The Harry Potter Saga
A comprhensive review of this iconic book saga
About Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry’s struggle against Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic and subjugate all wizards and Muggles (non-magical people).
Since the release of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, on 26 June 1997, the books have found immense popularity, positive reviews, and commercial success worldwide. They have attracted a wide adult audience as well as younger readers and are often considered cornerstones of modern young adult literature.[2] As of February 2018, the books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history, and have been translated into eighty languages.[3] The last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history, with the final instalment selling roughly 2.7 million copies in the United Kingdom and 8.3 million copies in the United States within twenty-four hours of its release.
About the Author
Joanne Rowling CH, OBE, HonFRSE, FRCPE, FRSL (/ˈroʊlɪŋ/ ROH-ling;[1] born 31 July 1965), better known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author, philanthropist, film producer, and screenwriter. She is best known for writing the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has won multiple awards and sold more than 500 million copies,[2][3] becoming the best-selling book series in history.[4] The books are the basis of a popular film series, over which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts[5] and was a producer on the final films.[6] She also writes crime fiction under the pen name Robert Galbraith.
Born in Yate, Gloucestershire, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in 1990 when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train from Manchester to London.[7] The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in 1997. There were six sequels, of which the last was released in 2007. Since then, Rowling has written several books for adult readers: The Casual Vacancy (2012) and — under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith — the crime fiction Cormoran Strike series.[8] In 2020, her “political fairytale” for children, The Ickabog, was released in instalments in an online version.[9]
Rowling has lived a “rags to riches” life in which she progressed from living on benefits to being named the world’s first billionaire author by Forbes.[10] Rowling disputed the assertion, saying she was not a billionaire.[11] Forbes reported that she lost her billionaire status after giving away much of her earnings to charity.[12] Her UK sales total in excess of £238 million, making her the best-selling living author in Britain.[13] The 2021 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling’s fortune at £820 million, ranking her as the 196th richest person in the UK.[14] Time named her a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fans.[15] In October 2010, she was named the “Most Influential Woman in Britain” by leading magazine editors.[16] Rowling was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to literature and philanthropy. Rowling has supported multiple charities, including Comic Relief, One Parent Families, and Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, as well as launching her own charity, Lumos.
Since late 2019, Rowling has publicly voiced her opinions on transgender people and related civil rights. These views have been criticised as transphobic by LGBT rights organisations and some feminists, but have received support from some other feminists and individuals.
The Books
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Publication date 26 June 1997
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. The first novel in the Harry Potter series and Rowling’s debut novel, it follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry makes close friends and a few enemies during his first year at the school, and with the help of his friends, he faces an attempted comeback by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry’s parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months old.
The book was first published in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1997 by Bloomsbury. It was published in the United States the following year by Scholastic Corporation under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It won most of the British book awards that were judged by children and other awards in the US. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999 and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. It has been translated into at least 73 other languages, and has been made into a feature-length film of the same name, as have all six of its sequels. The novel has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it the second best-selling novel of all time.[1][2]
The Book Guide Review
It’s very difficult, at this point, to try to evaluate Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. As the first installment of the epic seven-part story of Harry Potter and his world that I’ve come to love so much, it’s hard now to really look at this book just for what it is. On the one hand, its classic moments and important firsts resonate much more powerfully now than they did when I first read the book, because I know their full significance and because I’ve come to love all the characters so much. On the other hand, later books in the series deepened the story so much and added so much complexity that I’d almost forgotten how short and simple a tale the first book tells, and how much more clearly child-oriented the tone of the writing is in this book than it becomes later. Then, also, like the first installment of every multipart story, this book — despite its shortness — has a lot to accomplish: it has to introduce the main characters and their world, establish some back story, and maneuver the characters into the settings and roles and relationships that the story is going to be about, but it also has to develop an actual plot, make things happen, and ultimately resolve that plot — and the plot has to be able to stand on its own, but also serve to get the much larger overarching story of the whole series started. It accomplishes all of this, and for the most part does so quite satisfactorily. I do think now, though, that it cuts a few corners here and there along the way — even if to say so is perhaps to hold the book up to a standard that it wouldn’t have felt appropriate to hold it to before reading the rest of the magnificent series.
To start with, I found a few things a bit odd about the interactions between Dumbledore and McGonagall in the prologue-like first chapter. For one thing, I don’t really get a sense from them that they feel the enormity of the events that have just happened in the wizarding world — i.e., the sudden and inexplicable defeat of Voldemort. In particular, McGonagall seems above all to be irritated by the carelessness of other wizards as they celebrate it. She also is portrayed rather differently in general in this chapter than she ever would be afterwards; she doesn’t seem as close to Dumbledore, she wants to know what has really happened but goes about trying to find out in a sort of childishly indirect and almost gossipy way rather than by merely asking him direct questions, etc. I suppose Rowling wanted to keep this very first chapter sort of light and quirky, and that may explain some of these things; still, they bothered me a little this time. On the other hand, I adore our introduction to Dumbledore, who is completely his usual self in this chapter — simultaneously grave and quirky, wise and gentle, enigmatic, and totally in command of the situation. I particularly like his remark about having a scar on his leg that’s “a perfect map of the London Underground.” I also love the whole issue of the use of Voldemort’s name that is set up right here at the very beginning. And of course, the “prologue” ends magnificently, with Harry lying innocent and asleep on the Dursley’s front steps as wizards throughout the country raise their glasses to “the boy who lived.”
One of the best things about this particular Harry Potter book, and the thing that really makes it delightful to reread as a fan of the series, is the way that the reader, through Harry’s eyes, is gradually introduced to all the wonder and charm of the wizarding world and of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Early on, tantalizing bits of the wizarding world intrude into Privet Drive to whet the appetite — from Dumbledore’s late-night appearance in the first chapter to the classic “letters from no one” that burst into Harry’s miserable life, mysteriously knowing where he sleeps and able to follow him as the Dursleys drag him around the countryside. Then, three chapters in, Hagrid breaks down the door and rescues Harry from his lot in life, and you’re off to London with this gigantic stranger on a wild ride in the course of which you see and learn amazing things while trying to digest the news that you’re not only a wizard (!), but a famous one with a tragic and complicated back story that no one really knows all the details of (except, of course, for the reader who has already read the rest of the series). And still to come after this, of course, are Platform 9 3/4 and the Hogwarts Express, meeting the Weasleys, discovering Hogwarts, and all of Harry’s school experiences. I have always loved the way Harry and Ron become friends during the train ride — two very different kids, but both lonely and very open and in need of a friend — and I’ve also always thought that all of Harry’s worries and insecurities about the prospect of fitting in in the wizarding world, which occupy his thoughts during the train journey and the sorting (which itself is delightful), were very realistic, extremely relatable, and generally well-handled. I very much enjoy, too, the deft and subtle way that the first elements of what is to develop into the book’s basic plot are dropped in during the journey on the Hogwarts Express, when Ron mentions the Gringott’s break-in and Harry reads the chocolate frog card that mentions Nicholas Flamel. This is Rowling at her clever best, akin to the subtle setup throughout the first three books that earns her the revelation at the end of book three that Ron’s rat is actually Peter Pettigrew, or the setup she unobtrusively builds into the early part of this book for the idea of Harry being able to speak to snakes, which we don’t learn more about until the second book.
This time through the book, though, I actually felt like certain things transitioned rather abruptly once that was all over and Harry was installed at Hogwarts. To start with, one of the things I like the most about the movie version of this book is the way it sort of pauses for a moment, when Harry first gets to his dormitory in Griffindor Tower after the sorting and start-of-term feast, to show us a contemplative Harry taking in his new home and the enormity of suddenly having found a place in the world where he’s wanted and has already begun to make friends. I sort of feel like the book itself lacks any comparable moment; the scene in which Harry goes to bed after the start-of-term feast features a disturbing dream full of foreshadowing instead of an emotional moment in which he digests the impact of the changes that have come into his life. Prophetic and foreboding dreams are fine, but they’re sort of the stuff of plot development rather than of character development, and they don’t help the reader to feel the impact of the momentous developments that have just happened in Harry’s life. I do appreciate the moment a few chapters later when Harry realizes he’s been at Hogwarts for two whole months and it “already felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had,” but this doesn’t entirely make up for what feels missing here. I also sort of feel like it would have been nice for there to be, at some point not long after they get to Hogwarts, some kind of event or moment that served to cement Harry’s and Ron’s friendship, which is begun so well on the train but then just seems to be sort of taken for granted as school gets under way. On the other hand, though, I have always liked the way that Hermione joins their friendship, completing the trio that will remain the central focus of the entire series. Another thing that seemed to me on this reading to develop a bit fast was Harry’s hostility toward Malfoy; maybe it’s just because I know how much more there is to come in the future, but I had a hard time feeling like the few encounters with him that Harry had prior to chapter nine really justified that chapter’s opening line about Harry hating Malfoy even more than he hated Dudley. Also, I think it would have been nice to show a scene in which Harry sort of first performs actual magic, rather than sort of glossing over most of his early lessons and mainly emphasizing how difficult they are; the book is about Harry learning he’s a wizard, but I don’t believe we ever actually see him perform a spell! Hermione is the only first-year who ever seems at all comfortable with her ability to do magic, though Ron too manages under pressure; as for Harry, he excels athletically, but is scarcely even seen trying to perform magic — a slight irritation. I appreciate that Harry isn’t the most gifted wizard in his class — it wouldn’t have been right to make him so — but sometimes I feel like Rowling went too far in the other direction.
Above all, though, it really felt to me like Harry transitioned much too quickly from being the insecure kid who was astonished and grateful to have been suddenly swept off into the wizarding world and away from the Dursleys, but at the same time uncertain of his place in that new world, to being the inquisitive, bold, rule-bending kid he needed to become in order for his story to unfold. At the end of his first week at Hogwarts, he’s already puzzling over the meaning of the news about the Gringott’s break-in having happened on the same day that he had been there, and a few pages later he and Ron “were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy.” That last bit in particular struck me as inconsistent with his characterization up to that point. I don’t have a problem with Harry’s first actual rule-breaking act, in defense of Neville, during their flying lesson — the act, of course, that leads to his position on the Quidditch team — but the idea that he was spoiling for a fight with Malfoy in advance doesn’t seem right to me. Similarly, although the aftermath — Malfoy challenging him to a “wizard’s duel” and the late-night adventure that results — is not only classic, but also essential to the plot, it felt like a bit of a stretch to me that Harry would involve himself in something like this so soon after the terror and dread he’d felt when he thought he was going to be expelled for the flying incident that instead got him onto the Quidditch team. I’m probably over-analyzing and maybe expecting too much forethought from an eleven-year-old character, but it just didn’t quite feel right to me.
Once we arrive at the chapter entitled “Quidditch,” the book has largely made — however effectively or ineffectively — the perhaps difficult transition from setup and initial character development to further elaboration and plot development, and what further criticisms or qualms I have thus focus more on plot issues than have those that I’ve discussed thus far. Before I get to any more criticisms, however, I have to rave a bit about the greatness of pretty much the entire “Mirror of Erised” chapter. Harry’s first Christmas away from the Dursleys is handled just right — from the emotions it bring out in him, to the charming fun he has with the always-entertaining Weasley brothers, to the momentous receipt of the invisibility cloak (made even more momentous now that we know more of the story behind it thanks to the final book). Then, too, the Mirror of Erised itself, and what Harry sees in it, were just the right touch to deepen the character and the emotional stakes of the story, while at the same time subtly setting up plot material for the big confrontation at the end of the book. But the aspect of this chapter that really struck me this time around was that, though I don’t think I’d ever quite realized this before, the scene with Dumbledore in the room with the mirror at the end of the chapter represents the beginning of the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore; it’s the first time the two of them ever speak to each other. Dumbledore is his usual brilliant and remarkable self, and knowing that he has essentially engineered this encounter by giving Harry the cloak and so on reveals to the reader who knows Dumbeldore from the later books that he was very deliberately initiating a relationship here that was of critical importance to him on more than one level. It’s very touching, really. I noticed with great interest that several aspects of this scene were referenced in Deathly Hallows, and in particular I can’t help but wonder just how much Rowling knew about where she was ultimately going with her story when she wrote the bit in which Harry asks Dumbledore what he sees in the mirror, and gets an answer that he isn’t sure is entirely truthful.
I don’t feel compelled to say too terribly much about the next couple of chapters. I enjoy the continuing story of our heroes’ interactions with and support of Neville, and Harry’s impressive second Quidditch victory is fun. I did wonder a little whether his relief at learning that Dumbledore was in the stands at the match (which meant to him that Snape wouldn’t dare try anything against him during it) had really been earned; various people had said things at various times about Dumbledore’s greatness, but was it really enough to explain Harry’s reaction? I’m not sure. Regardless, one generalization that I have to make about the book is that it’s sort of remarkable, after reading the rest of the series, to realize just how little Voldemort had to do with the events of the first book. He came up when Harry’s back story was being revealed, he’s mentioned here and there, but if not for the fact that this is a fantasy/hero story and obviously the evil wizard thwarted by the unwitting hero as a baby is important and is going to reappear, you really could read most of the book and think that Harry was pretty much just a kid with a tragic past but a suddenly much brighter future, who’s off having adventures at magic school. Lest I be misunderstood, I see this as a strength of the book — one doesn’t get the sense that the world, or the characters, “know” that Harry has an important destiny, or that Voldemort is close to making a serious attempt at a comeback. Harry comes to school famous, and Ollivander “expects great things” from him, and there are a few forebodings and darkly mysterious things that happen to him (like Snape’s obvious dislike of him, and someone — Snape, he believes — jinxing his broom during the Quidditch match) — but Voldemort is mostly just a frightening part of the past that everyone knows might come back someday in the future, but no one (certainly not Harry or his friends) seems too worried about in the present. Thus, when he suddenly turns up in the forest in the antepenultimate chapter, it’s so unexpected that the effect is genuinely startling, and even terrifying. You’ve sort of almost forgotten about him by this point, and the reader, as much as Harry himself, gets a sort of wake-up call in this scene. Then the centaurs start tossing off comments about dark omens in the heavens and acting like Harry is a person of immense significance — enough so to cause friction between them, even — and things are suddenly very different. This is Harry’s first real hint that he is to remain uniquely significant to the wizarding world’s fate, rather than merely being famous for the role he unwittingly played in it at the age of one.
I come, then, to the “endgame” of the book, about which I have always felt that there are several mysterious unanswered questions. At the end, Ron and Harry discuss the possibility that Dumbledore might have meant for Harry to do what he did, with Harry seeming to conclude that this was indeed the case. What is the reader meant to conclude? Overwhelming evidence both from this and subsequent books supports Harry’s comment that Dumbledore “knows more or less everything that goes on” at Hogwarts; to cite two things, Dumbledore basically reveals in this book that he was invisibly watching Harry and Ron when the former was showing the Mirror of Erised to the latter, and in a later book Dumbledore says something about having watched Harry more closely than he had ever known during his years at school thus far. Harry himself suggests that there may have been purpose behind Dumbledore letting him find out about the mirror. And Dumbledore certainly seems to have anticipated Harry taking action in the end; when he meets Ron and Hermione in the entrance hall, he already knows pretty much exactly what’s going on. Still, there are problems with the notion that Dumbledore knew what was happening all along and was sort of discreetly prepping Harry for his eventual encounter. First, Dumbledore can’t possibly have known that Quirrel was letting Voldemort share his body, or Quirrel would have been chucked out of Hogwarts immediately. At most, he suspected Quirrel in some general way of not being trustworthy (that much at least is substantiated in Deathly Hallows when we see Snape’s memory of being asked by Dumbledore to keep an eye on Quirrel). Maybe he even knew (as Snape apparently did) that Quirrel was after the stone. But how could he have known that Harry would come to the same conclusion — especially given that, in point of fact, Harry didn’t? Harry thought Snape was after the stone! And however closely Dumbledore may have been watching Harry, he clearly wasn’t watching him closely enough to know precisely what Harry was up to where the stone was concerned, because he reacts with delighted surprise in the end upon learning that Harry knows about Flamel. Also, it’s not totally clear why Dumbledore would have wanted Harry to do what he did. Harry speculates that Dumbledore “thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could,” but again, there’s no way I believe that Dumbledore knew that was what was going to happen (plus, in Order of the Phoenix Dumbledore says something about Harry having come face to face with Voldemort far sooner than he (Dumbledore) had ever anticipated — so clearly, that aspect of the encounter wasn’t planned by Dumbledore). It could be, though, that he was indeed trying to give Harry an opportunity to “try his strength,” as he puts it to Snape in Deathly Hallows. But then, why does he leave Hogwarts at what turns out to be the crucial moment? Was he really tricked, as Harry suggests, by a fake message from the ministry actually sent by Quirrel? That’s hard to swallow. But clearly he really was away, and he really did come rushing back just barely in time and intervene in the events going on between Harry and Quirrel/Voldemort rather later than he would have preferred. So what’s the explanation?
I also question the basic setup of the stone being hidden at Hogwarts and the various protections guarding it. Frankly, most of the protections other than Dumbledore’s seemed pretty lame. A logic puzzle? And the room with the winged keys? It seemed more like an obstacle course than a series of magical barriers seriously intended to keep an immensely powerful object out of the hands of a determined dark wizard. Wouldn’t the stone really have been safer in Gringott’s — especially if Dumbledore suspected one of his teachers of being after it? But then, the final obstacle — Dumbledore’s trickery with the mirror, where you had to want to find the stone, but not use it — seems like it should have been pretty infallible, really…unless someone like Harry showed up while the determined dark wizard was standing there being stumped by it, and the dark wizard could then take the stone from Harry! So it seems to me that Harry actually accomplished nothing, and indeed that his actions created the only possibility that Quirrel might actually succeed! Could Dumbledore really have planned or intended this? And if we’re assuming that he didn’t know Voldemort would be personally involved, then it follows that he could not have been counting on the one thing that actually saved Harry — Voldemort’s inability to touch him. So what, exactly, was Dumbledore really up to in this book? It doesn’t seem to me like we’ve ever really been given answers to these questions — and now that the series is complete, of course, we presumably never will.
Of course, none of these mysteries and questions and even criticisms prevent me from loving this book — the classic first installment. In the end, Dumbledore imparts a few answers to Harry, setting up much that will emerge more fully in forthcoming books, but withholds the most crucial answer — about why Voldemort tried to kill Harry in the first place — until he is older, thus effectively whetting the reader’s appetite for more. In the process, he makes a first (albeit implicit) reference via the subject of Nicholas Flamel to his recurring theme that there are things worse than death, and a much more direct reference to his even more important recurring theme about the power of love and Voldemort’s failure to understand it. Then the year comes to an end and Harry heads back to the Dursleys’, though on a note of hope and the dawning of a sense of personal power that foreshadows events to come. Here again occurs a rare instance where the movie version improved slightly on the book — I adored his line in the movie about how he wasn’t really going home — but even so, the first book of the Harry Potter series comes to a satisfying close.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Publication date 2 July 1998
The book was published in the United Kingdom on 2 July 1998 by Bloomsbury and later in the United States on 2 June 1999 by Scholastic Inc. Although Rowling says she found it difficult to finish the book, it won high praise and awards from critics, young readers, and the book industry, although some critics thought the story was perhaps too frightening for younger children. Much like with other novels in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets triggered religious debates; some religious authorities have condemned its use of magical themes, whereas others have praised its emphasis on self-sacrifice and the way one’s character is the result of one’s choices.
Several commentators have noted that personal identity is a strong theme in the book and that it addresses issues of racism through the treatment of non-human, non-magical, and non-living people. Some commentators regard the story’s diary that writes back as a warning against uncritical acceptance of information from sources whose motives and reliability cannot be checked. Institutional authority is portrayed as self-serving and incompetent.
The film adaptation of the novel, released in 2002, became (at the time) the fifth highest-grossing film ever and received generally favourable reviews. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.
The Book Guide Review
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets cannot, unlike its predecessor, rest its laurels on J. K. Rowling’s world-building and the charm of the characters. We have already met Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the cast. We have already had the delightful experience of discovering Hogwarts for the first time. Now it was up to Rowling to ratchet up the intensity of the series either by increasing the stakes or delving more deeply into Harry’s psychology. She doesn’t do nearly enough of either.
I suppose that, from an objective perspective, the stakes are a little higher. Evil not only threatens the world of Hogwarts in this book: it touches it, leaves a mark on it. The Chamber of Secrets (like the Stone of the preceding book, the exact nature of the Chamber is kept a mystery for much of the story) is opened somewhere within the school’s walls, and students are found petrified in the hallways. Yet in spite of all this, I didn’t feel there was as much at risk as in Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone. I never doubted that there would be a cure for a petrifaction, and knew that the threat itself would eventually be eradicated. So the danger here really isn’t much more than a long nap, is it? I didn’t think there was anything in here to match the Forbidden Forest chapter for suspense and thrills.
One of my main complaints about the book is the tedious rehearsal of everything that happened in Sorcerer’s Stone during the opening chapters (and I do mean everything). I’m sure it’s useful for those who somehow missed the first book, or hadn’t read it in awhile, but for those who are coming Chamber it right off of Sorcerer’s Stone, the repetition is unnecessary and irritating.
I’m not especially fond of the new characters Rowling incorporates here, either. Gilderoy Lockhart, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, is occasionally hilarious in his egocentricity (“my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions”), but mostly, he’s just annoying. The Harry Potter fan club nonsense is annoying. Dobby is certainly annoying. Of the new characters, Lucius Malfoy makes for an excellent “surface-level” villain, and it’s nice to read more about the Weasleys; I especially like Mrs. Weasley. It would have been nice to have seen a little more clearly into Ginny’s mind, considering the part she plays in the plot, but I suppose that would have been outside the compass of the narrative.
This is still an engrossing read — I polished it off in half a day — but I would only recommend it on account of what precedes and follows it. It’s still good … just not as good.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The book was published in the United Kingdom on 8 July 1999 by Bloomsbury and in the United States on 8 September 1999 by Scholastic, Inc.[1][2][3][4] Rowling found the book easy to write, finishing it just a year after she began writing it. The book sold 68,000 copies in just three days after its release in the United Kingdom and since has sold over three million in the country.[5] The book won the 1999 Whitbread Children’s Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the 2000 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was short-listed for other awards, including the Hugo.
The film adaptation of the novel was released in 2004, grossing more than $796 million and earning critical acclaim. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.
The Book Guide Review
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling does exactly what I wanted her to do in The Chamber of Secrets: she both ups the stakes for the series as a whole, and takes Harry as a person in unexpected directions.
Despite the fact that Rowling still feels the need to review everything that happened in the previous books during Azkaban’s opening chapters, she’s a bit cleverer about it here than she was in Chamber of Secrets. I just love the opening paragraph:
Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another, he really wanted to do his homework, but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of the night. And he also happened to be a wizard.
There’s an abrupt break with the Dursleys not long into the book, however, and it soon becomes apparent that things are going to go in quite a different direction from the previous two books. Harry is suddenly out on his own, alone, possibly sought after by the Ministry of Magic (due to illegal use of magic against the domineering Aunt Marge), and with a crazed murderer on the loose, who turns out to be his godfather, the man who is known to have betrayed his parents. Of course, Harry does not remain alone for long, as the school year begins and he returns to Hogwarts. But an air of danger pervades the book even after he joins his old classmates and teachers. Is even Hogwarts safe anymore?
What makes this installment a winner is the characterization. The layers are slowly beginning to peeled back. Harry is more than just a boy hero and fish out of water here: he is a young man with the chance for vengeance placed before him, and he must decide whether to take it or not. Hermione is finally given the chance to do something again, having been petrified for a large part of the previous book. And I feel that we see more of the real Snape here than we ever have before … although I am still unsure who the “real Snape” is. As for the new characters, I love love love Professor Lupin (imagine saying that about a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!), and Sirius Black is fascinating. I’ll say no more.
There are some great individual episodes as well. It’s nice to have Quidditch restored to some prominence; I missed it in the previous book. And the Christmas feast, with McGonagall egging Professor Trelawney on, is hilarious. The climax and denouement take up a much larger page count than in either SS or CoS, and during that section I was alternately excited, terrified for the protagonists, saddened, and moved.
When Dumbledore takes up his role as General Purveyor of Platitudes (as he inevitably must near the end of every book), he comments on how an act of mercy binds the forgiven to the forgiver in a unique way, and how such an act may have important consequences in the days to come. This is well-handled by Rowling and reminded me of the Bilbo/Gollum situation in Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. But then he comes out with some hogwash about Harry finding his father “inside himself.” What the heck? You have to keep your eye on Rowling. Sometimes she has something important to say, and sometimes it’s just nonsense.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The book was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury and in the United States by Scholastic. In both countries, the release date was 8 July 2000. This was the first time a book in the series was published in both countries at the same time. The novel won a Hugo Award, the only Harry Potter novel to do so, in 2001. The book was adapted into a film, released worldwide on 18 November 2005, and a video game by Electronic Arts.
The Book Guide Review
Although this fourth installment in the Harry Potter series begins with a long sequence set at the Quidditch World Cup, it focuses on the Tri-Wizard Tournament, hosted by Hogwarts, which brings in teams of young magicians from two other schools; one is clearly intended to be French, the other eastern European. The book is paced by the three events that comprise the tournament, which spans the full school year. It’s a superb plot device, holding together a book that’s nearly double the length of the previous entry in the series.
Along the way, Harry and his cohort encounter the usual mix of familiar faces and new characters, and more secrets of the school and the wizarding world are revealed as well.
Our young heroes are also now immersed in the roiling hormonal mess of early adolescence, and J K Rowling does not spare us from witnessing some of its pains. Ron and Hermione are not getting along, Harry is racked by doubts and insecurity — the tone of the entire book is in fact more jittery and nervous, as Harry dreads and procrastinates over the tasks that await him, and Hogwarts itself is gripped by rumors of the Dark Lord’s return.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a real door-stop of a book — but it’s also engaging and well-written. I read it at the same time as my seven-year-old daughter, and it provides the perfect fodder for Dad-n-Daughter literary discussion. It’s also a splendid way to convince kids that they’re capable of reading ‘really, really long!’ books — once a child has knocked off the 700+ pages of this monster, she’s not going to flinch at too many reading assignments thereafter.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The novel was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada. It sold five million copies in the first 24 hours of publication.[1] It is the longest book of the series.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix won several awards, including the American Library Association Best Book Award for Young Adults in 2003. The book was also made into a 2007 film, and a video game by Electronic Arts.
The Book Guide Review
Here is where we see the potential adult stemming from the child hero of the Harry Potter series. In the last book, Harry was left feeling left out, enraged, confused, and basically all of the emotional trappings of adolescent life. And to add further to his what is not a well tempered young man, he is expected to behave as though nothing has happened; thus his personal rage begins to boil over, and Harry even explores (through the deus ex machina of an outside and evil influence) an urge, a base desire to do harm onto others.
Nevertheless, the other aspect of his character also spurs out: to do good, to protect and teach protection. Though, sometimes the reasons behind these seemingly selfless actions are actually selfish, he does turn protector much to the expectation of his enemies and the caution of his friends. And, of course, his desire to protect both saves and help to destroy: a memory he is forced to live with for the rest of his life and experience at such a young age.
The end of the book I found the most fascinating. The Potter series moves from an adventure epic to a Bildungsroman from which I feel a large number of budding young adults can relate to; especially those who feel as though they have been treated unfairly.
Lately I have stated that Prisoner has been my favorite within the series. Nevertheless, I am seeing the evolution here more than ever of the writer’s skills and ability to convey emotion and of Harry’s Development into a man. As Lev Tolstoy said said of his Anna Karenina, I feel that The Order of the Phoenix is Rowling’s first true novel.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The book was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury and in the United States by Scholastic on 16 July 2005, as well as in several other countries. It sold nine million copies in the first 24 hours after its release, a record that was eventually broken by its sequel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There were many controversies before and after it was published, including the right to read copies delivered before the release date in Canada. Reception to the novel was generally positive, and it won several awards and honours, including the 2006 British Book of the Year award.
Reviewers noted that the book took on a darker tone than its predecessors, though it did contain some humour. Some considered the main themes to be love, death, trust, and redemption. The considerable character development of Harry and many other teenage characters also drew attention.
The film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released on 15 July 2009 by Warner Bros.
The Book Guide Review
This novel is a breathless ride, from the first couple of sequences involving the Muggle Prime Minister and then Snape performing a mysterious Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy to the heartbreaking funeral of one of my favourite characters.
It seems as though Rowling has achieved once again the tight plotting and exciting storyline that she managed in the Prisoner of Azkaban — this sixth book in the series is by far the best since that highlight.
Here we explore a great deal of Voldemort’s back story through the use of memories that Dumbledore has collected from various people who had dealings with the Dark Lord. I loved delving into the why of Voldemort and how he became the pale and snakelike creature he now is from starting out as Tom Riddle.
As well as this, Rowling introduces the idea of Horcruxes — unlike some of the other items she has introduced into previous books just to fulfil some specific use, the Horcrux is much more than this and pulls together the plotlines that have gone before (e.g. the diary of the second novel). I enjoyed how Harry had to pursue Professor Slughorn in order to gain the final memory that would reveal Voldemort’s plans.
Slughorn was an interesting addition to the cast of characters — a genial and rather shallow man, weak and somewhat cowardly. His arrival allowed Snape to finally take on the role of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and pushed Harry into taking Potions and thereby discovering the textbook that was once owned by the Half-Blood Prince of the title.
I adored the fact that Hermione was deeply jealous of Harry’s newfound ability in Potions. I also liked the way that Harry used the notations of the Prince in his textbook — although this lead to one rather nasty and gruesome moment.
In fact, this book is heavy on the nasty events. It is emphasised how much the wizarding world has changed and grown more distrustful. Some pupils are no longer allowed to attend Hogwarts; each day Hermione scans the Daily Prophet to see who has died; and there are gory moments in the plot (such as when Draco and Harry face off against each other).
There are many moments that make this book one of the best in the series. For instance, I deeply appreciated the beautiful touch of Dumbledore saying, at the start of the book, that Harry would be safe because he was with Dumbledore — and then at the end of the book, Dumbledore says that he knows he will be alright because he is with Harry. It is a very poignant moment and reveals the deep feelings of love and respect that Dumbledore has for Harry.
I enjoyed finding out why Tonks’ appearance and Patronus had changed, and I rejoiced when Harry and Ginny finally came together. Another paragraph that had me close to tears was when Harry realised that Luna and Neville were the only two members of the DA who had responded to Hermione’s summons — very moving and honest.
Once again, the gloom of the book is disappated somewhat by some comedy moments — these included the Apparation lessons and test, and Ron’s whole relationship with Lavender (pure comedy gold at times — Won Won!)
This book is excellent — thrilling and emotional in equal measure. And I defy anyone not to feel a tremendous sense of loss when they realise that the seventh book will not include Hogwarts, by now a character in its own right. I look forward immensely to the climax of the Harry Potter series.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
It was released on 14 July 2007 in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, and in Canada by Raincoast Books. The novel chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) and the final confrontation between the wizards Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
Deathly Hallows shattered sales records upon release, surpassing marks set by previous titles of the Harry Potter series. It holds the Guinness World Record for most novels sold within 24 hours of release, with 8.3 million sold in the US and 2.65 million in the UK.[1][2] Generally well received by critics, the book won the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award, and the American Library Association named it the “Best Book for Young Adults”. A film adaptation of the novel was released in two parts: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 in November 2010 and Part 2 in July 2011.
The Book Guide Review
In this book, Rowling brings her much-loved series to a thrilling climax. From it’s humble beginnings as a relatively gentle tale of a celebrated boy wizard, the books have come of age, developing ever more complex and thought provoking concepts.
From the outset we have death in mind, hanging over us like a shadow, thanks to the inclusion of themed quotes from Penn and Aeschylus. A haunting introduction to what we know is Harry’s final battle, whatever the outcome may be. And the tone does not lighten for quite some time, brilliantly creating the air of tension and uncertainty which has been ever descending on this world for some time.
In Deathly Hallows, Harry gradually finds himself without several things he has previously believed he relied upon, the truth growing ever more apparent that his true magic is drawn from friendship, loyalty, protection, courage and the pursuit of what is right.
As always, Rowling’s characters are three-dimensional, and cover the spectrum of humanity, representing every shade of the human condition. Harry, Ron and Hermione have grown into a perfect blend of different facets, which is beautifully demonstrated when each answers the same question at the same time but with different of three possible answers.
While the danger and conflict become ever more threatening, so the wizarding world is faced with new challenges, new levels of violence and new truths to discover about themselves and the world in which they live, not to mention old truths we would all rather not have to face — the loss of innocent lives during times of war, the stained pasts of those we count as heroes, and that to be selfless is sometimes the biggest challenge of all.
Amongst the destruction are moments of absolute joy — one of Rowlings indesputable strengths is her blend of humour amongst despair, sometimes uncomfortably married together, but always expertly placed, so that one can at once be crying and laughing, anxious and amused.
We will miss awaiting news of Harry’s next adventures, indeed many of our questions over the last ten thrilling years have now been answered. We can however rest assured that this story will be visited over and over again, in the imaginations of children and adults alike. And of course, just because it’s in our heads, doesn’t make it any less real
