After billions of years, I finally read this book and I came to the conclusion that I would have liked this more if I had read it at a younger age.

I’m putting aside precious reading time to try and formulate a review for y’all so you should be grateful (and not attack me for my rating)

So clearly, I had a very very sad childhood since I had not read Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or any other of those “must-read-or-else-you-never-experienced-happiness-as-a-child” kind of books. But I was actually a pretty happy kid. Go figure.



Harry Potter #1 was a GOOD book. It was fascinating, it was adventurous, it was different, and it was also average.

Now, I don’t mean average in a bad way, I mean that there was nothing in the book that made me gasp or cry or shout out in frustration or anticipation. It was a good book, nothing more nothing less.


(s)

I just want to say !! ALL OF YOUR JUDGEMENT IS CLOUDED by your nostalgia !! – there I said it, bye.

Everyone read this book as a kid, and yes that’s AWESOME im soooooooo happy for you and that you get to experience your childhood all over again with rereads. However comma as a person who’s reading this book with purely unbiased (im giving myself too much credit here) eyes, I have come to the professional conclusion that this book will not IN FACT knock your woolen socks off.

But it’s definitely fun to read.

The writing is clear, it’s easy to binge, its short and to the point without over-wordy prose. The plot was interesting. The characters were fun (thought Harry Potter is suffering from a serious case of Special Snowflake Syndrome).

So yes, it was a nice read. But so were many other books I read this year and this one definitely didn’t instill some newfound love in my soul for magic and wizards and woolen socks – I already have enough there, initially.


(s)

I’m just fricken glad I’m starting to get all the references all you muggles throw around all the time.

Don’t worry, I will most definitely be continuing with this series. :)))

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

3 stars!!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. I'M FINALLY STARTING THIS SERIES AFTER YEARS OF IGNORANCE. (more like I've been bullied into this)

but hey, now I'll know what the colourful hat sorting names mean. :)))

Buddy read with the wonderful, Lacy and Peer Pressure

Auch nach über zwanzig Jahren hat Harry Potter nichts von seiner Faszination verloren. Es ist immer wieder schön, sich in diese ganz besondere Welt zu begeben und spannende Abenteuer zu erleben. Harry Potter ist auch eine der wenigen Reihen, die ich immer wieder lesen, hören und auch sehen kann, ohne dass es langweilig wird.

Why didn’t anyone tell me —haha —-
I can’t use that excuse —-

Harry Potter is a WIZARD......I had no idea.....
I thought he was a funny looking kid - with funny hair - and round glasses.

It’s true....HARRY POTTER is very famous. J. K. Rowling knew Harry Potter would be ‘famous’ -FOR REAL-
Hello?, with 59,157 customers reviews on Amazon - averaging 5 stars - I’d say he’s a very ‘LIKABLE’ HARRY POTTER ‘FAMOUS’ boy too!

How in the world does a first time author —- this was the first Harry Potter, book, yes? - have the vision to not only create a wizardly wonderful story centered around a neglected boy who lived in a cupboard - with his sad history- know that he
would become a hero....the world’s most famous *HARRY POTTER*? AMAZING!

Book girl -Bossy know-it- all, *Hermione*, chess player great friend *Ron*, street-smart wizardly guide *Hagrid*, father figure *Dumbledore*, etc. etc. etc...major and/or minor characters ....THEY COME ALVE! - Great Characters!

....cats, toads, owls, flying motorcycle ....muggles .....( great new word).....
....wizard boarding school...( of course — it seemed so normal -I BELIEVE)....
....food, - sausages- turkey- cake- chocolate frogs- etc. games, rewards, birthdays - Christmas - punishments, hero’s, villains, sports ( Quiddich)....such a cool game....twists and turns .....suspense
The wave of a magic wand.....HARRY POTTER sure got a magical wizardly lesson of bravery at ‘Wizard Boarding School’.

Incredible.... I honestly ‘never’ thought I’d enjoy Harry Potter, ‘this much’.
I must have been missing some marbles.

An extraordinary book for all ages .....something people have been saying FOR AGES!!!!

Current project: re-reading HP.

My history: I was a young adult when this first book came out, and the print book never really grabbed me when I gave it a try. I found that I very much enjoyed the American audiobooks with Jim Dale narrating, however, so I read the first few books this way. But this came to an end when I misplaced the fourth book and no longer had a long commute--I never did reach the end of that wretchedly long quidditch game, so I gave up.

But here it is, 2015 and I'm trying again! This time I'm doing the wonderful Stephen Fry narration on audio. It's interesting to come into these books after all this history, both in the sense of the cultural impact of these stories as well as the knowledge of how much children's lit, as art and as industry, has changed for the better because of them.

Re-read reaction: 3.5 stars

With this first book (and I suspect with the next few), I still feel the way I did before. I admire the incredibly imaginative ideas so much, but the writing isn't quite as rich or the character development isn't quite as deep/emotional as I'd like just yet. It's a pretty straightforward story, albeit one embellished with fantastic details.

But I LOVE HERMIONE GRANGER, always have, and I've heard the later books are much darker. And it's still a lovely experience to have the books read to me like a bedtime story.

My favorite parts of this book:

The mirror of Erised, owl post (pleeease may I have an owl), and the thing hidden under the turban. And:

n  It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.n

Well done, Neville. You deserved the same number of house points as the other children, in my book.

2024: Summer Break started but life threw me a curve ball last week. I did not as much pick up a book for four days. That’s life. Last weekend, my daughter and I started crafting together our summer movie list, which, of course, includes our annual viewing of favorite series like the original Star Wars trilogy, Mission Impossible, and Harry Potter. She is finishing seventh grade and first read Harry in kindergarten but decided that it was time for a re-read. Yesterday we started discussing key elements of the series and, she mentioned that maybe I should re-read the series as well. It’s been so many times but a good four years since I immersed myself in Harry’s magical world. If I ever needed an escape to Hogwarts in my adult life, it is now. So off we go and maybe some other family members will join us, and, maybe just maybe, I will actually get through book 5 this time around.

It is now 2023 and Harry Potter is now 25 years old. It is hard to fathom that days may be long but time passes quickly, and, yet, Harry has been around for my entire adult life. Time marches on. I hope he is just as beloved when my future grandchildren are old enough to read his story.

In 2020, I decided to reread the Harry Potter series again with friends in the Retro Chapter Chicks group. As adults we lead busy lives. There are infinite numbers of books published and with this lack of time, we need something magical, especially in the winter months when the sun doesn’t shine as much in the northern hemisphere. My solution to the winter doldrums was revisiting Harry Potter’s magical world even if for some of us like myself it is at least the 20th time reading the series. Magic has a way of brightening one’s day and in any saga you can pick up new intricacies with each read through. The best part will be the discussions afterward but after all these times there is nothing like hearing “You’re a Wizard, Harry”, and there is something magical in hearing those words as I began my reading year on New Year’s Day.

I have read Harry Potter more times than I have fingers and toes, and all four of my kids have read the entire series through twice. They have indulged in fan fiction and been sorted into houses on Pottermore. At this point, I have two Slytherins, two Ravenclaws, and my husband who is determined to take test again because he was inadvertently sorted into Hufflepuff. Of course, he claims it’s ok because Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson is supposedly also in Hufflepuff. That is how much Harry Potter has permeated society, to the point where the gulf between the books and fan fiction is at an all time low. Harry Potter was first published in 1998 and has been around my entire adult life. Imagine if it existed when I was my kids’ ages and had the luxury of reading for the first time at age five or six. By this point in my life, I would have the entire series memorized the way I can rattle off lines from the original Star Wars trilogy verbatim. Like Star Wars, Harry Potter is timeless. It was also written by an author who was unsure if it would be successful and initially only submitted the first book to be published. How wrong was J.K. Rowling when it came to betting on herself as more than twenty years later she has created an entire empire out of her franchise.

There is something about adolescence that places a child in a gap between childhood and adulthood that makes it a magical time in one’s life. Just yesterday my twelve-year-old daughter noted that she wants to be an adult because she’s too old to be a kid but too young to drive or do adult things. Point taken. What I have always loved about this first installment besides discovering about the magical world for the first time is how young Harry and his friends are. He notes at one point to Ron and Hermoine that Dumbledore gave them the tools to succeed and it was up to them to complete their tasks. Just as in real life an adolescent needs guidance, they are also capable of doing many things on their own, but they are oh so needy. Like Harry was when he didn’t know how to get to platform 9 3/4 or how to mount a broomstick or how any of the first year students still are in need of a helping hand of the prefects to show them the way as they navigate Hogwarts for the first time. Having kids in this age range allows for me to think wow, parents are allowing their eleven year old children to go away for school. They are entrusting others to help raise their children in this big, scary world that we live in. And the children in turn become independent at a younger than usual age, fostering layers upon layers of character development that Rowling employs even from this first book. It is little wonder that I was giddy to get started with the series again.

In this 2020 reading I have noticed yet again that Rowling has set the stage for events that will come later on in the series. They can be as mundane as the mention of Nicholas Flamel on the back of a chocolate frog card, or as crucial as Harry noting that Snape appears to be able to read minds. Knowing what we know about Snape and his character development makes me laugh at this line, only because I know of all the adventures that will occur and how Snape is either in the way or foiled by Harry in the end. I also noticed this time around the gulf between love and evil and that Harry’s mother’s love for him is something Voldemort can not understand. The stage is set for the interplays between Harry and Snape and the many iterations of Voldemort here in the first book, and one needs to read carefully so as not to miss anything. Reading this many times, I still managed to gain something new, and I think this time around, my key theme will be the characterization of every character, major and minor, and the nuances in dialogue between various personas. Harry having an aha moment about Hagrid might have been lost to me at age twenty but I get immediately and find myself chuckling a bit at age forty. As the books get longer and darker, these conversations which I once thought were fillers will become all the more important to the development of the plot, and I look forward to reaching them later in the series.

I am thankful that I have finally reached a stage where I am captivated by a plethora of books, not just one series like I was as a younger, less experienced reader or when I had little time for hefty books when I had young children in the house. I am glad that J.K. Rowling created this world so that kids can foster a love of reading and become lifelong readers. For that, nineteen years later, I can still turn to Harry in times of need and be grateful that Harry, Ron, and Hermoine will always be there for readers in need of an escape from the vagaries of everyday life. I recently bought the series for myself so I can turn to this ultimate comfort read in times of need and not be reliant upon the library for my copy. Being able to read a whole book in a day or favorite passages is pure magic to say the least. So in 2020 I will be undertaking seven years of magic again. The kids are at a stage when they read from the teen section of the library and I find myself craving children’s books. Needless to say I need some magic in my life as I read about other teenagers and adolescents as a means of escaping the everyday stress that comes with raising kids that age of my own. It should be a fun journey and now that I have book 1 under my belt again, I look forward to spending a good chunk of my 2020 reading year inside of Hogwarts.

As always, 5 stars

EDIT NOTE in 2012: Since this apparently isn't obvious, I wrote the review years ago. I do not necessarily have those opinions now. I wouldn't know; I haven't read Harry Potter since. With a degree and five more birthdays behind me I do not necessarily agree with everything I said when I was seventeen years old. I'm happy to chat about the definition of literature with you, or what I think about the Harry Potter phenomenon now or whatever, but try and be civil and don't attack me right out of the gate.

EDIT NOTE in 2011: I've edited this review to take out some teenage arrogance, but the rest is as-is. A few years later and with a degree in hand, including modules in Children's Lit, I could probably write a better review, but people seem to like this one!


I really don't like Harry Potter. It's one of those little concealed but apparently not widely known facts about me, which shocks everyone when I say I love books and they're all, "yeah, rite, Harry Potter is so awesum rite?" and I say "...no, it really isn't." I confess: when I was eleven or twelve or so, I read them. I also read the Sabrina the Teenage Witch novels. I read everything and wasn't very discriminating about it. I did enjoy them. I continued to enjoy them until I got to Order of the Phoenix, and then I decided that all the hype aside, I just wasn't interested anymore. Bear in mind, then, for the rest of this "essay", that I have only read up to and including The Goblet of Fire.

Cue a few years of irritation while everyone insisted I must read the rest of the books, and how dare I prefer Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin (and later, Susan Cooper). I have really no objection to people reading the books and enjoying them, taking part in the fandom that surrounds them, dressing up in witchy costumes to go and pick up the most recently released volume at midnight. Have fun with that! As far as I'm concerned you're welcome to. I'm even quite happy to concede that yes, Harry Potter did get more people reading. Whether it got them reading literature or not is another matter: how many people, I wonder, have discovered a mania for reading after reading Harry Potter and then gone onto the likes of Crime and Punishment and War and Peace, or even Lord of the Rings? Not that many, I'll bet. I think they're probably reading Twilight and the like, more often than not. Not that it matters -- as long as people are reading.

But in any case, I. Don't. Have. To. Read. Them. Just because I like books, does not mean I like those books. And I detest it every time someone shoves them in my face as 'great literature'. I actually had to study Harry Potter, for my English Lit/Lang A Level (for those unfamiliar with our system: A Levels are exams you take when you're about eighteen, which among other things determine whether you can go to university). One of the questions we had to figure out how to answer was whether we thought Harry Potter was good literature, whether we thought it would stand the test of time, and how it was suited to the time it's currently in.

It was then that I figured out that, yeah, there are things wrong with Harry Potter beyond just the hype that was irritating me so much and the feeling that Rowling in no way matched up to the giants of fantasy and sci-fi, like Tolkien. I studied it alongside Tom Brown's Schooldays, by Thomas Hughes. Do note that I didn't like that book either. But it's a well written, well shaped, well considered book -- and it doesn't use the same cheap tricks as Harry Potter does. I'm not going to say much about that, since it's not a book I liked: if I'm going to compare/contrast, I'll compare with my favourite book that is also supposed to be for younger readers, Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.

There's nothing wrong with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone being an amateur first novel. 'cause that's what it is. I'm sure many people's first novels don't even see the light of day, and yet Harry Potter somehow made it to a publisher's and was accepted. The thing is, people mostly refuse to recognise that and the cheap tricks J. K. Rowling uses. For example, her character's names. 'Draco Malfoy'. Mal, the French for bad, immediately obvious. 'Draco', suggesting dragon? Or perhaps 'draconian', which has negative connotations aplenty (not that I'd necessarily attribute those particular ones to Draco). Not very subtle, is it? 'Dumbledore'. Who doesn't get the image of a well-meaning, if strange, old man? 'Minerva', straight out of Greek myth: a goddess of knowledge. Gee, I wonder why Rowling chose that for a female teacher... 'Remus Lupin', 'Sirius Black', 'Mad-Eye Moody'... Do I even have to say anything?

And 'Harry Potter'. Nothing striking about that: perfectly ordinary, as names go, right?

Yeah. And that's the point. Harry Potter himself is not a real character -- certainly not at first. He's a cypher, a convenient space into which a kid can very easily insert himself or even herself. He's brave. Okay, generic hero characteristic. He has doubts. Again, the same. He has a Tragic Past. Don't we all? Or don't we all like to think we do? Look at the Mary Sues/self inserts people write in fandom -- so often they're people with incredibly dark, melodramatic pasts that they rise above. Harry Potter is a convenient place to insert yourself. The other characters are archetypes more than anything -- Hermione, the know it all girl; Ron, the loyal friend; Dumbledore, the mentor; Malfoy, the rival...

All of that is actually what makes Harry Potter a highly readable, enjoyable book, for young people and even adults. It's targeted very precisely toward the readership of today. Maybe that makes J. K. Rowling a better author than I might paint her as, that she can know her audience so well -- there's that view, I'm sure. But it's all very basic, and I tend to look on it as cheap tricks. The whole chapter, in the first book, about the Mirror of Erised -- how sad does it make you feel for Harry? It's sentimental, it's sad -- and it's meant to do that, very obviously. There's a whole chapter written just to enforce the love between the members of Harry Potter's family.

Susan Cooper does it in a single paragraph that makes me want to cry every single time I read it, coming after all the build up of guilt and pain in the relationship. "Bran went to [his father] and put his arm round his waist, and stood close. It was the first gesture of affection between the two that Will had ever seen. And wondering, loving surprise woke in Owen Davies's worn face as he looked down at the boy's white head, and the two stood there, waiting."

That paragraph does for me what Rowling's whole chapter cannot. It's so effective, actually, because Cooper spends a whole book leading up to it, showing us Owen and Bran's relationship. Rowling shows us Harry's parents, but in an unsubtle way that actually throws me out of it because I think, "Oh, yeah, this is the chapter in which we're supposed to feel very sorry for Harry."

There's also a very easy, blunt misdirection. You're supposed to hate Snape, supposed to believe he's the one to blame for everything, and at the end, you're supposed to be as surprised as Harry when it's Quirrel waiting there for him. At the age of eleven, I think I went right along with that, but when I reread it for A Level, I had to wince at how heavy-handed the misdirection was. I understand that later in the series Snape comes into it more, and I don't know whether the misdirection turns out to be not that misdirected when it comes down to the real truth: but in the first book, you're meant to believe it's Snape all along, and I don't think J. K. Rowling does a very good job of giving us clues that it's not actually Snape, because she's so busy blackening him to lead people astray.

It's also very black-and-white. Questions aren't raised, by this story -- and that's a thing I think is actually important in literature. Raise questions, discuss issues, end with a question. I don't know what to call stories that don't fit into that, really. I'm going to go with 'novels' as opposed to literature. Harry Potter is a novel. It's a story. I don't think it has any real lasting values. Susan Cooper's books, while also quite basic, discussing the Light and the Dark, do end with a question. If man is left on earth, to do as man will, will man be Light or Dark? The immortals leave earth, and say that the world -- for better or worse -- belongs to humans. Right now, a lot of people think the answer to that question would be 'worse'. But Harry Potter does not raise this question, does not raise any question, and does not answer one either. That's why I don't think it will last except perhaps as a phenomenon to be studied: the 'Potter mania' and what caused it.

That's why I don't like Rowling's writing. It's not particularly refined, it's unsubtle -- and that's okay, you know, I'm not saying you can't enjoy that, can't find it refreshing. I don't. I'm also not saying that 'novels' are bad -- they're good, they can provide valuable escapism, they can be incredibly rich fodder for the imagination, and I suspect Harry Potter is, for many children. But I don't call it literature, and I myself don't like it.

Note: the three star rating is because honestly, when I first read it, I did love it.

I have absolutley no idea why goodreads deleted my review AND rating but thankfully I still had it saved! So here it is again, may it stick around this time!

”It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.”

Okay, here’s the thing: There are already 96.502 reviews about this book on goodreads and I think it’s safe to say that mine will carry no weight. *lol*
So I decided to make this a short “my thoughts about this book” review. ;-P

1.)t”Thirty-six,” he said, looking up at his mother and father. “That’s two less than last year.”

I totally forgot how horrible the Dursleys are and I think I kind of suppressed how dreadful Dudley is! Such a spoilt brat and this is actually putting it more than just lightly. If anyone should go to a boot camp sort of school it certainly should be him.

2.)t”Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh,” said Hagrid. “Harry – yer a wizard.”

Bless Hagrid for being the kind and compassionate man that he is! <3 Those lines went down in Harry Potter history and started it all! XD

3.)t”Blown up a toilet? We’ve never blown up a toilet.”
“Great idea though, thanks, Mum.”

Haha! You gotta love the Weasley twins! They might be side characters but they always manage to bring some humour into the book and they succeed to give that typical sibling and family vibe. =)

4.)t”Are you sure that’s a real spell?” said the girl. “Well, it’s not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and it’s all worked for me.”

When I read this I totally had the Hermione of the movie in my mind. Emma Watson played her so well and I’m really glad that Hermione came off her high horse. She was really insufferable at the beginning of the book. *lol*

5.)t”You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.”

Urgh! And so it begins! I never liked Malfoy and I’ll never do. Sorry, guys! Yes, I felt sorry for him after book 5 but he’s still a slimy little spoilt brat at the beginning of the series. Still, if his parents would have raised him differently he might have even turned out to be a nice guy. *sighs*

6.)t”Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?”

And here comes another character I’ll never forgive. Snape is a horrible teacher and an even worse human being. There I said it. Nothing that happens over the course of the following books will change anything about the fact that he’s unfair and mean to his students! His past doesn’t excuse his actions. Still, I gotta give Rowling kudos for all the foreboding! Boy, alone the comment with the bezoar. XD And Dumbledore explaining the relationship between Snape and Harry’s father. Well done! ;-)

7.)t”But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.”

I still love that scene and I’m really glad Hermione and the others finally bonded. Also, I love that they tried to be good kids at the beginning. In the first book they actually don’t want to do anything forbidden and feel bad about it. Well, and then the other books happen. *LOL* Apparently practice makes perfect though, because they go for plenty of forbidden things but don’t get caught anymore. Haha!

8.)t”All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I’m sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession.”

Lee Jordan is the best! <3 He’s the main reason I enjoy the Quidditch games so much! His commentary is just funny and brilliant!

9.)t”If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I’ll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there. It’s only dying a bit later than I would have done, because I’m never going over to the Dark Side!”

I LOVE HARRY’S DEFIANCE!!! That’s one of the many things that made me like him so much! He never backs down and always continues to fight. No matter the odds, he’s facing his troubles holding his head high! Even this early in the series you can already see that he’s going to be a great MC!

And now let’s move on and read book two! ;-)

"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

I wasn't always the most ardent fantasy reader, but even since reading The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy, that quickly changed. And figured what better way to continue the journey than Harry Potter. I'm very glad I did so. Had I really known how fun and thrilling Harry Potter is, I would've read all books many times over by now. But better late than never I guess.

"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers - I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."

Right off from the beginning, what stood out to me most was, how easy it is to read everything. May be it is because the author moves mainly along building characters - which are much quickly understood - instead of building a detailed fantasy world. Unlike in a Tolkien novel, where we are given every minuscule detail of the world, Harry Potter is far more character focused, and has been done amazingly. I never dreamed I'll this fascinated by a children's book.

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them."

Now that I'm finished with the first book, I cannot help regretting why didn't I read this before. This is far far better than watching the movie - and considering how enjoyable the movies are, that's saying a lot. Definitely going to re-visit this one, many times hopefully. Cannot wait to start reading the next one.

" 'Ah, music' he said, wiping his eyes. 'A magic beyond all we do here!' "

I will never ever rate this lower than 5 stars. BEAUTIFUL.

4/5 ⊹₊⟡⋆

I really loved this - if I had read this as a kid I would have made my entire room Slytherin themed (yes I took the quiz I was NOT happy about it). It's such an easy world to get sucked into. The characters have more personality than I would have thought - I mean some names and themes are definitely problematic. Even though this is YA - I still had a really good time. It was really fast paced, lots to love and I will be reading the next one! My first read of 2025 - starting off on a high note

Can 35 Million Book Buyers Be Wrong? Yes.

Taking arms against Harry Potter, at this moment, is to emulate Hamlet taking arms against a sea of troubles. By opposing the sea, you won't end it. The Harry Potter epiphenomenon will go on, doubtless for some time, as J. R. R. Tolkien did, and then wane.

The official newspaper of our dominant counter-culture, The New York Times, has been startled by the Potter books into establishing a new policy for its not very literate book review. Rather than crowd out the Grishams, Clancys, Crichtons, Kings, and other vastly popular prose fictions on its fiction bestseller list, the Potter volumes will now lead a separate children's list. J. K. Rowling, the chronicler of Harry Potter, thus has an unusual distinction: She has changed the policy of the policy-maker.

Imaginative Vision

I read new children's literature, when I can find some of any value, but had not tried Rowling until now. I have just concluded the 300 pages of the first book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," purportedly the best of the lot. Though the book is not well written, that is not in itself a crucial liability. It is much better to see the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," than to read the book upon which it was based, but even the book possessed an authentic imaginative vision. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" does not, so that one needs to look elsewhere for the book's (and its sequels') remarkable success. Such speculation should follow an account of how and why Harry Potter asks to be read.

The ultimate model for Harry Potter is "Tom Brown's School Days" by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857. The book depicts the Rugby School presided over by the formidable Thomas Arnold, remembered now primarily as the father of Matthew Arnold, the Victorian critic-poet. But Hughes' book, still quite readable, was realism, not fantasy. Rowling has taken "Tom Brown's School Days" and re-seen it in the magical mirror of Tolkein. The resultant blend of a schoolboy ethos with a liberation from the constraints of reality-testing may read oddly to me, but is exactly what millions of children and their parents desire and welcome at this time.

In what follows, I may at times indicate some of the inadequacies of "Harry Potter." But I will keep in mind that a host are reading it who simply will not read superior fare, such as Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" or the "Alice" books of Lewis Carroll. Is it better that they read Rowling than not read at all? Will they advance from Rowling to more difficult pleasures?

Rowling presents two Englands, mundane and magical, divided not by social classes, but by the distinction between the "perfectly normal" (mean and selfish) and the adherents of sorcery. The sorcerers indeed seem as middle-class as the Muggles, the name the witches and wizards give to the common sort, since those addicted to magic send their sons and daughters off to Hogwarts, a Rugby school where only witchcraft and wizardry are taught. Hogwarts is presided over by Albus Dumbeldore as Headmaster, he being Rowling's version of Tolkein's Gandalf. The young future sorcerers are just like any other budding Britons, only more so, sports and food being primary preoccupations. (Sex barely enters into Rowling's cosmos, at least in the first volume.)

----------------------------

The first half of a little piece I wrote from the Journal in July 2000. Rest is available at [http://wrt-brooke.syr.edu/courses/205...].