Twilight SoundTrack

Vampiric Traits, Abilities and Interests

Edward, like all vampires in the Twilight series, possesses superhuman beauty, strength, speed, endurance, and agility. His scent and voice are enormously seductive, so much so that he occasionally sends Bella into a pliant daze entirely by accident. In Twilight, Edward explains that like other vampires, he does not need to breathe, though he chooses to do so out of habit and because it is helpful to smell his environment. He cannot digest regular food, and compares its attractiveness for him to the prospect of eating dirt for a regular person. As well, like other vampires, Edward is not able to sleep.

In addition to the traits he shares with his fellow vampires, Edward has certain abilities that are his alone. He is the fastest of the Cullens, able to outrun any of them. Perhaps as a result of a talent for empathy in his human life, Edward can also read the mind of anyone within a few miles of himself; Bella is the sole exception to this rule, which Meyer has stated is due to Bella having a very private mind. Edward also retains some of the traditional mindset and dated patterns of speech from his early-20th century human life.

Edward is musical, able to play the piano like a virtuoso. He enjoys a wide range of music, including classical, jazz, progressive metal, alternative rock, and punk rock, but dislikes country. He prefers indie rock to mainstream, and appreciates rock and classical music equally. He mentions in Twilight that he likes music from the fifties better than the sixties, dislikes the seventies, and says the eighties were "bearable".

A hobby of Edward's is collecting cars. He owns a Volvo S60 R and an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish as a "special occasion" car. He also gave his sister Alice a Porsche 911 Turbo as a gift in Eclipse. He bought a motorcycle to ride alongside Bella, but gave it to Jasper after he realized that riding motorcycles was a hobby she enjoyed sharing with Jacob.

Traits and Physical Appearance (Eward Cullen)

Edward is described in the book and by Bella as being charming, polite, determined, and very stubborn. He is very protective over Bella and puts her safety, humanity and welfare before anything else. He often over-analyzes situations and has a tendency to overreact, especially in situations where Bella's safety is at risk. He retains some outdated speech from his human life in the early 20th century, and can be very romantic. Edward sees himself as a monster, and after falling in love with Bella, he desperately wishes that he were human instead of a vampire.

Like all the vampires in the Twilight series, Edward is described by Bella as being impossibly beautiful. At various points in the series, she compares him to the mythical Greek god Adonis. His skin is "like marble"—very pale, ice cold, and sparkles in the sunlight. She describes his facial features as being perfect and angular—high cheekbones, strong jawline, a straight nose, and full lips. His hair, which is always messy, retains the unusual bronze shade that he inherited in his human life from his biological mother. His eyes, once green, are now described as a gold. His appearance changes if he goes long without feeding: his eyes darken, becoming almost black, and purple bruises appear beneath his

Eward Cullen

Edward meets Bella Swan, a human girl whose thoughts he is unable to read, and whose blood smells overwhelmingly sweet to him. He fights a growing attraction to her, but after saving her life on several occasions, he succumbs and eventually falls in love with her. Edward admits to Bella that he is a vampire, and that although he retains the physical body of a seventeen-year-old, he was actually born on June 20, 1901. His adoptive father, Carlisle Cullen, transformed him into a vampire in 1918 to prevent him from dying in the Spanish influenza epidemic in Chicago, Illinois. Carlisle instilled in him a sense of morality uncommon in most vampires, and central to his way of life is the refusal to consider humans as food.

However, Edward constantly warns Bella against being with him, perceiving her life to be at risk if she continues to associate with him. Bella's love and confidence in Edward's restraint cause her to ignore his warnings, even after she becomes the vampire James' target. Unlike the Cullen family, who are "vegetarian" vampires (committed to only feeding on animals), James regularly feeds on humans and will not stop until he drinks Bella's blood. With his family's help, Edward is able to save Bella from James' predations, but how to assure Bella's continued safety remains an open question.

Physical Appearance

Bella is described in the novels as being pale-skinned with brown hair and eyes, and a heart shaped face. Beyond this, a detailed description of her appearance is never given in the series. Stephenie Meyer explains that she "left out a detailed description of Bella in the book so that the reader could more easily step into her shoes."While Meyer stresses that "Bella's looks are open to interpretation", she does supply her own personal interpretation on her website, describing Bella as:

"very fair-skinned, with long, straight, dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. Her face is heart-shaped—a wide forehead with a widow's peak, large, wide-spaced eyes, prominent cheekbones, and then a thin nose and a narrow jaw with a pointed chin. Her lips are a little out of proportion, a bit too full for her jaw line. Her eyebrows are darker than her hair and more straight than they are arched. She's five foot four inches tall, slender but not at all muscular, and weighs about 115 pounds. She has stubby fingernails because she has a nervous habit of biting them."

Bella also has a small crescent-shaped scar on her hand where she was bitten by James, a tracker vampire, in Twilight. The scar is described as being pale, always a few degrees colder than the rest of her body, and as shining like a vampire's skin when in the sunlight. After Bella is changed into a vampire by Edward Cullen in Breaking Dawn, she becomes very beautiful, her already pale skin becoming even whiter, her hair becoming darker, and her lips becoming fuller as well. Her beauty is compared to that of Alice or Esme.

Personality Traits and Abilities

Bella is described as an understanding, caring, serious, shy, and intelligent person, with a very dry sense of humor, and is noted for being very clumsy, and also stubborn. She has a very private mind, which is thought to be why Edward is unable to see her thoughts, and she is determined to become a vampire. She is also said to be terrible at lying, but occasionally demonstrates good acting ability. Bella becomes faint at the smell of blood, though this does not bother her once she becomes a vampire. Stephenie Meyer has stated that Bella's "tragic flaw" in Eclipse is her lack of self-knowledge. After being turned into a vampire, she describes having a more clear view of the world. She is also very self-controlled, being able to run away from the scent of human blood on her first hunting trip. Bella's private mind that rejected some vampires' special abilities while she was human evolved after she became a vampire; her ability formed into allowing her to shield those around her from the mental powers of some other vampires. She is also described by Edward as "very graceful", even for a vampire, in comparison to her earlier clumsiness.

Concept and Creation

The premise for both the character of Bella Swan and for the Twilight series originated in a dream Meyer had in which an "average girl" and a "fantastically beautiful, sparkly [...] vampire [...] were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods." In this dream, the pair "were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that [...] they were falling in love with each other while [...] the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her."

Meyer's original characters were unnamed; she took to calling the characters, who would later become Edward Cullen and Bella, 'he' and 'she' for the purpose of convenience as she "didn't want to lose the dream." The name 'Isabella' was decided upon, Meyer explains, because "after spending so much time with [the character], I loved her like a daughter. [...] Inspired by that love, I gave her the name I was saving for my daughter, [...] Isabella."

Bella's positive reception at her new school in Forks, particularly her popularity with male characters, was modelled after Meyer's real life move from high school to college. Comparing her transitional experience to Bella's, Meyer noted that after her own move to college her "stock went through the roof," commenting that "beauty is a lot more subjective than you might think."

Bella Swan

Isabella "Bella" Marie Swan (later Bella Marie Cullen) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Twilight series, written by Stephenie Meyer. The Twilight series, which consists of the novels Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, is primarily narrated from Bella's point of view.

In the novels, Bella, after moving to her father's house in Forks, Washington, meets the mysterious Cullen family and falls into a deep love with Edward Cullen. However, she soon discovers the truth behind their strange habits: the family is a coven of vampires. Desperate not to lose him, Bella vows to stay with Edward, even if it means turning into a vampire herself, despite Edward's wishes. In an effort to keep her safe, he leaves the town of Forks. Jacob Black, a werewolf from the Quileute tribe and the son of Bella's father's best friend, comforts her in that time and Bella falls in love with him as well.

Awards and Nominations

Twilight gained recognition and won numerous honors, including:

• A New York Times Editor's Choice
• A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
• An American Library Association "Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults" and "Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers"
• Translation into 20 languages
• A New York Times Best Seller
• The best selling book of 2008 according to USA Today

The Cover

Stephenie Meyer has stated that the apple on the cover represents the forbidden fruit from the book of Genesis. It symbolizes Bella and Edward's love, which is forbidden, similar to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as is implied by the quote from Genesis 2:17 that is quoted at the beginning of the book. It also represents Bella's knowledge of what good and evil are, and the choice that she has in partaking of the "forbidden fruit", Edward, or choosing not to see him.

Synopsis

Isabella "Bella" Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie, while her mother, Renée, travels with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys compete for shy Bella's attention.

When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. However, over the next few days Edward warms up to her, and their newfound relationship reaches a climax when Bella is nearly run over by a fellow classmate's van in the school parking lot. Seemingly defying the laws of physics, Edward saves her life when he instantaneously appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands.

Bella becomes hellbent on figuring out how Edward saved her life, and constantly pesters him with questions. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink animal blood rather than human. Edward confesses that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was so desirable to him. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

Their relationship is thrown into chaos when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks. James, a tracker vampire who is intrigued by the Cullens' relationship with a human, wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens attempt to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. There, Bella receives a phone call from James, who claims he is holding her mother captive. When Bella surrenders herself, James attacks her, but Edward, along with the other Cullens, rescues Bella and kills James. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella's hand, Edward sucks the venom from her system before it can spread and transform her into a vampire, and she is then sent to a hospital. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their school prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses.

Twilight the Novel

Twilight is a young-adult fantasy novel written by author Stephenie Meyer. It was originally published in 2005 in hardback. It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan who moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington, and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. The novel is followed by New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.