Beyond His Dark Materials - by Susan Redington Bobby (Paperback)

About the Book

Beyond the His Dark Materials series lies a vast fictional realm populated by the many diverse character creations of Philip Pullman. During a more than 30-year career, Pullman has created worlds filled with quests, trials, tragedies and triumphs, and this book explores those worlds. The picture books, novellas and novels written for children, adolescents and adults are analyzed through the themes of innocence and experience. The journeys Pullman sets his characters on teach them that one must embrace change, loss and suffering to grow in wisdom and grace.

Book Synopsis

Beyond the His Dark Materials series lies a vast fictional realm populated by the many diverse character creations of Philip Pullman. During a more than 30-year career, Pullman has created worlds filled with quests, trials, tragedies and triumphs, and this book explores those worlds. The picture books, novellas and novels written for children, adolescents and adults are analyzed through the themes of innocence and experience. The journeys Pullman sets his characters on teach them that one must embrace change, loss and suffering to grow in wisdom and grace.

Review Quotes

"Invites scholarly consideration of Pullman's lesser-known fictions, long overshadowed by the His Dark Materials series...ambitious...thorough and engaging...upon finishing this book, the reader will have a complete picture of Pullman's oeuvre, his characters, his plot trajectories, and his themes."-Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts; "With more than a nod to William Blake, this book is divided into two sections: the first, Stories of Innocence, examines those of Pullman's stories, especially reimagined fairy tales, which deal with more innocent characters and are written for youthful audiences; the second, Stories of Experience, deals with those stories in which the characters face difficulties and deeper sufferings, and is especially focused on novels and retellings of biblical stories."-Reference & Research Book News

About the Author

Susan Redington Bobby is an associate professor of English at Wesley College. She is the editor of Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings (McFarland, 2009), the author of Beyond His Dark Materials: Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman (McFarland 2012), and the author of a critical essay in the His Dark Materials Casebook (Palgrave 2014).