What is the name of the circus in Erin Morgenstern's 'The Night Circus'?

In Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, the circus is called Le Cirque des Rêves, French for “The Circus of Dreams.” The name reflects its mysterious, dreamlike identity: the circus appears without warning, opens only after sunset, and disappears again at dawn.

Rather than remaining in one city, Le Cirque des Rêves travels from place to place. Its black-and-white tents contain attractions that seem to violate ordinary physics, including elaborate illusions, fantastical environments, fortune-telling, and performances shaped by genuine magic. The circus is also the arena for a secret contest between two magicians’ protégés, Celia Bowen and Marco Alisdair.

“The Night Circus” is the novel’s title, which is why it is an easy but incorrect choice for the circus’s proper name. Morgenstern’s novel was published in 2011 and uses a nonlinear, multi-viewpoint structure. The book originated across three National Novel Writing Month competitions, later became a New York Times bestseller, and won an Alex Award in 2012. The French title is therefore not a translation added by readers; it is the fictional circus’s canonical name.