In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.
The pages were relatively large print. So it was more like two hundred ordinary pages.
I saw the movie a couple years ago, and I came away with the feeling that it was the best movie I had ever seen. A movie that actually had some plot. You could see the growth, boy to man, of Tristran, and the development of Yvaine.
The village of Wall is next to the Faerie land, and separated by a wall, with but one gap that is guarded to make sure that there is no interaction between the two lands except on market day which comes once every nine years. Tristran was conceived on one of these market days, and is delivered to his father in Wall nine months later. Flash forward 17 years, Tristran is besotted with a girl, sees a shooting star, and sets off to get it in order to win her heart.
On the faerie side of the wall, the king of Stormhold is near death and the line of succession is unclear with there being three living male heirs. The king sends the Topaz necklace, the symbol of Stormhold's power, into the heavens. It brings a star to Earth. This gets the attention of evil witches. We have the witch, the princes and Tristan all looking for the star.
The movie was super. The book would have been better had I not known what was coming. The movie did a better job showing the budding romance portrayed by Claire Danes and Charlie Cox. The movie went over the top a couple of times, putting Robert De Niro in drag, rather than there actually being a female on board the airship. The movie did a better job of showing how Tristan grew from a boy to a man.
The book was good. The movie is among the all-time greats.
