Twilight (novel series)
| File:Twilight Boxed Set.jpg | |
| Author | Stephenie Meyer |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Romance/Horror/Fantasy/Young Adult |
| Publisher | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Twilight is a series of vampire-based fantasy/romance/horror novels by American author Stephenie Meyer. It follows the adventures of Isabella Swan, a teenager who moves to Forks, Washington and finds her life turned upside down when she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen.
The series is told primarily from Bella's point of view, with the epilogue of Eclipse and a portion of Breaking Dawn being told from the viewpoint of Jacob Black. Midnight Sun, a future companion book to the series, will be told from Edward Cullen's point of view.
The series are currently some of the most popular books written for young adults, with around 8 million copies sold worldwide [1] [2] [3] and over 7.7 million copies sold in the U.S. alone. [4] The series has been translated into over 20 different languages around the world.[5]
Plot
Isabella (Bella) Swan moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to allow her mother, Renée, to travel with her new husband, Phil. After moving to Forks, Bella becomes a whiny bitch and complains about everything that moves. She then meets a "mysterious", "handsome" boy, Edward Cullen, who turns out to be a 'vegetarian' vampire, (a vampire who drinks animal blood, as opposed to human blood). They fall in love instantly without caring about each other's personality and such; they just love each other because they are both "good looking". Edward must fight off a rival clan of vile vampires who want to drink Bella's blood. Bella escapes to Phoenix, Arizona where she is tricked into confronting James, blah blah blah, an enemy vampire of the Cullens. This is boring. I hate this book.. blah blah blah. Bella is severely hurt (hooray!), and she is bitten by James. But Edward sucks the venom out of her system before it can spread (damnnit). After Bella recovers, she returns to Forks to bitch and complain about everything again.
Edward and his family leave Forks, Washington, because of his belief that he is constantly endangering Bella's life by his presence. Bella falls into a deep depression for several months after he leaves, until she develops a strong friendship with shape-shifter Jacob Black. Jacob and the other shape-shifters in his tribe must protect her from Victoria, an evil vampire who intends to avenge the death of James, her mate, by killing Bella. A misunderstanding occurs, and Edward is led to believe that Bella is dead. Edward decides to commit suicide in Volterra, Italy, but Bella, with the help of Alice, stops him. They meet with the Volturi and are let go with the condition that Bella will be turned into a vampire. Once the Cullens return to Forks with Bella beside them, Jacob breaks his friendship with her because of the predjudice that vampires and shape-shifters have towards each other.
Bella is still being stalked by the vampire Victoria, who has amassed an army of "newborn" vampires. Meanwhile, Bella is forced to choose between her relationship with Edward and her friendship with Jacob. Edward's family of vampires and Jacob's pack of werewolves join forces to fight Victoria's army of vampires. Before the battle, Jacob tells Bella that he will join the fight with the intention of dying unless she kisses him. Bella accepts and, while kissing him, realizes that she loves Jacob, but not as much as she loves Edward. The battle then begins and Victoria and her army of vampires are destroyed. In the end, Bella chooses Edward's love over Jacob's. Jacob is devastated to hear of Bella's choice and her decision to become a vampire. In the epilogue, Jacob runs away from Forks. It is told in his point of view.
Bella and Edward were married. Jacob comes to the wedding but becomes angry and leaves. Bella and Edward, as planned, have a "real" honeymoon involving sexual intercourse while Bella is still human. The honeymoon is cut short by Bella's realization that she has become pregnant and the newlyweds return to Forks. The second part of the book then begins, and is from Jacob's point of view. The pregnancy seems to be destroying Bella, and the pack leader of the werewolves plans to destroy the Cullens and the half-vampire half-human infant. Jacob, who disagrees when Sam decides to destroy Bella and the child she is carrying, embraces his birth right and pulls away from Sam's pack. Two other werewolves join Jacob, and they all protect the Cullen's house. Jacob visits daily, and Bella's health dramatically improves when the Cullens realize that she needs to drink blood to satisfy the child. Bella then goes into an unexpected labor, and the birth nearly kills Bella.She barely survives by being turned into a vampire by Edward. Jacob then goes to kill the infant, named Renesmee (Ruh-nez-may) after both Bella's mother and the matriarch of the Cullen family, and imprints on her instead. Irina, a vampire from a seperate vampire clan, comes to make peace with the Cullens for ignoring them in their time of need and during Edward and Bella's wedding, and sees Renesme,and mistakes her for an immortal child. She reports the child, who is thought to be an "immortal child" — a normal child turned into a vampire (Which is against the vampire rules.) — to the Volturi, who sentence the entire family to death. The Cullens gather vampire witnesses who can verify that the child is not one of the "immortal children". They also help train Bella to use her sheilding abilities to protect them from the Volturi if things go badly. Alice then leaves the Cullen family unexpectedly to try to help them, and leaves instructions for Bella to secretly make plans for Jacob to be able to spirit Renesmee away if things go badly. In the final showdown, the Cullens convince the Volturi that Renèsmee is not a danger to vampires or their secret, and all the gathered vampires return to their homes. In the final scene, Bella's powers allow Edward to see inside her mind for the very first time and they live happily ever after.
Main characters
Isabella Marie Swan Cullen - The protagonist of the series, Bella is perpetually clumsy and a "danger magnet"; she is often portrayed as not valuing herself, nor can she seem to grasp Edward's love for her. Bella has dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. An important trait of hers is her immunity to supernatural abilities that involve the mind, such as Edward's mind reading. Once transformed into a vampire in the saga's fourth installment, Bella acquires the ability to immunize both herself and others from the 'mental harm' caused by opposing vampires' abilities.
Edward Anthony Masen Cullen - Edward is a vampire who lives on animal blood instead of human blood. He lives with a clan of like-minded vampires known as the Cullen family. He loves Bella Swan, and feels great mutual dislike/revulsion towards Jacob Black due to both the love Jacob feels for Bella and the natural animosity between vampires and werewolves but that changes in the fourth book, he sees Jacob as a brother, a son, and a friend. Like some vampires, Edward has a supernatural ability; his gift is mind reading. He can read the thoughts of anyone within a few miles of himself; however, he can only read what the person is thinking at that moment. Bella is immune to his power as a human but learns to let down "her shield".
Jacob Black - A minor character in the first novel, Jacob is introduced as a member of the Quileute tribe. He resurfaces in New Moon with a much larger role, becoming a werewolf and Bella's best friend as she is going through a depression and being hunted by Victoria. Although he is in love with Bella, she initially sees him as just her best friend. In Eclipse, Bella realizes that she loves Jacob as well; in fact, her love for Jacob is only eclipsed by her love of Edward Cullen. Later, in Breaking Dawn, Jacob imprints on Renesmee thus getting rid of his heartache for Bella.
Mary Alice Brandon Cullen - One of Edward's adoptive sisters. She is described as "pixie-like", and her movement is noted to be very graceful. Her special ability is seeing the future as soon as someone makes the decision to head down that path. This ability is very useful, as it gives the family forewarning to any dangers. However, she cannot see the future of werewolves. She is married to Jasper Hale, who is her soul-mate, and she loves Bella as if she were her own sister.
Jasper Whitlock Hale - One of Edward's adoptive brothers, and Alice's husband and soul-mate. He can sense and influence the emotions of people around him. He has the most trouble with the Cullens' "vegetarian" lifestyle, since he and Alice are the newest members of the family, and before joining them he spent almost a century living off human blood. He became a vampire sometime during the American Civil War. He was initially involved in vampire wars, creating new vampires and forming them into armies, until he met Alice and became a part of the Cullen family.
Rosalie Lillian King Hale - Edward's adoptive sister, who is self-absorbed and described as being the most beautiful person in the world. At first, she appears to play an antagonistic role in the story. She became a vampire when Carlisle saved her life after several men, including her fiancé, beat and raped her, leaving her to die. She is the wife and soul-mate of Emmett Cullen. Rosalie dislikes Bella because of Edward having an interest in Bella while he never showed any attraction whatsoever to Rosalie. Also she dislikes Bella's willingness to give up her humanity for an eternal life as a vampire.
Emmett Cullen - Edward's adoptive brother, and Rosalie's husband and soul-mate. As a human, Emmett went hiking and ran into a large grizzly bear. Provoked, the grizzly attacked and nearly killed him before Rosalie, who was hunting, interceded. She saved and carried him 100 miles to Carlisle, in hopes of saving his life by turning him into a vampire. He is described as being extremely muscular, with dark curly hair and dimple and a very cheerful guy.
Carlisle Cullen - The adoptive father of the Cullen children and husband of Esme Cullen. Born in London as the son of a Anglican pastor, he is around 360 years old and works as a doctor in Forks. After becoming a vampire, he spent hundreds of years resisting the smell of blood so that he could become a doctor. He changed Edward, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett into vampires to save their lives.
Esme Anne Cullen - Carlisle's wife. Esme was born some time in 1895. She was pressured by her parents to marry. At the age of 22 she married Charles Evenson, hoping to please her parents and willing to attempt to be happy, but soon realized that her husband was an abusive man. Her parents coached her to keep face, and much to her relief, her husband got drafted during World War I. A while after he came back she found out that she was pregnant, which gave her motive to run away. She fled north to live with her sister and became a teacher, and in 1921 her son was born, but he subsequently died a few days later of a lung infection.After the baby's death, Esme felt that she no longer had any reason to live. She tried to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff, and was presumed dead when she was brought into the morgue, though her heart was still beating. Dr. Cullen was working in the area at the time and recognized her as the happy, beautiful young girl he had treated ten years earlier. Carlisle decided to change her into a vampire as she was dying. Carlisle and Esme fell in love and got married.
Charlie Swan - Chief of Police in Forks, he is Bella's overprotective father. Though he is unaware that Edward is a vampire, he doesn't completely trust his daughter's boyfriend and would much rather have his daughter date Jacob Black. Although his opinion changes when he finds out that Jacob is a werewolf.
Renesmee "Nessie" Carlie Cullen - Daughter of Bella and Edward Cullen. She was conceived on their honeymoon, and even though Edward thought it would be best for Bella to have it aborted, Bella insisted on keeping it. Renesmee's birth nearly killed Bella, but Edward and Jacob kept Bella's heart going long enough for Edward's venom to change her into a vampire. Jacob imprinted on the baby, much to her parent's dislike (but appreciate Jacob as a friend enough not to kill him). Renesmee's special gift is to make others see/hear what she is thinking/feeling when she touches their cheek. She is half immortal, and ages/matures quickly. Research says after 7 years she will be immortal like her family.
Setting
The story is set primarily in the town of Forks, Washington, where Bella Swan and her father, Charlie Swan, live. Other cities in Washington briefly appear in the series or are mentioned, such as Port Angeles, Olympia, Seattle and La Push. Some events in Twilight take place in Phoenix, Arizona, where Bella was raised. Volterra, Italy is featured in New Moon, when Edward travels there to commit suicide and Bella goes to save him. Jacksonville, Florida is mentioned in Eclipse when Edward and Bella visit her mother, who has moved there with her husband. Seattle, Washington is mentioned in Breaking Dawn when Jacob goes there to try to imprint, and when Bella tries to locate J. Jenks.
Future books
On Stephenie Meyer's website, she has confirmed that there will be a companion book to Twilight called Midnight Sun. Midnight Sun will be the story of Twilight told from the point of view of Edward Cullen. The first chapter of Midnight Sun can be found on Meyer's website. [6] However in multiple interviews she stated she will not continue the series through Edward's Point of View due to the depression he faced in New Moon. She claims she does not want to be in that place at the moment.
Also confirmed on Meyer's website were two companion books to the Twilight series: The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide, due to come out December 30th, and Twilight: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion, due to come out in November of 2008.[7]
Stephenie also recently reported that she had outlines for a fifth and sixth book. She won't be following Bella and Edward, but they will be a part of the story. She would like to get Midnight Sun out first, then begin on these. It is not confirmed that they will come out yet. She said she's not convinced that she's done with the Twilight world yet, and that there are characters that she'd like to return to. [8]
Film adaptations
A screenplay for Twilight was written by Melissa Rosenberg and has been adapted into a film by Summit Entertainment. The film is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in the leading roles of Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen, respectively. It is set to be released on November 21, 2008.[9][10][11]
Song Playlists
Stephenie Meyer has created playlists for each of the books in the Twilight series on her website at www.stepheniemeyer.com
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ [ http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/hc-breakingdawn.artaug01,0,3956707.story]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ Mormon who put new life into vampires Sunday July 20 2008
- ^ StephenieMeyer.com Midnight Sun
- ^ July 2, 2008 Twilight News
- ^ http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/culture/story.html?id=b0e9aa3d-6af5-4dfa-8f3f-9f5ee62d9b7c
- ^ http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/08/15/did-harry-potter-release-date-change-to-avoid-twilight-competition/
- ^ http://themovie-fanatic.com/the_buzz!/movie_news/twilight_new_date_of_release/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1099212/
External links
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