The midnight dress

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The Midnight Dress (English title: I Shall Wear Midnight ) is a fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett from 2010 . It is the fourth book Terry Pratchett has dedicated to the fate of Tiffany Weh and is also his 38th Discworld novel. The English title is a quote from the Discworld novel A Hat Full of Stars , where Tiffany says about the usual black dress in witches: “When I'm old I shall wear midnight, ...” The midnight dress won the 2011 Nebula Award .

action

The place of the action is the chalk land . Tiffany Weh has finished her training and now lives firmly established as a witch in her home country. She is now in her teenage years , is well through puberty and has just had her first great love. Roland, the son of the baron, from whom everyone had assumed that he and "Tiff" would eventually become a couple, has proven to be the wrong person. Tiffany suffers from the breakup after Roland brings his future wife to the castle. Lätitia, the daughter of a neighboring duke, blonde, blue-blooded and girlish, represents everything that Tiffany does not have, and which, on closer inspection, gets really on your nerves. In the course of time it turns out that the problems actually originate from Latitia's conceited mother.

"The Treacherous", an ancient, disembodied being, born of hatred, envy and fear, was reawakened by Tiffany's one-time kiss for the Wintersmith . Since then he has made the world a worse place, constantly on the lookout for the mighty witch who brought him back to life. It poisons people's minds by bringing out the worst in them and letting fearful distrust gain the upper hand in their thinking. A direct encounter between Tiffany and the "treacherous" is inevitable and the various narrative threads of the novel work consistently towards this.

First, a man in the chalk country abuses his pregnant daughter so brutally that she loses her unborn child. Tiffany prevents an angry mob from lynching the man and gives his traumatized daughter into the care of the Kelda of the “We-are-the-greatest!” The next day it is rumored that Tiffany kidnapped the girl or that the robber goblins stole her and kept her prisoner somewhere. In the middle of this mess, the old baron dies under Tiff's caring hands. A complacent nurse accuses her of causing this death and of stealing money. Her reputation as a witch worsens every hour, but she ignores the warning signals and flies to Ankh-Morpork to inform Roland, who is doing wedding shopping with Lätitia, of his father's death.

To speed up her search for Roland in the big city, Tiffany brought along a few dozen “We're-the-greatest!” They are known to be excellent finders, especially when there is an urgent need to search inns and pubs. On the flight, “The Biggest” play with matches and set the broom on fire, which is why they have to enter the city on foot. While the “We-are-the-greatest!” Are looking for Roland, Tiffany looks for Boffo's joke shop at 4 Tenthes-Ei-Strasse. Mrs. Prust, the owner and a witch herself, helps her to get the ruined broom repaired and tells her the story of the "treacherous". Tiffany is fascinated but also upset. She finds it totally unfair that she should be responsible for an even greater evil because of the attempt to correct the mistake with the Wintersmith.

"The greatest" think Roland and Tiffany delivers their message. But because the capable seekers caused certain elementary damage during their search, she spends the following night in prison as the person in charge. Things can be damaged and damaged things can be restored, even the greatest know that and reconstruct the destroyed inn "Des König Kopf" almost true to the original. Because of the "almost", Commander Vimes asks very emphatically that Tiffany and her companions leave the city immediately. The favor is being done to him.

The rumors have escalated at home. Roland, very angry and disgruntled, is forced to take Tiffany into custody, which is not entirely wrong because she can finally sleep in again in the cozy castle prison. It is now clear that the old baron's funeral and the young couple's wedding must take place on two consecutive days. A postponed wedding brings bad luck and the baron just has to go underground. Tiffany is certain that “The Wicked One” will choose this time to destroy her. Ms. Prust confirms this assumption. She comes out of town to warn Tiffany that the monster has now got a body and is on its way.

The funeral and wedding bring many guests to the castle. In addition to many nobles from the neighboring kingdoms, witches came in large numbers, with Esmeralda Wetterwax at their head . Above all, they are interested in how and whether Tiffany can cope with "The Treacherous". The celebrations take their orderly course. Thanks to her excellent personal memory, Mrs. Prust puts the bride mother under pressure to keep her still. This also relaxes Tiffany's relationship with the bride, who, at second glance, turns out to be quite nice and also quite magically gifted. In this context it turns out that Lätitia was also not entirely innocent of the appearance of "The Treacherous".

In the early morning of the wedding day, "The Treacherous" arrives in the chalk land. With the help of Preston, an amazingly educated member of the castle guard, Tiffany lures him into a fiery trap and at the same time marries Roland and Latitia in an archaic rite . All is well with that. It is also becoming apparent that Tiffany could have found the man in her heart in Preston.

expenditure

  • The midnight dress . Translated by Regina Rawlinson. Manhattan, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-442-54638-1
  • The midnight dress . Abridged audio book. Read by Boris Aljinovic. Random House Audio, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8371-1065-4
  • The midnight dress . Unabridged audiobook. Read by Michael-Che Koch. Random House Audio, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-8371-1561-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2010 Nebula Awards Winners. In: Locus Online . May 21, 2011, accessed May 22, 2011 .
Books by Terry Pratchett


The colors of magic (1983, German 1985) • The light of fantasy (1986, German 1989) • The legacy of the magician (1987, German 1989) • Grim Reaper (1987, German 1990) • The Magic Hat (1988 , Ger. 1990) • MacBest (1988, Ger. 1992) • Pyramiden (1989, Ger. 1991) • Wachen! Guards! (1989, German 1991) • Faust Eric (1990, German 1992) • Full in the picture (1990, German 1993) • Alles Sense (1991, German 1994) • Totally bewitched (1991, German 1994) • Simple divine (1992, German 1995) • Lords and Ladies (1992, German 1995) • Helle Barden (1993, German 1996) • Rolling Stones (1994, German 1996) • Really magical (1994, German 1996) • Mummenschanz (1994, German 1997) • Hollow heads (1996, German 1998) • Schweinsgalopp (1996, German 1998) • Flying scraps (1997, German 1999) • Hot hops (1998, German 1999) • Calm blood (1998, German 2000) • The Fifth Elephant (1999, German 2000) • The Full Truth (2000, German 2001) • The Time Thief (2001, German 2002) • Wahre Helden (2001, German 2001) • Maurice, der Kater (2001, German 2004) • The Night Watchmen (2002, German 2003) • Little Free Men (2003, German 2005) • Women's Regiment (2003, German 2004) • A hat full of stars (2004, German2005). 2006) • Off the Post (2004, German 2005) • Klonk! (2005, German 2006) • The winter smith (2006, German 2007) • Schöne Scheine (2007, German 2007) • The Club of Invisible Scholars (2009, German 2009) • The Midnight Dress (2010, German 2011) • Stiff pinch (2011, German 2012) • Great steam ahead (2013, German 2014) • Die Krone des Schäfers (2015, German 2015)

Scholarly Fiction
(with Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen )

The Scholars of the Disc World (1999, German 2004) • The Philosophers of the Round World. More from the scholars of the Discworld (2002, German 2004) • Darwin and the Gods of the Discworld (2005, German 2006) • The Last Judgment. The Science of Discworld 4 (2013, German 2013)

Other books

The Disc World from A – Z (with Stephen Briggs ; 1994, German 1996) • The Disc World Album (1996, German 2001) • GURPS Disc World (with Phil Masters ; 1998, German 1999) • Nanny Oggs Cookbook (1999, German 2001) . 2001) • GURPS Discworld Also (with Phil Masters ; 2001) • The Art of Discworld (2004, German 2006) • Where's my Cow (2005) • Wit and Wisdom of Discworld (2007, German 2010) • Myths and legends the Discworld (with Jacqueline Simpson ; 2008, German 2009) • The World of Poo (2012) • Fools, Thieves and Vampires - The best of ten years of Discworld calendars (with Stephen Briggs ; 2012, German 2012)

Discworld maps

The Streets of Ankh-Morpork - A Discworld Map (1993; Ger. 1996) • The Discworld Mapp (1995) • A Tourist Guide to Lancre - A Discworld Mapp (1998) • Death's Domain - A Discworld Mapp (1999) • More complete and indispensable Ankh-Morpork city guide (2012, German 2013) • Mrs. Bradshaw's most useful handbook for all routes of the Hygienic Railway Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plain (2014, German 2015)

Trucker (1989, German 1992) • Wühler (1990, German 1992) • Wing (1990, German 1992)

The Johnny Maxwell trilogy

Only you can save humanity (1992, German 1994) • Only you can understand it (1993, German 1995) • Only you have the key (1996, German 1997)

Long Earth
(with Stephen Baxter )

The Long Earth (2012, German 2013) • The Long War (2013, German 2015) • The Long Mars (2014, German 2015) • The Long Utopia (2015, German 2016) • The Long Cosmos (2016, German 2017)

Standalone novels

The Carpet Peoples (1971, German 1972) • The dark side of the sun (1976, German 1977) • Strata (1981, German 1992) • The common house cat (1989, German 1991) • A good omen. The friendly and accurate prophecies of the witch Agnes Spinner (with Neil Gaiman ; 1990, German 1991) • An Island (2008, German 2009) • Dark Scoundrels (2012, German 2013) • Jack Dodger's London Guide (2013; German 2009) 2014)

Short story collections

The whole madness (2004, German 2007) • Big words (2012, German 2018) • Twisted dragon (2014, German 2015) • The vacuum-sucking fright screw (2016, German 2018)