The Golden Compass Page by Page
Chapter 5 - The Cocktail Party



I don't really have a whole lot to say about this chapter, so this will be a quickie.

Mrs. Coulter sure is quick to anger. Lyra didn’t seem too insubordinate or disrespectful to me when she asked Mrs. Coulter to wear her little shoulder bag to the cocktail party and got jumped by the Golden Monkey, who nearly tears Pantalaimon’s ear off. 

It would seem more risky for lyra to constantly be keeping a shoulder bag with her to keep the alethiometer close than to simply hide it somewhere in her room. What if Mrs. Coulter asked what the heck she was keeping in the bag? Then what?

I really couldn’t imagine that anyone was surprised when the drunk middle aged guy let it slip that Mrs. Coulter was running the Oblation Board, the end of Chapter 3 practically states it outright.

For some stupid reason I have a habit of imagining Adele Starminster as being a Victorian version of Rita Skeeter from Harry Potter. The two characters are both journalists and are even both associated with insects. This is similar to my tendency to imagine Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird as Helga Pataki from “Hey Arnold”, but thats another story.

And next we meet Lord Boreal, who is described in an awful lot of detail for someone who  makes a single appearance lasting no more than a page and is mentioned again in passing perhaps twice more. Sort of like Stanislaus Grumman. Once again I’m left wondering how much Pullman knew about this character when he wrote this story. Good going Pullman.

Then Lyra packs up her stuff and skips the joint while no one is looking. Good going Lyra.



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