Originally published in 2005 and translated into 37 different languages, Twilight became not only the biggest selling book of the year, but also something like the Bible for the young who are fond of dark romance and stories about magic creatures. With each new book, the Twilight saga got more and more fans, but what is the secret of its unbelievable popularity? Why do young people abandon their favourite computer games and TV-shows and devour Stephenie Meyer`s books one after another? To my mind, there are three major reasons for the tremendous success of the vampire-romance story.
Firstly, the personalities of the main characters and the whole atmosphere of the saga can not leave anybody indifferent. The description of the feelings of kind, unselfish Bella to perfect from head to foot Edward, his efforts to overcome the thirst for her blood and protect from car accidents and other vampires attacks tap the deepest reaches of man`s spiritual life. Moreover, Stephenie Meyer managed to keep a reader in suspence from the first page to the very end of Breaking Dawn, the last book of the series, by introducing new characters with unique personalities and different views on life, revealing more and more dark secrets of Edward`s world, and of course, changing the scenery from rainy and foggy Forks, Washington, to sunny Phoenix, Arizona, and mysterious, ruled by the oldest and most powerful vampires ever, Italy. To my mind, Edward Cullen`s eternal beauty, sincerity, tenderness, amazing devotion to Bella, readiness to sacrifice himself to protect her life from danger, all the depth of his feeling and emotions made him the icon of the young generation, an ideal boy-friend any girl can dream of.
Secondly, the screen adaptation of the first novel of the saga with a mammoth marketing campaign became a smash hit and attracted attention of young people from all over the world. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart sterling performances, entrancing music, absorbing camera
work, and a quirky plot made the film witty, touching, and greatly entertaining. Every actor did a tremendous job to reveal his or her character and create an inner light that would keep the picture uplifting. Not only did the role of Edward Cullen help Robert Pattinson to perfect the art of acting, but it also made him one of the most popular stars of his generation, which certainly increased the commercial success of Twilight.
Thirdly, nowadays one of the most vivid traits of the young generation is love to everything mysterious and magic, starting from ugly and stupid trolls or zombies to amazing in their beauty and irresistable charm elfs and phoenixes. The young, who grew up reading the Lord of the Rings, watching X-files, or muttering incantations from Harry Potter, were only too happy to discover the new saga about forbidden love between a human and a vampire. Besides, it only appealed to the readers that Stephenie Meyer didn`t create a magic unreal world of her own, the scenery of Twilight is a small American town, the citizens of which knew everything about one another, but had no idea that werewolves and vampires lived among them.
To sum up, the commercial success and the young people`s obsession with Stephenie Meyer`s books are very predictable and easily explained. The irresistable charm of the main characters, the perfect screen adaptation of the first novel, and the thirst for mystery and magic that is so characteristic of the modern generation, set our imagination running and increase the number of fans of the Twilight saga.
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