfables]

the night circus is so deliciously descriptive

[tsubasa-seiko]

He wonders if the poem of the circus could possibly be bottled~

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Adult

Rating: 5 out of 5

Trigger Warning: Child Abuse, Death, Suicide, Blood, Emotional Abuse, Death of a parent, sexual content

Summary:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

*Opinions*

The Night Circus is one of those books that I have heard about for years, but never really knew what it was about or if I would like it. Now that I have read it, I understand why people have a hard time describing this book to other people in a way that would capture the magic of this novel, no pun intended. As a former skeptic, I would urge anyone looking at the reviews to see if they want to read this book to do it. This was such an engaging book and truly wraps up all your senses as you are pulled into the magical world that is The Night Circus. 

After reading this novel, sitting here trying to describe it to someone without recapping the entire book would be difficult. It isn’t that the writing is difficult or complex, but the world of this novel is so fantastical and dream-like that much like the patrons of Le Cirque des Reves it is hard to capture it into words once you leave it. Even the way that the novel is set up, moving between time, space, and characters, was like walking through the circus and popping into a different tent to see what is happening behind the white and black striped flaps. Morgenstern brings the reader into the novel, not just with the small sections using the second person narration, but also the beautiful descriptions of the smells, textures, and even temperatures of the scenes that made everything so vivid in my mind. I am not usually the type of person that “sees pictures” when I read, but I knew exactly what everything looked like as if I was watching a movie. Tell stories in a way that matters, that touches other people, as the book points out, is a different type of magic. 

The magic system is never explained, which doesn’t bother me, but I can see it being a problem for other people. A lot of this novel is based on atmosphere that the magic creates instead of the inner workings of how that magic works. For me, the fact that Celia uses a more feeling based and internal magic versus Marco who uses a more academic and external based magic was enough of an explanation. I didn’t want to see behind the curtain in to how Celia made the Wishing Tree or Marco created the Ice Garden besides the small glimpses that the two magicians gave each other. I am fine with going on vibes and nothing else with a magic system, but I know that other people would want to dig in and get the specifics of how manipulation on such a large scale was managed. 

In fact, there are only two parts of the novel that bothered me, and both were around the romance. If you really really don’t want spoilers, stop now. Okay, so I hate that the first time that Celia and Marco are intimate is after the death of someone who is important to her. This is a trope that I am finding just doesn’t work for me, having sex for the first time before the big battle or while one or both of the characters are grieving. For me, it just cheapens the moment with the decision being driven by “life is short and I am scared of death” instead of “I am in love with you and want this for no other reason than I love you.” This is just a personal preference, but I hated it after all the beautiful moments at the 13th anniversary party and in the Illusionist tent. The second issue I had is that I wanted a more definitive ending for Marco and Celia. It is clear that they are bound forever to the circus, manipulating it however they wish, but I would have liked one scene in the second person narration where you think you see a couple walking arm and arm, but when you look over they have vanished. I wanted confirmation after the panic of saving the circus, Marco and Celia are together and happy forever. These are small complaints, which is why they stood out so much. 

Usually, I prefer character driven stories instead of plot driven stories, but even though we never got very close to the characters in this novel, I felt for all of them even if I wasn’t attached. When you get to the end of the story and it is framed as a story being told, that made this distance make more sense, but it didn’t bother me while reading it for the first time. I felt for Celia enduring her abusive father all those years and Marco during all of those years of isolation. I like the charismatic Chandresh Lefevre and felt sad for Tara and Herr Theissen, but it was all a step removed. Because of the atmosphere of this novel that wasn’t a detracting factor, but just something I realized while reading. I liked these characters and wanted them to be happy, but wasn’t so emotionally invested that I shed a tear throughout the novel. 

This book is magical to me and I can’t wait to get a copy for myself to return to this world again and again. I am about to buy a red scarf to join the ranks of the reveurs who follow the circus around, so to speak. This is also going to be my answer when people ask me “what fictional world would you want to visit?” I want to see the Ice Garden and get chocolate mice and watch magical acts that make no sense. While there are a few small issues that make this a 4.5 out of 5 stars for me, I have to round it up to a 5 because I just had such a great time reading it. 

[trashland-llamas]

Hedge Witch [webweave]

Fundy-centric webweave revolving around the events of the Red Banquet + a hodgepodge of 3 au's; The Night Circus, Arcana, & Mask of the Red Death made as a part of @mcyt-co-create

Sources;

Le Cirque Des Reves by Adam Sanford on Artstation

The Night Circus Clock by ScarletAlpha on Deviantart

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (pg. 247)

The Fall of the House of Usher Episode 8; The Raven

Extraordinary Tales

The Arcana, Julian's Route - Book 16 - The Tower

The Masque of Red Death, Art by Uka Nagao - Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe (Pg. 186-187)

The Arcana, Julian's Route - Book 6 - The Lovers

[embroideryobsession]

Introducing Le Cirque des Reves… The Circus of Dream from Mischka Aoki New FW22 Collection

[chiyuki-hiro]

Tsukiko - You may prefer to be solitary, but you will find joy in connection. Do not abandon yourself.

[thelastofthebookworms]

Poll 1/2

Other polls

[gabrielle-the-writer]

Title: The Night Circus Author: Erin Morgenstern Genre: Fantasy My Rating: 5/5

Erin Morgenstern weaves a captivating story in The Night Circus, in which two magicians engage in a lifelong duel. Trained from youth by their masters, they must continue the game even as they fall in love. Eventually, however, one of them must lose. But losing means dying and, even worse, destroying the entire structure of the game–The Night Circus–and the lives of their found family.

If I had stopped reading this book around page 100, I might have given it three stars. It had gorgeous imagery by an obviously talented writer, but I felt like nothing much had really happened. By the end, I was enthralled. The Night Circus isn’t a book so much as a beautiful, bittersweet dream. An enormous cast of characters enriched the story and raised the stakes. Most people think death is the worst thing that could happen, but Morgenstern convinces the reader that it’s the least of worries. To lose the game is to die, but it also means losing the love of your life and destroying the lives of hundreds of people that have become family. I started The Night Circus at the suggestion of a friend and emerged a different person.

“Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift. Your sister may be able to see the future, but you yourself can shape it, boy. Do not forget that… there are many kinds of magic, after all.”

[caitsbooks]

Goodreads  || Bookstagram || Twitter || Reviews

[confused-tofu]

Le Cirque des Rêves - Chapter 9

My fifth day at the circus, I wake in late afternoon. I barely slept after meeting the dreamer in the garden tent last night. Sighing deeply, I slide out of my bed and prepare to wash and dress.

When I enter the break room, as I usually do before the circus opens, the air feels different, like everyone is preparing for something. Everyone is mobile, pacing or shifting things on desks. Nico gives me a small wave and a large grin when I enter. Byron nods at me and Albert glares. I suppose that’s about the extent of their friendliness. Louis sits at the table, Sid chattering at him from where he leans against the tent wall, his arms crossed before him. Sid gives me a smirk, and Louis grits his teeth, eyes closed, looking for all the world as though he wished to be elsewhere.

Leo and Alyn stand towards the back of the tent, talking to each other heatedly but in hushed voices. I hear Alyn hiss “Don’t do it!” before he sees me and his scowl deepens. He stalks past me out of the tent.

“Don’t worry about him.” Leo rubs his face with his hands. I watch the tent flap flutter, waving as though in surrender.

“You best get ready, sweetness,” Sid says as he approaches me, throwing an arm around my shoulders. I wriggle a little.

Louis sighs. “Must you touch everything pure in the world?” he chides. Sid only grins.

“Well, yeah, it’s my job to make all those things impure,” he snickers.

“Is everything ready to go? We have four minutes until sundown.” Giles ducks into the tent, calling out to us. “Leo, do you need anything? Food, water? Where on earth is Alyn? Oh, never mind, he knows not to be outside tonight.”

I catch his sleeve as he moves, giving it a slight tug. “Um… ready for for what?” He holds my gaze for a moment, and then blinks.

“Yes, of course. We’re preparing to move the circus tonight. You mustn’t leave this tent until we’ve stopped, all right?” I nod, and he turns away. “Whenever you’re ready, Leo.”

Leo nods from his perch on a sofa. He closes his eyes, his fists tight on his knees, and he looks as though he is straining very hard. Beads of sweat form on his forehead and his breathing grows ragged.

A curious floating sensation overcomes me. It feels like the whole tent - no, the whole circus - is flying. I stare at the unmoving ground under my feet, trying to justify what I feel with what I see.

Suddenly, Leo exhales sharply, his whole body relaxing. Nico hops up from his perch and takes my elbow, leading me to the tent entrance.

“You can look now, Katja! Just don’t go outside,” he says, holding the flap for me.

Trees rush by in blurs of green. The night sky behind them is a canvas of stars. We aren’t flying, I realize - the tents have lined up and become a train. Some distance ahead of us, the train’s whistle blows. I find I am gaping.

Nico laughs, pulling me back inside. “Have you been on a train before?”

“Once, when I was very small. I don’t remember it well.” I look at Leo. He isn’t as strained as he was before, but he still looks as though he is exerting some effort. “Will he be all right?”

Nico follows my gaze. “Oh, he’ll be fine. This is his job, moving the circus. He picks our destinations and everything. Well, he’s also circus manager, but it doesn’t need much managing while it’s on the move, does it?” He sits back on the sofa, some distance away from Byron’s left, and I sit across from him.

“How did you join the circus, Nico?” I ask on a whim. He opens his mouth to reply when he is cut off.

“That’s an odd way to phrase that question.” Byron is watching me, too.

“Oh… is it?” I say, my brows knit slightly.

Byron only narrows his eye. “It’s nothing.”

“We joined cause Byron did. Me and Al, I mean,” Nico says with a big grin. “We can’t do magic without being near him, so we have to stick together. Well, Al can sort of do some magic without Byron, but I’m really bad at it.” I perk up.

“So you two are like me? You have to siphon your magic?” He nods brightly. Albert clears his throat.

“What tents have you found to your liking, Miss Katja?” Albert asks. Nico looks at me, excitement in his eyes.

“Yeah, what’s your favorite tent, Katja? There’s this one tent that Louis made that’s a whole forest made of ice! I tried to lick a tree to see if my tongue stuck to it but it didn’t. Isn’t that amazing?” Albert gives him a look. “Oh, but what’s your favorite?”

Smiling, I am about to answer when I falter. My favorite tent… Somehow only one out of the dozens I have visited comes to mind.

“The tent with the garden,” I say. I look at them both and continue. “The flower garden, with all the critters made of flowers. Do you… know who made it?”

Nico stares blankly at me. Albert adjusts his spectacles and pulls a small notebook from his jacket pocket, flipping through it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that tent,” Nico says. Albert closes his book with a snap and looks at me.

“I don’t have a record of that tent. Are you sure you weren’t dreaming, Miss Katja?”

I blink. “A dreamer… Yes, I… must have been dreaming…”

Some hours later, Byron sits beside me, well away from the others. “Why did you ask that?” he asks, his eye searching.

“What do you mean?” He squints.

“Wouldn’t one normally ask ‘why did you join the circus?’”

“Oh, I suppose that’s true.” He holds my gaze, silently asking for an answer. “I guess I don’t really care about the reason why. I mean, not that I don’t care, but… well…”

“What we are running from doesn’t matter to you as much as what brings us together.” I look at him, surprised. He doesn’t move, understanding in his eye.

“Yes.”

The corners of his mouth twitch upwards. His smile is fleeting, but it’s there.

“That’s a very profound thought, Miss Katja,” he says as he rises and gives me a gentle bow. I return his smile and bow my head, and he turns away with a swish of his cape.

[the-angry-acrobat]

[thelastofthebookworms]

Quotes from The Night Circus :

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

Strange, isn’t it? To love a book. When the words on the pages become so precious that they feel like part of your own history because they are. It’s nice to finally have someone read stories I know so intimately.

'Be brave,’ she says. ‘Be bold. Be loud. Never change for anyone but yourself. Any soul worth their star-stuff will take the whole package as is and however it grows. Don’t waste your time on anyone who doesn’t believe you when you tell them how you feel.'

 "But I remember the people who look at me the way you do." "What way might that be?" "As though they cannot decide if they are afraid of me or they want to kiss me." " I am not afraid of you," Marco says.

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 27 Group 135

Propaganda and further images under the cut

Night Circus' Performers: Celia Bowen, Tsukiko, Isobel Martin, Marco Alisdair, Poppet & Widget Murray, Lainie and Tara Burgess, Marco Alisdair

Lockwood & Co.: Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle, George Careem (& Quill Kiops, Holly Munro, Flo Bones)

Submissions are still open!

Night Circus' Performers:

Sorry, I got no propaganda for them yet :(

Lockwood & Co.:

They are so witty and funny while being incredibly loving and tender with each other!

they are the best because they have all of the tropes the comfort the angst the hurt the drama and the love of a found family and they just AJSHHDHSGSGSHSHSHSJHA yeah.

They're traumatized teenagers who hunt ghosts and randomly proclaim they would die for each other! What could be better?

[cindersmagazine]

Le Cirque Des Reves

Books can have an incredible impact on our lives, for Amy Clarkin @erinmorgenstern‘s The Night Circus was a true revelation that took her out of a tough time and helped her to dream once again.

Read Amy’s moving piece in our latest issue on pg.32  X

[hittintheroad]

The Night Circus Dreamcast

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.” Erin Morgenstern

Celia Bowen - Lily James Marco Alisdair - Douglas Booth Hector Bowen - Jeremy Piven Alexander A.H. - Liam Neeson Isobel Martin - Lily Colins Chandresh Christophe Lefevre - Irrfan Khan Tsukiko - Rinko Kikuchi Ethan Barris - Hugh Bonneville Widget Murray - Cameron Monaghan Poppet Murray - Georgie Henley Bailey Clarke - Chris O’Neal Madame Padva - Hellen Mirren Tara Burgess - Keira Knightley Lianie Burgess - Natalie Portman Herr Friedrick Thiessen - Christoph Waltz