Author's note: Well, I'm pretty much running around with the same subject over and over again, but the next one will be original, I swear. Spoilers ahead for the Sally Lockhart series.
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Is Lyra Silvertongue Sally Lockhart?
by E. C. Florek
Is Lyra Silvertongue Sally Lockhart? Let me make myself clearer: is Lyra Silvertongue, main character of the His Dark Materials trilogy, a remake of Sally Lockhart, main character of the Sally Lockhart series? Let's analyze this.
First and foremost, it is only fair to say that both series are from the same writer, Philip Pullman. So it is highly likely that Lyra would have been inspired (consciously or subconsciously) from Sally. What is a little more surprising is the fact that Pullman wrote them one after the other; the first Sally Lockhart was published in 1985 to while the first HDM (Golden Compass/Northern Lights) came out in 1995.
However, the first little thing which led me to write this essay are their similarities, physically and psychologically. Both have fair hair, are beautiful and are short and thin. Both are strong-headed, "half-wild", uneducated and tough. Coincidence? Not according to this writer.
Then there are the resemblances between the plots themselves. Neither Sally nor Lyra has been raised by their respective parents: Sally by a friend of her drunken father and Lyra by the Master and Scholars of Jordan College. In "The Ruby in the Smoke", Sally meets Frederick, called Fred by all. In "The Subtle Knife", Lyra meets William, called Will by all. In "The Shadow in the Plates/of the North", Sally and Fred fall in love and mate. In "The Amber Spyglass", Lyra and Will fall in love and it is still debateable whether or not they mated. At the end of both novels, the above-mentioned lovers are separated, by death or by worlds.
To go with what a reviewer, Witch-Girl, once told me, Lyra may be how Pullman imagined Sally when the latter was younger, or vice-versa. It's entirely plausible, if you ask me.
All in all, with all these facts, it is possible for one to believe that Lyra Silvertongue has been based on Sally Lockhart.
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Damn cross-cultural titles.