| Harry potter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling.
The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry
Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley
and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc
concerns Harry's quest to overcome the evil dark wizard Lord Voldemort,
whose aim is to subjugate non-magical people, conquer the wizarding world, and destroy all those who stand in his way, especially
Harry Potter.
Since the 30 June 1997 release of
the first novel Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,
the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial
success worldwide.[2]
The series has also had some share of criticism, including concern for the
increasingly dark tone. As of June 2011, the book series has sold about 450
million copies and has been translated
into 67 languages,[3][4]
and the last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books
in history.
A series of many genres, including fantasy and coming of age
(with elements of mystery, thriller, and romance), it has
many cultural meanings and references.[5][6][7][8]
According to Rowling, the main theme is death,[9]
although it is primarily considered to be a work of children's literature. There are also many other themes in the series, such as
love and prejudice.[10]
The initial major publishers of the
books were Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Press in the United States; the books have since been published
by many publishers worldwide. In October 2011, the series will be released in
various ebook formats through "Pottermore".[11]
The books have been made into an eight-part film
series by Warner Bros. Pictures,
with the seventh book split into two parts; it is the highest
grossing film series of all time. The series also
originated much tie-in merchandise, making the Harry
Plot
Further information: Harry Potter universe
The novels revolve around Harry
Potter, an orphan who discovers at the age
of eleven that he is a wizard, living within the ordinary world of non-magical,
or Muggle, people.[13]
His ability is inborn and such children are invited to attend a school that
teaches the necessary skills to succeed in the wizarding world.[14]
Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and it is in here where most of the novels' events take
place. As Harry develops through his adolescence, he learns to overcome the
problems that face him: magical, social and emotional, including ordinary
teenage challenges such as friendships and exams, and the greater test of
preparing himself for the confrontation that lies ahead.[15]
Each book chronicles one year in
Harry's life[16]
with the main narrative being set in the years 1991–98.[17]
The books also contain many flashbacks, which are usually described by characters viewing memories
in a device called a Pensieve.
Early
years
When the story of Harry Potter
opens, it is clear that some remarkable event has taken place in the wizarding
world, an event so very remarkable that even the Muggles notice signs of it.
The full background to the stories and to the person of Harry Potter is only
revealed gradually, through the series. In the first book Harry discovers that
as a baby he witnessed his parents' murder by the power-obsessed dark wizard, Lord Voldemort,
who then attempted to kill him also.[18]
For reasons not immediately revealed, the spell with which Voldemort tried to
kill Harry rebounded. Harry survives with only a lightning-shaped scar on his
forehead as a memento of the attack, and Voldemort disappears. As its
inadvertent saviour from Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry becomes a living
legend in the wizarding world. However, at the orders of the venerable and well-known
wizard Albus Dumbledore, the orphaned Harry is placed in the home of his unpleasant
Muggle (non-wizard)
relatives, the Dursleys. The Dursleys keep him safe but hide his true heritage
from him in hopes that he will grow up "normal".[18]
The first novel in the series, Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(changed in some countries to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone),
begins near Harry's eleventh birthday. Half-giant Rubeus Hagrid reveals Harry's history and introduces him to the wizarding world.[18]
The environment J. K. Rowling created is completely separate from reality yet
intimately connected to it. While the fantasy land
of Narnia is an alternative
universe and the Lord of the Rings’
Middle-earth
a mythic past, the wizarding world of Harry Potter exists in parallel
within the real world and this is how Potter's world contains magical elements
similar to things in everyday life. Many of its institutions and locations are
recognizable, such as London.[19]
It comprises a fragmented collection of hidden streets, overlooked and ancient
pubs, lonely country manors and secluded castles that remain invisible to the
Muggle population.[14]
With Hagrid's help, Harry prepares
for and undertakes his first year of study at Hogwarts. As Harry begins to
explore the magical world, the reader is introduced to many of the primary
locations used throughout the series. Harry meets most of the main characters
and gains his two closest friends: Ron Weasley,
a fun-loving member of an ancient, large, happy, but hard-up wizarding family,
and Hermione Granger, a gifted and hard working witch of non-magical parentage.[18][20]
Harry also encounters the school's potions master, Severus Snape,
who displays a deep and abiding dislike for him. The plot concludes with
Harry's second confrontation with Lord Voldemort, who in his quest for
immortality, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher's
Stone.[18]
The series continues with Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
describing Harry's second year at Hogwarts. He and his friends investigate a
50-year-old mystery that appears tied to recent sinister events at the school.
Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley,
enrols in her first year at Hogwarts, and finds a notebook which turns out to
be Voldemort's diary from his school days. Ginny becomes possessed by Voldemort
through the diary and opens the "Chamber of Secrets", unleashing an
ancient monster which begins attacking students at Hogwarts. The novel delves
into the history of Hogwarts and a legend revolving around the Chamber. For the
first time, Harry realises that racial prejudice exists in the wizarding world,
and he learns that Voldemort's reign of terror was often directed at wizards
who were descended from Muggles. Harry also learns that his ability to speak Parseltongue,
the language of snakes, is rare and often associated with the Dark Arts.
The novel ends after Harry saves Ginny's life by by destroying a basilisk and the diary, in which Voldemort saved a piece of his soul
(although Harry does not realise this until later in the series). The concept
of storing part of one's soul inside of an object in order to prevent death is
officially introduced in the sixth novel under the term "horcrux".
The third novel, Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,
follows Harry in his third year of magical education. It is the only book in
the series which does not feature Voldemort. Instead, Harry must deal with the
knowledge that he has been targeted by Sirius Black,
an escaped murderer believed to have assisted in the deaths of Harry's parents.
As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors—dark
creatures with the power to devour a human soul—which are ostensibly protecting
the school, he reaches out to Remus Lupin,
a Defence
Against the Dark Arts teacher who is eventually revealed
to be a werewolf. Lupin
teaches Harry defensive measures which are well above the level of magic
generally shown by people his age. Harry learns that both Lupin and Black were
close friends of his father and that Black was framed by their fourth friend, Peter Pettigrew.[21]
In this book, another recurring theme throughout the series is emphasised—in
every book there is a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, none of whom
lasts more than one school year.
During Harry's fourth year of school
(detailed in Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
Harry is unwillingly entered as a participant in the Triwizard Tournament, a dangerous contest where Harry must compete against a
witch and a wizard "champion" from visiting schools as well as
another Hogwarts student.[22]
Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, who turns out to be an impostor – one of Voldemort's
supporters named Barty Crouch, Jr in disguise. The point at which the mystery is unraveled
marks the series' shift from foreboding and uncertainty into open conflict.
Voldemort's plan to have Crouch use the tournament to bring Harry to Voldemort
succeeds. Although Harry manages to escape from him, Cedric Diggory, the other
Hogwarts champion in the tournament, is killed and Voldemort resurges.
In the fifth book, Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,
Harry must confront the newly resurfaced Voldemort. In response to Voldemort's
reappearance, Dumbledore re-activates the Order
of the Phoenix, a secret society which works from
Sirius Black's dark family home to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect
Voldemort's targets, especially Harry. Despite Harry's description of
Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic
and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has
returned.[23]
In an attempt to counter and eventually discredit Dumbledore, who along with
Harry is the most prominent voice in the wizarding world attempting to warn of
Voldemort's return, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge
as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. She transforms the school into a
dictatorial regime and refuses to allow the students to learn ways to defend
themselves against dark magic.[23]
Harry forms "Dumbledore's Army", a secret study group to teach his classmates the
higher-level skills of Defence Against the Dark Arts that he has learned. An
important prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is revealed,[24]
and Harry discovers that he and Voldemort have a painful connection, allowing
Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions telepathically. In the novel's
climax, Harry and his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters.
Although the timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the
children's lives, Sirus Black is killed in the conflict.[23]
Voldemort begins waging open warfare
in Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Although Harry and friends are relatively protected from that danger at
Hogwarts, they are subject to all the difficulties of adolescence; Harry
eventually begins dating Ginny Weasley. Near the beginning of the novel, Harry
is given an old potions textbook filled with annotations and recommendations
signed by a mysterious writer, the Half-Blood Prince. Harry also takes private
lessons with Dumbledore, who shows him various memories concerning the early
life of Voldemort. These reveal that Voldemort's soul is splintered into a
series of horcruxes,
evil enchanted items hidden in various locations.[25]
Harry's snobbish adversary, Draco Malfoy, attempts to attack Dumbledore, and
the book culminates in the killing of Dumbledore by Professor Snape, the
titular Half-Blood Prince.
Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
the last book in the series, begins directly after the events of the sixth
book. Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the
Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione drop out of school so that they can
find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. To ensure their own safety as
well as that of their family and friends, they are forced to isolate themselves.
As they search for the horcruxes, the trio learn details about Dumbledore's
past, as well as Snape's true motives—he had worked on Dumbledore's behalf
since the murder of Harry's mother.
The book culminates in the Battle of
Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, in conjunction with members of the Order of
the Phoenix and many of the teachers and students, defend Hogwarts from
Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and various magical
creatures. Several major characters are
killed in the first wave of the battle. After learning that he himself is a
horcrux, Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who casts a killing curse at
him. However, the defenders of Hogwarts do not surrender after learning this,
but continue to fight on. Having managed to return from the dead, Harry finally
faces Voldemort, whose horcruxes have all been destroyed. In the subsequent
battle, Voldemort's curse rebounds off of Harry's spell and kills Voldemort. An
epilogue describes the lives of the surviving characters and the effects on the
wizarding world.
Supplementary
works
See also: J. K. Rowling: Philanthropy
Rowling has expanded the Harry Potter universe with several short books produced for various charities.[26][27]
In 2001, she released Fantastic
Beasts and Where to Find Them
(a purported Hogwarts textbook) and Quidditch
Through the Ages (a book Harry reads for fun).
Proceeds from the sale of these two books benefitted the charity Comic Relief.[28]
In 2007, Rowling composed seven handwritten copies of The
Tales of Beedle the Bard,
a collection of fairy tales that is featured in the final novel, one of which
was auctioned to raise money for the Children's High Level Group, a fund for
mentally disabled children in poor countries. The book was published
internationally on 4 December 2008[29][30]
Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller
Waterstones.[31]
In 2011, Rowling launched a new website announcing an upcoming project called Pottermore.[32]
Structure
and genre
See also: Harry
Potter influences and analogues
The Harry Potter novels fall
within the genre of fantasy literature; however, in many respects they are also bildungsromans,
or coming of age novels,[33]
and contain elements of mystery, adventure, thriller, and romance. They can
be considered part of the British children's boarding school
genre, which includes Rudyard Kipling's
Stalky & Co., Enid Blyton's Malory Towers,
St. Clare's and the Naughtiest Girl
series, and Frank
Richards's Billy Bunter
novels: the Harry Potter books are predominantly set in Hogwarts, a
fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes
the use of magic.[34]
In this sense they are "in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes's
Tom
Brown's School Days and other
Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life".[35][36]
They are also, in the words of Stephen King,
"shrewd mystery tales",[37]
and each book is constructed in the manner of a Sherlock Holmes-style
mystery adventure. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening
chapters of Philosopher's
Stone and Deathly
Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood
Prince).
In the middle of each book, Harry
struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves
the need to violate some school rules. If students are caught breaking rules, they
are often disciplined by Hogwarts professors, who employ the use of punishments
often found in the boarding school sub-genre.[34]
However, the stories reach their climax in the summer term,
near or just after final exams,
when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry
must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters,
with the stakes a matter of life and death–a point underlined, as the series
progresses, by one or more characters being killed in each of the final four
books.[38][39]
In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and
discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore.
In the final novel, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only
return there to face Voldemort at the dénouement.[38]
Completing the bildungsroman format, in this part Harry must grow up
prematurely, losing the chance of a last year as a pupil in a school and
needing to act as an adult, on whose decisions everybody else depends—the
grown-ups included.[40]
Themes
According to Rowling, a major theme
in the series is death: "My books are largely about death. They open with the
death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death
and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so
understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of
it."[9]
Academics and journalists have
developed many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex
than others, and some including political
subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have
all been considered as prevalent throughout the series.[41]
Similarly, the theme of making one's way through adolescence and "going
over one's most harrowing ordeals—and thus coming to terms with them" has
also been considered.[42]
Rowling has stated that the books comprise "a prolonged argument for
tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry" and
that also pass on a message to "question authority and... not assume that
the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth".[43]
While the books could be said to
comprise many other themes, such as power/abuse of power, love, prejudice, and free choice, they 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.[10]
Along the same lines is the ever-present theme of adolescence, in whose
depiction Rowling has been purposeful in acknowledging her characters'
sexualities and not leaving Harry, as she put it, "stuck in a state of
permanent pre-pubescence".[44]
Rowling said that, to her, the moral significance of the tales seems
"blindingly obvious". The key for her was the choice between what is
right and what is easy, "because that ... is how tyranny is
started, with people being apathetic
and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep
trouble."[45]
In 1990, J. K. Rowling was on a
crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry suddenly "fell into her
head". Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying:[46]
"I had been writing almost continuously since the age of
six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and
thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my
brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was
a wizard became more and more real to me."
Rowling completed Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone in 1995 and the manuscript
was sent off to several prospective agents.[47]
The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and
sent the manuscript to Bloomsbury. After eight other publishers had rejected Philosopher's
Stone, Bloomsbury offered Rowling a £2,500 advance for its publication.[48][49]
Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter
books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven.[50]
On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral
pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that
they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a
woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her
grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name.[49][51]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all Harry Potter books in the
United Kingdom, on 30 June 1997.[52]
It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998 by Scholastic—the
American publisher of the books—as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,[53]
after Rowling had received US$105,000 for the American rights—an unprecedented
amount for a children's book by a then-unknown author.[54]
Fearing that American readers would not associate the word
"philosopher" with a magical theme (although the Philosopher's Stone is alchemy-related), Scholastic insisted that the book be
given the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the American
market.
The second book, Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998
and in the US on 2 June 1999. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8
September 1999.[55]
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the
same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[56]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the
series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.[57]
It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.[58]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005,
and it sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[59][60]
The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was
published 21 July 2007.[61]
The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, breaking down
to 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[62]
Translations
Main article: Harry
Potter in translation
The series has been translated into
67 languages,[3][63]
placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history.[64]
The books have seen translations to diverse languages such as Azerbaijani, Ukrainian, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Welsh, Afrikaans,
Latvian and Vietnamese. The first volume has been translated into Latin and even Ancient Greek,[65]
making it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD.[66]
Some of the translators hired to
work on the books were well-known authors before their work on Harry Potter,
such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series' fifth
book. The Turkish translation of books two to seven was undertaken by Sevin Okyay,
a popular literary critic and cultural commentator.[67]
For reasons of secrecy, translation can only start when the books are released
in English; thus there is a lag of several months before the translations are
available. This has led to more and more copies of the English editions being
sold to impatient fans in non-English speaking countries. Such was the clamour
to read the fifth book that its English language edition became the first
English-language book ever to top the bestseller list in France.[68]
The United States editions of the Harry
Potter novels have required the adaptation of the texts into American English,
as many words and concepts used by the characters in the novels may have not
been understood by a young American audience.[69]
Completion
of the series
In December 2005, Rowling stated on
her web site, "2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry
Potter series."[70]
Updates then followed in her online diary
chronicling the progress of Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
with the release date of 21 July 2007. The book itself was finished on 11
January 2007 in the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh, where she scrawled a message on the back of a bust of Hermes. It read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (552) on 11 January 2007."[71]
Rowling herself has stated that the
last chapter of the final book (in fact, the epilogue) was completed "in
something like 1990".[72][73]
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. On 28 March 2007, the cover art for the Bloomsbury Adult and Child
versions and the Scholastic version were released.[74][75]
Crowds wait outside a Borders store
in Newark, Delaware for the midnight release of Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Fans of the series were so eager for
the latest instalment that bookstores around the world began holding events to
coincide with the midnight release of the books, beginning with the 2000
publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The events, commonly
featuring mock sorting, games, face painting,
and other live entertainment have achieved popularity with Potter fans and have been
highly successful in attracting fans and selling books with nearly nine million
of the 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince sold in the first 24 hours.[76][77]
The final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
became the fastest selling book in history, moving 11 million units in the
first twenty-four hours of release .[78]
The series has also gathered adult fans, leading to the release of two editions
of each Harry Potter book, identical in text but with one edition's
cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults.[79]
Besides meeting online through blogs, podcasts, and
fansites, Harry Potter super-fans can also meet at Harry Potter symposia. The word Muggle has spread beyond its Harry
Potter origins, becoming one of few pop culture words to land in the Oxford
English Dictionary.[80]
The Harry Potter fandom has embraced podcasts as a regular, often weekly,
insight to the latest discussion in the fandom. Both MuggleCast
and PotterCast[81]
have reached the top spot of iTunes podcast rankings and have been polled one
of the top 50 favourite podcasts.[82]
Awards
and honours
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),[83]
three Nestlé
Smarties Book Prizes (1997–1999),[84]
two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (1999 and 2001),[85]
the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the
year award (1999),[86]
the WHSmith book of the year (2006),[87]
among others. In 2000, Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
was nominated for a Hugo Award
for Best Novel, and in 2001, Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire
won said award.[88]
Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal
(1997),[89]
a short listing 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, The New York Times, Chicago Public Library, and Publishers Weekly.[90]
Commercial
success
See also: List of
best-selling books
The popularity of the Harry
Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for
Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders.
This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[91]
The books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have also given
rise to the popular film adaptations
produced by Warner Bros., all
of which have been highly successful in their own right.[4][92]
The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing
of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod). The Harry Potter brand has been estimated to be worth as
much as $15 billion.[12]
The great demand for Harry Potter
books motivated the New York Times to create a separate bestseller list
for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire. By 24 June 2000, Rowling's novels had been on the
list for 79 straight weeks; the first three novels were each on the hardcover
bestseller list.[93]
On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order
record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[94]
For the release of Goblet of Fire, 9,000 FedEx trucks were used with no other purpose than to deliver the
book.[95]
Together, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble
pre-sold more than 700,000 copies of the book.[95]
In the United States, the book's initial printing run was 3.8 million
copies.[95]
This record statistic was broken by Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,
with 8.5 million, which was then shattered by Half-Blood Prince
with 10.8 million copies.[96]
6.9 million copies of Prince were sold in the U.S. within the first
24 hours of its release; in the United Kingdom more than two million copies
were sold on the first day.[97]
The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million
copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes
& Noble.[98]
British editions of the seven Harry
Potter books.
Early in its history, Harry
Potter received positive reviews. On publication, the first volume, Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, attracted attention from the Scottish
newspapers, such as The Scotsman, which said it had "all the makings of a classic",[99]
and The Glasgow Herald, which called it "Magic stuff".[99]
Soon the English newspapers joined in, with more than one comparing it to Roald Dahl's
work: The Mail on Sunday rated it as "the most imaginative debut since Roald
Dahl",[99]
a view echoed by The Sunday Times ("comparisons to Dahl are, this time,
justified"),[99]
while The Guardian called it "a richly textured novel given lift-off by
an inventive wit".[99]
By the time of the release of the
fifth volume, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the books began
to receive strong criticism from a number of literary scholars. Yale professor,
literary scholar and critic Harold Bloom
raised criticisms of the books' literary merits, saying, "Rowling's mind
is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of
writing."[100]
A. S. Byatt
authored a New York Times op-ed article calling Rowling's universe a
"secondary world, made up of 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".[101]
Michael Rosen, a novelist and poet, advocated the books were not suited
for children, who would be unable to grasp the complex themes. Rosen also
stated that "J. K. Rowling is more of an adult writer."[102]
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 negative—"the
Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative,
dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain", and he speaks of
"pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style".[103]
Ursula Le Guin said, "I have no great opinion of it. When so many
adult critics were carrying on about the 'incredible originality' of the first
Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained
somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid's fantasy crossed with a "school
novel", good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary,
imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited."[104]
By contrast, author Fay Weldon,
while admitting that the series is "not what the poets hoped for",
nevertheless goes on to say, "but this is not poetry, it is readable,
saleable, everyday, useful prose".[105]
The literary critic A. N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times,
stating: "There are not many writers who have JK’s Dickensian ability to
make us turn the pages, to weep—openly, with tears splashing—and a few pages
later to laugh, at invariably good jokes ... We have lived through a
decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest,
scariest and most moving children’s stories ever written".[106]
Charles Taylor of Salon.com, who is primarily a movie critic,[107]
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",[108]
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 psychological wounds and social isolation
each causes. Taylor also argued that Philosopher's Stone, said to be the
most light-hearted of the seven published books, disrupts the childhood
reassurances that Byatt claims spur the series' success: the book opens with news
of a double murder, for example.[108]
Stephen King called the series "a feat of which only a superior
imagination is capable", and declared "Rowling's punning,
one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humour" to be "remarkable". However,
he wrote 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 all seven books.[37]
King has also joked that "Rowling's never met an adverb she did not
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, but for the ages".[109]
Social
impacts
Although Time magazine named Rowling as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year award, noting the social, moral, and political
inspiration she has given her fandom,[110]
cultural comments on the series have been mixed. Washington Post
book critic Ron Charles opined in July 2007 that the large numbers of adults
reading the Potter series but few other books may represent a "bad
case of cultural infantilism", and that the straightforward "good vs.
evil" theme of the series is "childish". He also argued
"through no fault of Rowling's", the cultural and marketing
"hysteria" marked by the publication of the later books "trains
children and adults to expect the roar of the coliseum, a mass-media
experience that no other novel can possibly provide".[111]
Librarian Nancy Knapp pointed out
the books' potential to improve literacy by
motivating children to read much more than they otherwise would.[112]
Agreeing about the motivating effects, Diane Penrod also praised the books'
blending of simple entertainment with "the qualities of highbrow literary
fiction", but expressed concern about the distracting effect of the
prolific merchandising that accompanies the book launches.[113]
Jennifer Conn used Snape's and
Quidditch coach Madam Hooch's teaching methods as examples of what to avoid and
what to emulate in clinical teaching,[114]
and Joyce Fields wrote that the books illustrate four of the five main topics
in a typical first-year sociology class: "sociological concepts including culture, society, and socialisation;
stratification and social inequality;
social institutions; and social theory".[115]
Jenny Sawyer wrote in 25 July 2007 Christian
Science Monitor that the books represent a
"disturbing trend in commercial storytelling and Western society" in
that stories "moral center [sic] have all but vanished from much of
today's pop culture ... after 10 years, 4,195 pages, and over 375 million
copies, J. K. Rowling's towering achievement lacks the cornerstone of almost
all great children's literature: the hero's moral journey". Harry Potter,
Sawyer argues, neither faces a "moral struggle" nor undergoes any
ethical growth, and is thus "no guide in circumstances in which right and
wrong are anything less than black and white".[116]
On the other hand Emily Griesinger described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾
as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as
the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes. She also
noted the "deeper magic" by which the self-sacrifice of Harry's
mother protects the boy throughout the series, and which the power-hungry Voldemort
fails to understand.[117]
In an 8 November 2002 Slate article, Chris Suellentrop likened Potter to a
"trust-fund kid whose success at school is largely attributable to the
gifts his friends and relatives lavish upon him". Noting that in Rowling's
fiction, magical ability potential is "something you are born to, not
something you can achieve", Suellentrop wrote that Dumbledore's maxim that
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our
abilities" is hypocritical, as "the school that Dumbledore runs
values native gifts above all else".[118]
In a 12 August 2007 New York Times review of Deathly Hallows,
however, Christopher Hitchens praised Rowling for "unmooring" her "English
school story" from literary precedents "bound up with dreams of
wealth and class and snobbery", arguing that she had instead created
"a world of youthful democracy and diversity".[119]
Controversies
Main articles: Legal
disputes over the Harry Potter series,
Religious
debates over the Harry Potter series,
and Politics
of Harry Potter
The books have been the subject of a
number of legal proceedings,
stemming either from claims by American Christian groups that the magic in the
books promotes witchcraft among children, or from various conflicts over
copyright and trademark infringements. The popularity and high market value
of the series has led Rowling, her publishers, and film distributor
Warner Bros.
to take legal measures to protect their copyright, which have included banning
the sale of Harry Potter imitations, targeting the owners of websites
over the "Harry Potter" domain name,
and suing author Nancy Stouffer to counter her accusations that Rowling had plagiarised her
work.[120][121][122]
Various religious conservatives have claimed that the books promote witchcraft
and are therefore unsuitable for children,[123]
while a number of critics have criticised the books for promoting various
political agendas.[124][125]
The books also aroused controversies
in the literary and publishing worlds. In 1997 to 1998 Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
won almost all the UK awards judged by children, but none of the children's
book awards judged by adults,[126]
and Sandra Beckett suggested the reason was intellectual snobbery towards books that were popular among children.[127]
In 1999 the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award children's division was entered for the first time on the
shortlist for the main award, and one judge threatened to resign if Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
was declared the overall winner; it finished second, very close behind the
winner of the poetry prize, Seamus Heaney's
translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.[127]
In 2000, shortly before the
publication of Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire,
the previous three Harry Potter books topped the New York Times
fiction best-seller list and a third of the entries were children's books. The
newspaper created a new children's section covering children's books, including
both fiction and non-fiction, and initially counting only hardback sales. The
move was supported by publishers and booksellers.[128]
In 2004 The New York Times further split the children's list, which was
still dominated by Harry Potter books into sections for series and
individual books, and removed the Harry Potter books from the section
for individual books.[129]
The split in 2000 attracted condemnation, praise and some comments that presented
both benefits and disadvantages of the move.[130]
Time suggested that, on the same principle, Billboard should have
created a separate "mop-tops" list in 1964 when the Beatles held the
top five places in its list, and Nielsen should have created a separate game-show list when Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire?
dominated the ratings.[131]
Audiobooks
The Harry Potter books have
all been released in unabridged audiobook versions. The UK versions are read by
Stephen Fry
and the US versions are read by Jim Dale. Dale is
also the narrator for the special features disc on the DVDs.
Films
Main article: Harry
Potter (film series)
The locomotive that features as the
"Hogwarts Express" in the film series.
In 1998, Rowling sold the film
rights of the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros.
for a reported £1 million ($1,982,900).[132][133]
Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless
allowing for the inclusion of Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern Europe
actors in Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire
where characters from the book are specified as such.[134]
After many directors including Steven Spielberg,
Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme,
and Alan Parker were considered, Chris
Columbus was appointed on 28 March 2000 as
director for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"
in the United States), with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films
such as Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire
and proven experience with directing children as influences for their decision.[135]
After extensive
casting, filming began in October 2000 at Leavesden Film Studios and in London itself, with production ending in July 2001.[136][137]
Philosopher's Stone was released on 14 November 2001. Just three days
after the film's release, production for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, also directed by Columbus, began. Filming was completed in
summer 2002, with the film being released on 15 November 2002.[138]
Daniel Radcliffe portrayed Harry
Potter, doing so for all succeeding films
in the franchise.
Columbus declined to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, only acting as producer. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón
took over the job, and after shooting in 2003, the film was released on 4 June
2004. Due to the fourth film beginning its production before the third's
release, Mike Newell was chosen as the director for Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire,
released on 18 November 2005.[139]
Newell became the first British director of the series, with television
director David Yates following suit after he was chosen to helm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Production began in January 2006 and the film was released
the following year in July 2007.[140]
After executives were "really delighted" with his work on the film,
Yates was selected to direct Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released on 15 July 2009.[141][142][143][144]
In March 2008, Warner Bros.
President and COO Alan F. Horn announced that the final instalment in the series, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
would be released in two cinematic parts: Part 1
on 19 November 2010 and Part 2
on 15 July 2011. David Yates returned to direct his third and fourth Potter
films, becoming the only director to have helmed more than one film since
Columbus. Production of both parts started in February 2009, with the final day
of principal photography taking place on 12 June 2010.[145][146]
J. K. Rowling gained creative
control on the film series, playing an active role within the filmmaking
process of Philosopher's Stone and serving as producer on the two-part Deathly
Hallows, alongside David Heyman
and David
Barron.[147]
The Harry Potter films have been top-rank box office
hits, with all seven current releases on the list
of highest-grossing films worldwide.
Columbus' Philosopher's Stone became the highest-grossing Potter
film upon completing its theatrical run in 2002, but it was eventually topped
by Yates' Deathly Hallows. Yates' first two instalments grossed higher
than any other film after Philosopher's Stone, while Cuarón's Prisoner
of Azkaban grossed the least.[148]
As well as financial success, the film series has also been a success
among film critics.[149][150]
Opinions of the films are generally
divided among fans, with one group preferring the more faithful approach of the
first two films, and another group preferring the more stylised
character-driven approach of the later films.[151]
Rowling has been constantly supportive of all the films and evaluated Deathly
Hallows as her "favourite one" in the series.[152][153][154][155]
She wrote on her website of the changes in the book-to-film transition,
"It is simply impossible to incorporate every one of my storylines into a
film that has to be kept under four hours long. Obviously films have
restrictions novels do not have, constraints of time and budget; I can create
dazzling effects relying on nothing but the interaction of my own and my
readers’ imaginations".[156]
At the 64th
British Academy Film Awards in
February 2011, Rowling was joined by producers David Heyman and David Barron
along with directors David Yates, Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell in collecting
the Michael
Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema on behalf of all the films in the series. Actors Rupert Grint
and Emma Watson, who play protagonists Ron Weasley
and Hermione Granger, were also in attendance.[157][158]
Games
There are ten Harry Potter
video games, eight of which correspond with the films and books, and two other
spin-offs. The film/book based games are produced by Electronic Arts,
as was the Harry
Potter: Quidditch World Cup game,
with the game version of the first entry in the series, Philosopher's Stone,
being released in November 2001. The video games are released to coincide with
the films, containing scenery and details from the films as well as the tone
and spirit of the books. Objectives usually occur in and around Hogwarts, along
with various other magical areas. The story and design of the games follows the
selected film's characterisation and plot; EA worked closely with Warner
Brothers to include scenes from the films. The last game in the series, Deathly
Hallows, was split with Part 1 released
in November 2010 and Part 2 debuting
on consoles in July 2011. The two-part game forms the first entry to convey an
intense theme of action and violence, with the gameplay revolving around a
third-person shooter style format.[159][160]
The other spin-offs games, Lego Harry
Potter: Years 1–4 and the upcoming Lego Harry
Potter: Years 5-7 are developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner
Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
A number of other non-interactive media games have been released; board games
such as Cluedo
Harry Potter Edition, Scene It?
Harry Potter and Lego Harry Potter
models, which are influenced by the themes of both the novels and films.
Attractions
United
States
Main article: The
Wizarding World of Harry Potter
After the success of the films and
books, Universal and Warner Brothers announced they would create "The
Wizarding World of Harry Potter," a new Harry Potter-themed
expansion to the Islands of Adventure theme park at Universal
Orlando Resort in Florida. The new land, promoted
as the seventh themed "island" of the park, was built from land
reserved for expansion outside of the park's original border, as well as from
much of the existing "island," The Lost Continent. A soft opening was held at the end of March 2010, with the
land opening on 16 June 2010 for reserved guests. The land officially opened to
the public on 18 June 2010.[161]
Guests enter the land through a
recreation of the Hogsmeade station,[162]
leading into the village of Hogsmeade,
with a forced-perspective Hogwarts castle at the very end of the street. The castle
contains the expansion's centrepiece attraction, Harry Potter & the
Forbidden Journey, a KUKA arm attraction which takes passengers through many realistic
scenes influenced by the movies and books, including soaring over Hogwarts,
getting involved in a Quidditch match, and having close encounters with
dragons, dementors, and the Whomping Willow.[163]
Other attractions include a twin high-speed rollercoaster named the Dragon Challenge, a renovation of the previously existing rollercoaster, Dueling Dragons,
and a family roller coaster called Flight of
the Hippogriff, a renovation of the previously
existing ride, Flying
Unicorn. In addition to the three rides are
several themed shops and restaurants, heavily inspired by their appearances in
the books and films: Honeydukes sells sweets, such as chocolate frogs and Bertie
Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, Ollivander's offers personalized magic
wands, Zonko's Joke Shop sells various items including Sneakoscopes, and the
Three Broomsticks serves food and drink, most notably Butterbeer and pumpkin
juice.
Developed at a cost of $265 million,
the new land "has seen capacity crowds [and] waits of up to two hours just
to enter the ... merchandise shop." Islands of Adventure saw a massive
increase in attendance following the expansion, seeing gains of as much as 36%,[164]
a period during which attendance to competitor resort Walt Disney World
dropped slightly.[165]
Disney had itself entered negotiations for a Harry Potter-themed
expansion, but ultimately turned down the opportunity.[166]
United
Kingdom
In March 2011, Warner Bros.
announced plans to build a tourist attraction in the United Kingdom
to showcase the Harry Potter film series. Warner Bros. Studio Tour
London will be a behind-the-scenes walking tour featuring authentic sets,
costumes and props from the film series. The attraction will be located at Leavesden Film Studios, where all eight of the Harry Potter films were
made. Warner Bros. stated that two new sound stages would be constructed to
house and showcase the famous sets from each of the British-made productions,
following a £100 million investment.[167]
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