The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
Contents
Fire and Light
Overview
A visitor enters Le Cirque des Reves and takes in an inviting central courtyard alive with vendors, performers, and winding paths into further mysteries. The scene’s centerpiece is an ornate iron cauldron holding a bonfire whose fuel cannot be identified. The flames burn an unnatural white, emphasizing the circus’s otherworldly magic and setting its tone of wonder and unease.
Summary
The chapter presents the circus from a visitor’s perspective as the reader steps into a bright, open courtyard ringed by striped tents, with curving paths leading outward into unknown attractions lit by twinkling lights.
Vendors weave through the crowd selling refreshments and strange confections scented with vanilla, honey, chocolate, and cinnamon. Nearby, a contortionist in a sparkling black costume performs impossible bends while a juggler sends black, white, and silver globes high enough to appear suspended before dropping neatly back into his hands, drawing applause.
Everything is illuminated by a bonfire set in the courtyard’s center. As the reader approaches, the fire is revealed to burn inside an elaborate black iron cauldron on clawed feet, its rim stretched into curling, cage-like iron that obscures what is fueling the flames. The fire itself is uncanny: the flames are not orange or yellow but white as snow.
Who Appears
- The visitor ("you")Observer entering the circus courtyard and witnessing its sights and central bonfire.
- ContortionistPerformer twisting into impossible shapes on a nearby platform.
- JugglerPerformer juggling black, white, and silver globes that seem to hover.
- VendorsCrowd-moving sellers of refreshments and odd, sweet-smelling creations.