Eclipse (Meyer novel)

Eclipse

First edition cover of Eclipse
Author	Stephenie Meyer
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Twilight series
Genre	Young adult, Fantasy, High School Romance
Publisher	Little, Brown
Publication date	August 7, 2007
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	629
ISBN	ISBN 978-0316160209
Preceded by	New Moon
Followed by	Breaking Dawn

For other uses, see Eclipse (disambiguation).

Eclipse is the third book in the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer. It continues the story of 18-year-old Bella Swan and her vampire love, Edward Cullen. Eclipse is preceded by New Moon and followed by Breaking Dawn. The book was released on August 7, 2007 with an initial print run of 1 million copies, and sold more than 150,000 copies in the first 24 hours alone.

Plot summary

The story begins with the revelation that Seattle is being plagued by a string of unsolved murders, which Edward suspects are being caused by a newborn vampire that is unable to control its thirst. Edward and Bella fill out college applications, while Bella explains to Edward her desire to see Jacob, her werewolf friend, again. Meanwhile, Alice Cullen has a vision that Victoria, a vampire who is hunting Bella, is back in town. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that Jacob and the rest of the werewolf pack would never harm her, and he eventually allows her to visit Jacob once in a while.

A few days later, Bella expresses her desire to have sex with Edward before being turned into a vampire. Edward initially refuses, explaining to Bella that he could very easily kill her. Eventually, upon realizing how much it means to Bella, he agrees to try in the future as long as they are married first. Despite having an aversion to marriage, Bella realizes that spending eternity with Edward is more important to her than anything else and accepts his proposal.

Bella and the Cullens realize that the murders in Seattle are being committed by an "army" of newborn vampires, controlled by either Victoria or the coven of vampires known as the Volturi. The Cullen family joins forces with the werewolf pack in order to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward and Bella camp up in the mountains, hidden during the battle, where they are later joined by Jacob and Seth Clearwater, a young member of the werewolf pack, to wait out the fight.

In the morning, Jacob overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and becomes very upset. He threatens to join the fight and get himself killed because Bella doesn't love him. To stop him, Bella kisses Jacob and realizes that she loves him, too. Victoria tracks Edward's scent to Bella and Edward is forced to fight, despite Bella's wishes to keep him safely with her. After Victoria and her army are successfully destroyed, Bella explains to Jacob that while she loves him, her love for Edward is greater and she cannot live without him. After receiving a wedding invitation from a humble Edward, Jacob runs away in his wolf form to escape the pain he feels, angry at Bella's decision to become a vampire. While Bella and Edward are in their meadow Bella makes the decision to tell her father Charlie about her getting married before she and Edward try.

The novel refers to Emily Brontë's novel, Wuthering Heights, and compares characters.

Marketing campaigns

A few months prior to the release of Eclipse, Meyer hosted an "Eclipse Prom" event at Arizona State University with the help of a local bookstore and ASU's English department. Tickets sold out in seven hours, resulting in Meyer holding a second prom on the same day for which tickets sold out in four hours. At the event, Meyer read the first chapter of Eclipse, which was released in the special edition of New Moon that same day. Meyer also released the first chapter on her website and posted a "quote of the day" from the novel on each of the 37 days leading up to its release.

Cover

The book jacket features a torn red ribbon. Although it was supposed to be disclosed to the public in May 2007 at the Eclipse Prom, Barnes & Noble and Stephenie Meyer's official website premiered the newly released cover in March 2007, along with a preview summary of the book's plot. The broken ribbon represents choice, as in the book Bella must choose between her love for vampire Edward Cullen, and her friendship with werewolf Jacob Black. Meyer also stated that the ribbon represents the idea that Bella can't break away completely from her human life.

Early release

On July 25, an incident similar to the early release of the seventh Harry Potter book occurred with shipments of Eclipse. Barnes and Noble booksellers accidentally shipped advance copies of Eclipse to some of the customers who had pre-ordered. Barnes and Noble said that it was a computer error, as their entire online store is computerized.

To prevent any spoilers from popping up online, many fansite forums for the Twilight series were shut down, such as the Twilight Lexicon. Stephenie Meyer also locked her MySpace comments in an attempt to avoid spoilers. In an open letter to the fansite the Twilight Lexicon, Stephenie Meyer pleaded with these "lucky readers" to please keep the ending to themselves until the rest of the Twilight fans had the chance to read and enjoy Eclipse as well.

An early book release also occurred with Stephenie Meyer's release of the Eclipse special edition, which included the first chapter and cover art of the subsequent novel Breaking Dawn. The special edition was to hit store shelves on May 31, 2008, but multiple copies were released up to a whole week early. Meyer knew that some copies had been leaked, and released the following quote:

"There is a lot of speculation on the internet about possible covers, content and text of Breaking Dawn. I hope everybody knows that you shouldn't believe everything you see on the internet. The only way you will know what is real is when you have the book in your hands. Until then, people should really take everything they see with a grain of salt."

Critical reception

Eclipse received mixed reviews. LoveVampires.com stated that, "Adult readers may be put off by the teenage relationship angst in this novel but if you have already enjoyed the author’s previous offerings I think there is still plenty here to entertain." Based on this, they gave Eclipse four and a half out of five stars. Anne Rouyer of School Library Journal said that, "Meyer knows what her fans want: thrills, chills, and a lot of romance, and she delivers on all counts." Selby Gibson-Boyce of Tulsa World wrote, "I read without stopping until I finished. Meyer's book would not detach itself from my hand. Exactly the same thing happened with Twilight and New Moon."

However, DearAuthor.com said that, "It was clear to me that once the decision to remake Bella into a vampire was made, all natural tension evaporated and thus the author had to manufacture false conflict after false conflict to keep the storyline interesting", and gave Eclipse a C- grade. Kellan Rice of Blast Magazine criticized the book as being sexist, saying, "Not only does Meyer give her two characters an obviously unhealthy-even abusive-relationship, but she romanticizes and idealizes it, and not only with Bella and Edward, but with Bella and Jacob as well."

External links

• Stephenie Meyer's Official Website
• The Twilight Series' Official website
• Eclipse on the Twilight Saga Wiki