Eclipse

About Eclipse

Eclipse is the third installment in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, published in 2007. The novel focuses on the love triangle between Bella Swan, the vampire Edward Cullen, and the werewolf Jacob Black — forcing Bella toward a choice she has been postponing throughout the previous two books. Edward wants to marry Bella before he will agree to transform her into a vampire. Jacob wants her to choose human life, and human love, with him.

The external conflict of Eclipse involves a newborn vampire army being created in Seattle, orchestrated by Victoria, whose mate James was killed by the Cullens in the first novel. The strength of newborn vampires — dangerous in their first year before their human blood burns away — means that neither the Cullens nor the Quileute wolf pack can defeat the army alone. The two factions must form an unprecedented alliance, and the preparation for that battle forces Bella, Edward, and Jacob to spend extended time together.

The novel's central tension is less supernatural than emotional. Jacob's declaration of love for Bella — and his argument that she already loves him in return — drives a string of confrontations that readers found more psychologically complex than the earlier volumes. Meyer explores the possibility that it is genuinely possible to love two people, in different ways, at the same time, and the novel refuses to resolve that question through convenient distance or indifference.

The Graduation and Proposal

Eclipse also marks Bella's high school graduation, which gives the narrative an urgency it previously lacked: the end of high school is a natural threshold point, and the question of what Bella does next — whether she stays human or is transformed — becomes concrete and immediate. Edward's marriage proposal, and Bella's ambivalence about it, forms one of the book's defining subplots.

Why the Series Has Been Challenged

Like the rest of the Twilight Saga, Eclipse has been removed or challenged in school libraries for its romantic and sexual content, for its sympathetic portrayal of supernatural beings, and for concerns about the relationship dynamics it presents to young readers. Having sold more than 5 million copies in the United States by 2011, the series attracted significant critical and institutional attention alongside its commercial success.