This book was originally based on Phillip Pullman's United Kingdom publication, Northern Lights, where it was the first novel of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The publisher of the U.S. edition of this work renamed it The Golden Compass in the United States. The setting of this story takes place in a parallel universe where Lyra, a headstrong 12-year-old who lives under the care of scholars at Jordan College in Oxford, searches for her missing friend from the Arctic, Roger Parslow. Lyra is also on the search for her uncle, who was involved in an experiment that used a substance described as 'dust.' All the humans and witches in this work have what is known as daemon, which symbolizes a person's inner spirit. Daemons have the ability to change forms, until they are forced to settle into their permanent states by the time they reach the end of puberty. The daemon can only die when the person dies. Lyra's daemon is Pantalaimon or Pan, and it shifts into many forms throughout work. 

This novel is mentioned in the YouTube series The Autobiography of Jane Eyre. The title of this work is said when Diana (Elina Chidley), one of the people Jane (Alysson Hall) is temporarily living with, asks her if she's read it by saying, "Thanks. Have you read the Golden Compass books?"(4:53, "Marzipan and Dianimal", Ep:61). The mention of this text symbolizes, Jane's state and the type of people and environment Jane is around at this time. The free-roaming nature of Lyra can cause one to believe that she is like a gypsy; finding her lost family and friends in the expansive universe. This same gypsy theme was mentioned both in Bronte's Jane Eyre, but the purpose of the gypsy woman, or the Mother Bunches character in that text was to foretell one's future (pgs. 173-174, Norton 4th Critical Ed.). In Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy ,gypsies are thought of as traveling people that are not always wanted around, because they are seen as vagrants in need of shelter (pgs. 302-303). In this YouTube episode, the gypsy characters here are neither homeless people in need of shelter as in The Flight of Gemma Hardy, nor are they women who promise to tell one's future. They are more relatable characters of contemporary times, that we might think of as being free-spirited, quirky or eccentric. Their mention of The Golden Compass to Jane, symbolizes their free-thinking adventurous character, which is similar to Lyra in the novel. The character Lyra,  also symbolizes Jane's place in life, and her need to find her family, or at least feel at home in one. Similar to Gemma Hardy's passionate interest in the book Anne of Green Gables (pgs.26-27, HarperCollins), Jane has also shows an interest in this piece for the same reason Gemma Hardy does with the book she read, because it symbolizes their current state of moving from place to place, trying to reconnect with those closest to them or family. This contemporary novel's adventurous tone and the need to reconnect with family, proves that it is a telling reference, when indirectly revealing the current state of a character in another work.

Bibliography

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

Hall, Alysson/Jane Eyre. The Autobiography of Jane Eyre. "Marzipan and Dianimal-Ep:61." YouTube, 29 Jan. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3mS505RJ1w&list=PLI1RWwMQaux8teZ7W3an4cQCdpB4ljCiu&index=67

Source of Information: Holz, Adam R. "The Golden Compass Book Review." pluggedin.com. Plugged In. Web. Date Accessed, 16 Oct. 2019. https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/goldencompass/

Livesey, Margot. The Flight of Gemma Hardy. HarperCollins, 2012.

Source of Image: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Compass-His-Dark-Materials/dp/0679879242