The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

“Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. The three great tables that ran the length of the hall were laid already, the silver and the glass catching what little light there was, and the long benches were pulled out ready for the guests. Portraits of former Masters hung high up in the gloom along the walls. Lyra reached the dais and looked back at the open kitchen door, and, seeing no one, stepped up beside the high table. The places here were laid with gold, not silver, and the fourteen seats were not oak benches but mahogany chairs with velvet cushions.

“Lyra stopped beside the Master’s chair and flicked the biggest glass gently with a fingernail. The sound rang clearly through the hall.

“‘You’re not taking this seriously,’ whispered her dæmon. ‘Behave yourself.’”

The opening lines of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, the first volume of the His Dark Materials trilogy.

The first four words of the story introduce one of the most important aspects of the novel, the existence of “daemons.” It will be many pages before we fully understand what a daemon is, but the odd word immediately sparks the reader’s curiosity and also signals that the world of this story will be something different from our own. A few lines down, we get our second important piece of information about them: whatever they are, daemons are conscious and capable of speech.

In retrospect, it will become clear that the construction “Lyra and her daemon” is almost as important, since the relationship of people to their daemons is the key to their nature and their significance in the story.

It also seems to me that the use of the first name with no last name suggests that Lyra is a child or adolescent (though maybe the real signal is the fact that the book is marketed as a Young Adult novel). And the references to a hall, the large tables, the portraits of the Masters, etc. all establish the institutional/educational setting while suggesting the possibility of a different time period from our own.

The story opens in mid-action, with Lyra sneaking along through the dining hall, and this narrative strategy is both engaging and characteristic, since this book’s story is relentless and enthralling. Within a page or so, Lyra will become privy to restricted knowledge, witness an attempted murder, and become swiftly caught up in the events that will drive this novel and the two that follow.

And yet, even still, there is the slightest touch of levity as well, as Lyra stops in her sneaking progress to ring the crystal goblet and her daemon (whatever it may be) fussily upbraids her. She is an outstanding example of that long line of curious, snooping children in literature.