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Revision as of 12:14, 10 May 2007 by 68.211.211.51 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff){{Infobox Book | name = Harry Potter | image = File:Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.jpg | image_caption = Cover of the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (UK Children's edition). | author = J. K. Rowling (Joanne Rowling) | country = United Kingdom | language FARTFARTFARTFARTclaw]], which favours cleverness; Hufflepuff, which favours fairness and loyalty; and Slytherin, which favours ambition. Upon arrival, Harry, along with his friend Ron, and Hermione, who would later be their friend, are sorted into Gryffindor.Template:HP1
Quidditch: A spectator sport in the Wizard world, played up in the air on brooms, Quidditch is similar in style to polo and football. Harry is a great player at Hogwarts and has helped Gryffindor win a number of games. Harry is the Seeker for his team whose role is to try and catch the Golden Snitch.Template:HP1 J.K. Rowling has stated that there will be no Quidditch matches in book 7, unlike all the previous books.
Characters
Main article: List of characters in the Harry Potter booksStructure and genre
A large portion of the narrative takes place in HELL Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and focuses on Harry Potter's struggles against CONSTIPATION the dark wizard Lord Voldemort. At the same time, the series explores the themes of friendship, ambition, HATE,choice, prejudice, HATE,courage, maturing into adulthood, love, moral responsibility, and the complexities of death and grieving, and are set against the expansive backdrop of a hidden magical world with its own complex history, diverse inhabitants, awe-inspiring creatures, unique culture, and parallel societies.
The novels are very much in the [[fantasy literature|fanBUTT SEXen he tells Cornelius Fudge that what one grows up to be is far more important than what one is born.
As it has been for many characters throughout the series, what Dumbledore termed the "choice between what is right and what is easy" has been a staple of Harry Potter's career at Hogwarts and his choices are among his character's most distinguishing traits from Voldemort's. Both he and Voldemort were orphans raised in difficult environments, in addition to sharing characteristics including, as Dumbledore points out, Voldemort's "own very rare gift, Parseltongue — resourcefulness, determination" and "a certain disregard for rules". However, Harry, unlike Voldemort, has consciously elected to embrace friendship, kindness, and love, where Voldemort knowingly chose to reject them.
While ideas such as love, prejudice, and choice are, as J.K. Rowling states, "deeply entrenched in the whole plot", the writer prefers to let themes "grow organically", rather than sitting down and consciously attempting to impart such ideas to her readers. Friendship and loyalty are perhaps the most "organic" of these, with their main conduit being the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, which allows these motifs to naturally develop as the three age, their relationship matures, and their accumulated experiences at Hogwarts test their loyalty to each other. These ordeals become progressively difficult, keeping in line with the series' increasingly darker tone, and the general nature of adolescence. Along the same lines is the ever-present theme of adolescence, in whose depiction the author has been purposeful in her refusal to ignore her characters' sexualities and leave Harry, as she put it, "stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence".
Also recurring throughout Harry Potter are literary motifs, namely Rowling's frequent use of irony, satire, wordplay, and folklore. From the first page onwards her writing has displayed an ingenuity in finding the absolutely right name for people, places, things, spells, etc. and a strong grasp of irony. From the multilayered sobriquet "Voldemort" through the onomatopoeic "Grawp" (Hagrid's bestial giant half-brother) through the very knowing pun hidden in the killing spell Avada Kedavra, Rowling creates names that usually contain several meanings.
Chronology
Main article: Chronology of the Harry Potter seriesThe books mainly avoid setting the story in a particular real year. However, there are a few references which allow the books and various past events mentioned in them to be assigned corresponding real years. In particular, that Harry is born in 1980, and the first book commences 1991. A timeline was first suggested by HP-Lexicon, and has since been confirmed by publication of an official version on the DVDs of the films by Warner brothers, from comments by Rowling and by her separate donation of a copy of the Black family tree to a charity auction.
Criticism and praise
Early in its history, Harry Potter received overwhelmingly BONERS , which helped the series to quickly grow a large readership. Following the 2003 release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix however, the books received strong criticisms from a number of distinguished authors and academics. A. S. Byatt authored a New York Times editorial calling Rowling's universe a “secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip". Byatt went on to analyse the series' widespread appeal and concluded that this "derivative manipulation of past motifs" is for adult readers driven by a desire to regress to their "own childish desires and hopes" and for younger readers, "the powerful working of the fantasy of escape and empowerment, combined with the fact that the stories are comfortable, funny, just frightening enough". The end result being the levelling "of cultural studies, which are as interested in hype and popularity as they are in literary merit". Likewise, author Fay Weldon took issue with the series saying that it was "not what the poets hoped for, but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose". Literary critic Harold Bloom also attacked the literary worth of Potter, saying “Rowling's mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing." Moreover, Bloom disagreed with the common notion that Harry Potter has been good for literature by encouraging children to read, contending that "Harry Potter will not lead our children on to Kipling's Just So Stories or his Jungle Book. It will not lead them to Thurber's Thirteen Clocks or Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows or Lewis Carroll's Alice."
Charles Taylor of Salon.com took issue with Byatt's criticisms in particular. While he conceded that she may have "a valid cultural point — a teeny one — about the impulses that drive us to reassuring pop trash and away from the troubling complexities of art", he rejected her claims that the series is lacking in serious literary merit and that it owes its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers; Taylor stressed the progressively darker tone of the books, shown by the murder of a classmate and close friend and the resulting psychological wounds and social isolation each causes. Taylor also pointed out that Philosopher's Stone, said to be the most lighthearted of the six published books, disrupts the childhood reassurances that Byatt claims spurs the series' success: the book opens with news of a double murder, for example. Taylor specifically cites "the devastating scene where Harry encounters a mirror that reveals the heart's truest desire and, looking into it, sees himself happy and smiling with the parents he never knew, a vision that lasts only as long as he looks into the glass, and a metaphor for how fleeting our moments of real happiness are", then asks rhetorically if "this is Byatt's idea of reassurance?" Taylor concludes that Rowling's success among children and adults is "because J.K. Rowling is a master of narrative".
Stephen King agreed with Taylor calling the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", along with declaring "Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humour" to be "remarkable". However, he does write that despite the story being "a good one", he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle", the formulaic beginning of each of the six books published to date. King has also joked that "'s never met an adverb she didn't like!" He does however predict that Harry Potter "will indeed stand time's test and wind up on a shelf where only the best are kept; I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck, Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, b
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to Hermione's apparent emotional frailty when confronting the same, along with her need for Harry and Ron's approval. Similarly, she contrasts the female Professor McGonagall and her similar frailty under stress compared to the composed and farsighted Dumbledore. In addition to this is the attachment of fraud to females (Professor Trelawney, Professor Umbridge), immaturity (constantly giggling, naïve and catty school girls), and a general lack of daring, bold heroines.
The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was very negative - "the Potter saga was essentially patronising, very conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain" and adds that "several of the Whitbread judges agreed with me".
Awards and honours
J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series have been the recipients of a host of awards since the initial publication of Philosopher's Stone including four Whitaker Platinum Book Awards (all of which were awarded in 2001), three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997-1999), two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (1999 and 2001), the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award, (1999), the WHSmith book of the year (2006), among others. In 2000 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo Awards while in 2001 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won said award. Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997), a shortlisting for the Guardian Children's Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors' Choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, New York Times, Chicago Public Library, and Publishers Weekly.
Commercial success
The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. The books have sold over 325 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been successful in their own right with the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ranking number four on the list of all-time highest grossing films and the other three Harry Potter films each ranking in the top 20.Cite error: A <ref>
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(see the help page). making it the longest work in that language since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD.
The high profile and huge public demand for a decent local translation means that a great deal of care is often taken in the task; the Russian translation of the series' fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was overseen by Viktor Golyshev, previously best known for translating William Faulkner and George Orwell. The Turkish translation of books two through five was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentator. Of necessity, these translations take longer to reach their audience than the English editions, and oftentimes this leads to the English books being sold in non-English speaking countries. Such was the global clamour to read the fifth book that its English language edition became the first English-language book ever to top the bookseller list in France.
Cultural impact
Further information: Harry Potter fandomSince the publishing of Philosopher's Stone a number of societal trends have been attributed to the series. In 2005, doctors at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford reported that their research of the weekends of Saturday 21 June2003 and Saturday 16 July 2005 (the dates of the two most recent book releases of the series) found that only 36 children needed emergency medical assistance for injuries sustained in accidents, as opposed to other weekends' average of 67. Also, anecdotal evidence suggesting an increase in literacy among children due to Harry Potter was seemingly confirmed in 2006 when the Kids and Family Reading Report (in conjunction with Scholastic) released a survey finding that 51% of Harry Potter readers ages 5-17 said that while they did not read books for fun before they started reading Harry Potter, they now did. The study further reported that according to 65% of children and 76% of parents, they or their children's performance in school improved since they started reading the series. Among this large base of fans are a minority of "super-fans", similar to the trekkies of the Star Trek fandom. Besides meeting online through blogs, podcasts, and fansites, Harry Potter super-fans can also meet at Harry Potter symposiums. These events draw people from around the world to attend lectures, discussions and a host of other Potter themed activities.
The Harry Potter books have inspired the "Wizard Rock" movement, where a number of bands were formed whose names, image and song lyrics relate to the Harry Potter world. Examples include Harry and the Potters and The Cruciatus Curse.
Harry Potter has also brought changes in the publishing world, one of the most noted being the reformation of the New York Times Best Seller list. The change came immediately preceding the release of Goblet of Fire in 2000 when publishers complained of the number of slots on the list being held by Harry Potter and other children's books. The Times subsequently created a separate children's list for Harry Potter and other children's literature.
The word muggle has spread beyond its Harry Potter origins, used by many groups to indicate those who are not in the know or are lacking in some skill. In 2003, "muggle", entered the Oxford English Dictionary with that definition.
Pop culture references
See also: Harry Potter parodiesHarry Potter and J.K. Rowling, most notably the use of the spell "Expelliarmus" to banish the witches who were the villains of the episode as well as a comment about the upcoming release of the seventh book.
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the starter episode of season 7, Willow describes Giles as having "gone all Dumbledore" on her, referring to the attitude Dumbledore had towards Harry.
Controversy
Main articles: Controversy over Harry Potter and Works analogous to Harry PotterFuture
There are currently three more Harry Potter films yet to be released. The fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is due to be released in cinemas on July 13, 2007, and the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is due to be released in November 2008.
In December 2005, Rowling stated on her web site that "2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series." Updates have since followed in her online diary chronicling the progress of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the release date of July 21 2007.
The book itself had been finished on January 11 2007 in the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh, where she scrawled a message on the back of a bust of Hermes. It read: “JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11th Jan 2007.”
Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the seventh book was completed some time ago, before writing the third book. According to her, the last word in the book is "scar", but she has since stated that this could change.
In June 2006, Rowling, on an appearance on the British talk show Richard & Judy, announced that the chapter had been modified as one character "got a reprieve" and two others who previously survived the story had in fact been killed. She also said she could see the logic in killing off Harry in order to stop other writers from writing books about Harry's life after Hogwarts.
On 28 March, 2007, the cover art for the Bloomsbury Adult and Child versions and the Scholastic version were released.
Regarding the existence of Harry Potter novels beyond the seventh, Rowling has said that she might write an eighth book some day, but it will not continue the life of Harry and his friends. If she does, she intends it to be a sort of encyclopaedia of the wizarding world, containing concepts and snippets of information that were not relevant enough to the novels' plots to be included in them. Any future Harry Potter books, she said, would also be written for charity, just as Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them were. She also stated that she would like to write adult mystery novels after she is done with the last Harry Potter book. She has also said that she will not write any sort of prequel to the novels, since by the time the series ends all the necessary back story will have been revealed.
Series
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (June 26 1997) (titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (July 2 1998)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (July 8 1999)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (July 8 2000)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (June 21 2003)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 16, 2005)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Scheduled for July 21, 2007)
Supplementary books
Other media
Films
Main article: Harry Potter (films)- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (November 16, 2001)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (November 15, 2002)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (June 4, 2004)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (November 18, 2005)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13, 2007)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (November 21, 2008)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (tbd; production is confirmed, but no date has been set.)
Games
These games follow the plotline
This game does not follow the plotline of the books, rather focusing on the quidditch aspects of the book:
References
- Accio Quote: Luna commentated last Quidditch match
- Rowling, J.K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (US Hardback). p. 708.
- Cite error: The named reference
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - "Mzimba, Lizo, moderator. Interview with Steve Kloves and J.K. Rowling". Quick Quotes Quill. February 2003.
- "About the Books: transcript of J.K. Rowling's live interview on Scholastic.com". Scholastic.com. 16 October 2000.
- "Harry Potter and the Childish Adult". New York Times. July 7, 2003.
- "Rowling books 'for people with stunted imaginations'". The Guardian. July 11, 2003.
- Bloom, Harold. "Dumbing down American readers". Boston.com. Retrieved 2006-06-20.
- "A. S. Byatt and the goblet of bile". Salon.com. July 8, 2003.
- ""Wild About Harry"". New York Times. July 23, 2000.
- Schoeffer, Christine. "Harry Potter's girl trouble". Salon.com. Retrieved 2006-06-20.
- "Why Harry Potter doesn't cast a spell over me". The Observer. June 25, 2000.
- Arthur, Levine. "Awards". Arthur A. Levine Books. Retrieved 2006-05-21.
- Greek Harry Accessed 25 November 2006.
- Steven Goldstein (2004). "Translating Harry — Part I: The Language of Magic". GlobalByDesign. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
- EMRAH GÜLER (2005). "Not lost in translation: Harry Potter in Turkish". Retrieved 2007-05-09.
- Cite error: The named reference
OOTP is best seller in France - in English!
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - "Reading 'cuts childhood injuries'". BBC News. 23 December 2005.
- |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,927-1698839,00.html |publisher=Times Online |title=Harry Potter casts spell at checkouts |date=July 18, 2005 }}
- "Potter book smashes sales records". BBC. July 18, 2005.
- "Why 'Harry Potter' did a Harry Houdini". CNN. July 21, 2000.
- Meg McCaffrey (2003). "'Muggle' Redux in the Oxford English Dictionary". Retrieved 2007-05-01.
- "Order of the Phoenix film due out on November 13, 2007". MuggleNet. March 1, 2006.
- "Confirmed: HBP movie release date". MuggleNet. 2006-08-04.
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(help) - "Potter author signs off in style". British Broadcasting Corporation. 2007-02-02.
- ""Talking With JK Rowling"". Book Links. July 1999.
- JKR On Richard & Judy – Transcript
- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Cover Art". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
- Will you write more Harry Potter books after the seventh?
- The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part One
- Edinburgh Book Festival
- "Confirmed : 'Phoenix' flies on July 13, 2007". HPANA. 2006-04-05. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
- "Confirmed: HBP movie release date". MuggleNet. 2006-08-04. Retrieved 2006-12-17.
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Further reading
- Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747532699.
- Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747538492.
- Rowling, J. K. (1999). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747542155.
- Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Bloomsbury. ISBN 074754624X.
- Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747551006.
- Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747581088.
- Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury. ISBN 1551929767.
External links
Official sites
- J.K. Rowling's personal website
- Official Harry Potter movies website (Warner Bros.)
- Harry Potter on Bloomsbury.com (International publisher)
- Harry Potter on Scholastic.com (US publisher)
- Harry Potter on Raincoast.com (Canadian publisher)
Other resources
- Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter
- The Harry Potter Wiki
- Summaries of all Harry Potter books
- Harry Potter website from The Leaky Cauldron
- Harry Potter website from Mugglenet
- collected information from Harry Potter Lexicon
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