Harry Dresden

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is the main character of Jim Butcher's contemporary fantasy series The Dresden Files and a television series based on the novels. The series blends magic and hardboiled detective fiction.

As a possible gag or tribute, he is also listed as one of the magicians on the same bill as Alfred Borden in the movie The Prestige.

Background

Harry is a wizard, who works as a private investigator of sorts in Chicago (he's in the phone book, the only listing under "Wizards"), dealing with paranormal crimes and consulting for the Chicago Police Department. He is named after three different stage magicians — Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and David Copperfield. This name was given to him by his father, a stage magician himself, who raised Harry while still performing his magic show all across the country. The stories are told from Harry's point of view in a hardboiled style.

Harry is considered a magical "thug," lacking fine control of his power, but is possibly one of the strongest wizards in the world in terms of pure magical strength. He favors fire and wind spells in battle, and he is an expert at tracking spells (which he uses in his investigations) along with summoning and entrapment spells to speak to faeries and other supernatural sources of information.

Harry's mother, Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay, was a powerful wizard herself, although Harry knew little of her prior to book six. Harry was raised by his father, a stage illusionist, until the age of six, when his father died of a brain aneurysm. He spent some years as a ward of the state before being adopted at ten (shortly after manifesting his magical powers) by Justin DuMorne, a former Warden of the White Council who turned renegade.

Books

Storm Front

The first book, Storm Front, reveals that Harry, along with a girl his age named Elaine, who was adopted shortly after he was, were DuMorne's apprentices; Harry and Elaine became romantically involved in their early teens. This lasted until shortly after Harry's 16th birthday, when DuMorne tried to enthrall (bind by a spell / enslave) him and sent a demon after him. In the ensuing battle, Harry killed DuMorne by burning him to death. Harry stole DuMorne's assistant Bob, a spirit of air and intellect bound to a human skull, from the wreckage.

Dresden was nearly executed for breaking the First Law of Magic, but the White Council ruled the killing self-defense. Dresden was placed under the Doom of Damocles (a sort of probation) and put in the care of Ebenezar McCoy until adulthood. He left Ebenezar at age 19, and spent a year or two wandering the country before arriving in Chicago. Two years later, he began working under a P.I. named Nicholas Christian, for a detective agency called Ragged Angel Investigations. These events are partially chronicled in "Restoration of Faith." He spent three years with Nick before opening his own business, which had been open for two years at the time of the first book, Storm Front.

Fool Moon

In Fool Moon, the second book in the series, Harry meets the Alphas, a group of young werewolves who give him aid throughout the series.

Grave Peril

In Grave Peril, third book in the series, Harry's friend Michael is introduced, a holy Knight of the Cross who battles evil. Michael encourages Harry to admit that he loves Susan, his reporter girlfriend. However, this comes too late, as Susan is attacked by Red Court vampires, and almost turned into one of them. To get her back, Harry destroys a large amount of Bianca's property, and Bianca herself, starting a war between the vampires and the White Council. Susan ends up leaving town to deal with her new identity as a semi-vampire.

It is also revealed in this book that Harry has a faerie godmother, Leanansidhe, who helped him to escape Justin DuMorne in exchange for his fealty.

Summer Knight

In Summer Knight, fourth book in the series, Harry learns that Elaine survived the fire that killed Justin and that the Winter Queen of faerie, Mab, has purchased his debt from Leanansidhe. Susan returns briefly before moving to South America to work with other not-quite-vampires against vampires.

Death Masks

In Death Masks, fifth book in the series, Harry meets other Knights of the Cross and inadvertently absorbed the essence of a fallen angel by the name of Lasciel.

Blood Rites

In Blood Rites, sixth in the series, Harry learns that the White Court vampire Thomas Raith, whom he encountered in Grave Peril and Death Masks, is his half-brother: both are the sons of Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay, and Thomas is six or seven years his senior. He also learns that Ebenezar is the equivalent of the White Council's hitman, and that Harry's mother had once been Ebenezar's apprentice, before she rebelled and took up with a bad crowd. She did not die naturally in childbirth, but was murdered by Thomas' father, Lord Raith of the White Court. Additionally, in this book Harry severely burns his left hand, crippling him.

Dead Beat

In Dead Beat, seventh in the series, Harry finds out about a long since executed Dark Wizard named Kemmler. While Murphy is out of town, Mavra threatens to destroy her career if Harry does not get her the last copy of the book Word of Kemmler from the Disciples of Kemmler who also come for the last surviving copy. The disciples are aligned with the Red Court and while Harry is busy the White Council is hit in a massive assault, resulting in the loss of over three-fourths of the Wardens. Harry tries to keep them from killing millions and becoming a God-like being in the process. When the Head of the Wardens, Luccio, comes to Chicago to help stop the “Kemmlerites,” she also elevates Harry to the rank of Warden to help alleviate the recent loss of force and raise morale of the surviving Wardens, many of whom are young and see Harry as an idol. In this book Butters determines why Wizards heal so well and live so long, as well as helps Harry begin to regain control over his burned hand. Also, in this book, Harry first becomes aware of the presence of Lasciel inside of him. Harry walks a fine line between using the gifts she offers (such as Hellfire, which supercharges his spells, and her photographic memory) and resisting her overtures for fear he will become dependent on her.

Proven Guilty

In Proven Guilty, book eight, Harry takes the rebellious Molly Carpenter (eldest daughter of his friend Michael Carpenter) as his apprentice, under similar circumstances to his own apprenticeship under Ebenezar. The act of sparing her life results in both Harry and Molly being placed under the Doom of Damocles, with Harry responsible for all of Molly's actions.

White Night

In White Night, book nine, Harry is forced to confront the fact that Lasciel has been influencing him, making him quicker to become angry at his friends. However, he discovers that his subconscious has also been influencing Laciel's shadow, enough that she takes a metaphorical bullet for him and apparently "dies." He also meets Elaine again, discovers Thomas's occupation as a hairdresser, and appears to be becoming involved in setting up a network to help members of the magical community who aren't powerful enough to protect themselves.

It also turns out that Harry, due to the timing of his conception and birth, may have power beyond that of normal wizards. His mother apparently carefully arranged matters so that he would be the only wizard with the ability to destroy or banish Outsiders. Apparently the Council is unaware of this, although it is striking that Harry's power manifested years before that of most young wizards (such as Molly Carpenter, whose power manifested at sixteen/seventeen).

Love Life

We only hear of Harry having two girlfriends in his entire life. This scarcity may be due to the tragic ends of both love affairs, making him wary of getting involved with women.

His first girlfriend and first love Elaine, who was also a fellow apprentice, lived with him and Justin DuMorne for several years, and as Harry puts it, they drove each other nuts and went through puberty together. She was enthralled by DuMorne and attempted to kill her boyfriend, and Harry believed she had betrayed him. When he killed DuMorne, he also thought (incorrectly) that Elaine was dead.

His only major girlfriend after that was Susan Rodrieguez, whom Harry dated steadily for a few years but found himself unable to say "I love you" to. He finally said it when she was turned half-vampire, and proposed marriage soon afterwards, but Susan rejected him and left the U.S. She later returned, and they resumed their sexual relationship briefly. Harry hasn't gotten over her loss yet, and as of White Night he reveals that he's been celibate ever since their last tryst.

Harry also flirted with the idea of becoming involved with Karrin Murphy, but this never went anywhere because Murphy wants someone to settle down and have kids with. In addition, wizards tend to live much longer than non-wizards; Karrin would die of old age centuries before Harry. Despite this, their platonic friendship is often closer than that of lovers.

Television series

Debuting on January 21, 2007, the Sci Fi Channel TV adaptation starred Paul Blackthorne as the eponymous wizard. Harry's history in the series differed from that of the novels in several significant ways; his father, Malcolm Dresden, did not die from an aneurysm, while Justin (named Morningway rather than DuMorne) is his mother's brother. Bob is the spirit of a medieval wizard who, in punishment for using black magic to resurrect his life's love, is doomed to spend eternity inside his skull; he can manifest outside it - but not for long and only a few feet away - and must return to the skull when ordered. It is unclear if he is visible to regular people. In What About Bob? he is also Dresden's primary magical teacher.

In "Birds of a Feather," Harry's father lived at least until Harry was ten, at which time Harry began to manifest his magic abilities. When Justin expressed interest in adopting Harry to begin his magical education, Malcolm fought him fiercely on it. And while Harry and Bob both believe that Harry "self-defensed" Justin to death (as in the novels), Justin is shown - although the true nature of this person, who seems to be Justin, is explored in full in "What About Bob?" - when it is revealed that he hired a skinwalker to kidnap Scott Sharp, another ten-year-old with a talent for magic.

Harry also wears a magical "shield-bracelet" (rather than a pentacle necklace, which makes an appearance in flashback scenes from "Bad Blood") that once belonged to his mother, and was given to him by his father. As a private investigator, Harry drives a Korean-war-era military Jeep instead of the infamous "Blue Beetle" VW Beetle of the novels (a change made based on actor Blackthorne's height).

According to "Bad Blood," Harry was around 31 when he killed Justin, instead of 16 as in the novels; a Red Court vampire, Bianca, protected Harry while the High Council investigated Morningway's death. The two had a sexual relationship that does not exist in the books.

In the episode "What About Bob?", the events surrounding Justin's death at Dresden's hands are fully revealed: Only five years prior to the series Dresden discovered that Justin, using black magic, was responsible for the death his father. Justin said that he did not kill Harry's mother, but he died before the truth could be divined. Dresden used thaumaturgy - in this case, a voodoo doll of sorts - to attack Justin, who fought back using his own magical ability. In the scuffle, Harry accidentally crushed the voodoo doll, causing Justin to die with a "circle-shaped crushing wound" around his heart.