Harry Potter

The official Harry Potter logo

The official Harry Potter logo

This article is about Harry Potter series. For the character, see Harry Potter (character).

Harry Potter is the name of a popular series of fantasy novels by British writer J. K. Rowling. Depicting a world of witches and wizards (the protagonist being the eponymous young wizard Harry Potter), the series has since the release of its first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States) in 1997, been criticised, both literarily and otherwise. Despite this, the series has succeeded in gaining immense popularity and commercial success world wide and across age demographics, spawning in addition to its original medium, books, movies, video games, and a wealth of other commercial items.

The majority of the series' action takes place between 1991–1998, focusing on Harry Potter’s journey toward manhood over the course of his education, interactions, journeys, and adventures. Through the course of these, the series also explores themes of friendship, ambition, choice, prejudice, and love against the backdrop of the expansive magical world with its long and complex history, diverse inhabitants, unique culture, and parallel society.

As of 2006, six of the seven planned books have been published. The latest, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published in its English-language version on 16 July 2005. The first four books have been made into successful films, and the fifth began filming in February 2006. English language versions of the books are published by Bloomsbury, Scholastic Press, and Raincoast Books.

Please note, most links lead to spoilers. Those that are noted will carry the following tag:Template:Spoiler

Publishing history

In 1990, Rowling was on a crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry simply “fell” into her head. Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website:

"I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. To my immense frustration, I didn't have a functioning pen with me, and I was too shy to ask anybody if I could borrow one. I think, now, that this was probably a good thing, because 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 didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me. I think that perhaps if I had had to slow down the ideas so that I could capture them on paper I might have stifled some of them (although sometimes I do wonder, idly, how much of what I imagined on that journey I had forgotten by the time I actually got my hands on a pen)."

That evening J.K. Rowling began the pre-writing for her first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in the U.S.), planning that would include the plot to each of her seven envisioned books, in addition to an enormous amount of historical and biographical information on her characters and universe. Eventually Rowling relocated to Portugal, where in 1992 she married her first husband, and in 1993 had her first child, Jessica, all the while continuing her writing of Stone. When the marriage dissolved, Rowling returned to Britain with her daughter and settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister, famously continuing her writing of Philosopher's Stone in local coffee shops. Bringing in only £90 a week (£70 of which were from income support) and unable to secure a place for her daughter in a nursery, the sleeping infant Jessica would be a constant companion to her mother as Rowling laboured to finish the book that she had at this point begun to fear would never be completed.

In 1996, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was completed and the manuscript was sent off to an agent.

"The agent sent the manuscript back to my despair without the folder, which had cost me $7, saying writing 80,000 words made it much too long for a children's book."

The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, wrote back immediately to say he liked it and wanted to take her on. He sent the manuscript to Bloomsbury...

At Bloomsbury, at the time a fairly small independent publisher, Philosopher's Stone landed in front of the uninterested eye of Nigel Newton, the chairman of the company. The unenthused Mr. Newton took the manuscript home but did not read it, giving it instead to his eight-year-old daughter, Alice. Showing great excitement over what she had read, Ms. Newton would go on to 'nag' her father for months until Bloomsbury, after eight other publishers had rejected Philosopher's Stone, offered Rowling a £2,500 advance.

Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when she began to write the Harry Potter books, the publishers initially targeted them at children aged around 9 to 11. On the eve of publishing, like Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) and S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders) before her, Joanne Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral penname, in order to appeal to the males 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 (assuming the "K" from her grandmother Kathleen).

The first Potter book was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury in July 1997 and in the United States by Scholastic, September of 1998, but not before Rowling received a six-figure sum for the American publishing rights, an unprecedented amount for a children's book. Among the prizes the series went on to earn, the first three books, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, all won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for the 9 to 11 age group in 1997, 1998, and 1999, respectively.

By 2000, the series had become very high-profile due in part to marketing strategy by Rowling's publishers, but also due to word-of-mouth buzz among readers, especially young males. The former is notable because for years, interest in literature among this demographic had lagged behind other pursuits like video games and the Internet. Rowling's publishers were able to capitalise on this fervour by the rapid successive releases of the first three books that allowed neither Rowling's audience's excitement nor interest to wane, along with quickly solidifying a loyal readership. The culmination of this initial Potter excitement was the huge media coverage surrounding the 2000 release of the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

In 2001, two slim spin-off volumes called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander and Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp were published. All proceeds went to the British charity organization Comic Relief (not to be confused with the American organisation of the same name). The hype escalated with the publication of the next two books in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, with midnight launch parties at hundreds of bookshops in the UK, simultaneous launch events around the English-speaking world, and intense media interest, leading to unprecedented first-day sales in the UK, US and elsewhere.

Over nearly a decade the books have garnered fans of all ages, leading to two editions of each Harry Potter book being released, identical in text but with one edition's cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults. The series is also immensely popular around the world in its many translations. Such was the global clamour to read the book that the English-language edition of Order of the Phoenix became the first English-language book ever to top the bookseller list in France. With the 2005 release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince selling nearly nine million copies in the first 24 hours of its release, the series' popularity shows no signs of fading.

Overview

Template:Spoiler The story opens on the morning of November 1, 1981, a day that has been, for many British citizens, filled with both the peculiar and the incomprehensible: shooting stars, an inordinate number of owls, and oddly dressed strangers joyously accosting bewildered muggles on the street. The source of these strange events is the rare, unrestrained, celebratory mood of a carefully secretive Wizarding World that had for years been terrorized by Lord Voldemort in his decades long bid for power. However, the previous night, Lord Voldemort, who had for months sought the hidden Potter family, discovered their refuge and killed Lily and James Potter. When he turned his wand against their infant son, Harry, his curse rebounded upon him and he was ripped from his body, and was forced into hiding, leaving Harry with his distinctive lightning bolt scar on his forehead, the only physical sign of Voldemort's attack. Harry's defeat of Voldemort in the course of the mysterious events of that Halloween night was met with a mix of awe and fear, but mostly joy by the magical community, resulting in them dubbing Harry, who had survived where so many others had fallen, "The Boy Who Lived".

The orphaned Harry Potter was subsequently raised by his cruel relatives, the Dursleys, in ignorance of his magical heritage — they despising his "unnaturalness". However, as his eleventh birthday approaches, Harry has his first contact with the magical world when he is notified by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that he is in fact a wizard and has been chosen to attend. Each book chronicles approximately one year in Harry's life at Hogwarts, where he learns to use magic and brew potions. Harry also learns to overcome many magical, social, and emotional obstacles as he struggles through his adolescence. There are seven books in the series, each slightly darker than its predecessor, as Harry ages and his nemesis, Lord Voldemort, gains power.

Characters in Harry Potter

• Harry James Potter: The only child of James and Lily Potter, with whom he shares many distinct characteristics, most notably James' unruly black hair and Lily's green eyes. He achieved fame at the age of one when Lord Voldemort, the most feared wizard of the age, attacked his home, murdering his parents but failing to kill him, though leaving him with his instantly recognisable scar, and in turn was hit and ripped from his body by his own backfiring Killing Curse. At Hogwarts, Harry has shown himself to be a gifted wizard, excelling both at Defence Against the Dark Arts and Quidditch, along with being recognised as a capable leader within his house, Gryffindor, and the school in general. Despite his best attempts, he has been unable to downplay his fame and his inability to do so has at times been a source of great frustration to him, making him the target of unwanted media attention, rumours, gawking (chiefly at his scar), and the ire of professors and classmates alike. However, despite all external pressures, he remains overall courageous, noble, and high minded, though at times these qualities have been shown to negatively manifest themselves in what Hermione Granger termed his "saving-people thing".

• Ronald "Ron" Bilius Weasley: Harry Potter's best friend and sixth of the seven children of the widely respected (though extremely poor) Weasley family. He befriended Harry almost immediately upon meeting him during their first journey on the Hogwarts Express. However, a serious rift did once develop between them, due in part to his frustration at being forced to live in Harry's shadow — no doubt magnified by his position as youngest brother in his large family. Despite this, he and Harry have remained close through the years, with him being a constant companion through Harry's trials and adventures.

• Hermione Jane Granger: The close friend of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley who is generally held to be the best student of Harry's year. Her high intelligence and reason-based way of tackling challenges have often been a great asset to Harry and Ron throughout their Hogwarts careers, though her sometimes bossy and interfering manner has at times been a source of contention between them. Her status as a Muggle-born, along with her intelligence and assertive manner, have on occasion made her a prime target for disapproving prejudiced classmates.

• Lord Voldemort: The chief series antagonist and evil wizard bent on securing unmatched power and achieving immortality through the practice of Dark Magic. After years of slaughter in pursuit of his goals he met his match when he attempted to kill Harry Potter and failed, being ripped from his body and forced to flee into hiding. So feared was he at the height of his prodigious powers that even following his downfall most wizards feared to speak his name, referring to him instead as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named".

• Professor Albus Dumbledore: Harry's most trusted advisor and headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is perhaps one of the most respected men in the Wizarding world, holding high ranking positions in both national and international magical government, along with being an accomplished alchemist and master of an assortment of magical disciplines. He is also said to be the only known sorcerer whom Lord Voldemort ever feared. Despite, or perhaps because of his magical power, intellect, and status in the magical world, Dumbledore often finds himself socially isolated and is as a result, not invulnerable to reckless emotional mistakes.

• Professor Severus Snape: A gifted wizard, Hogwarts staff member, and since his youth, a bitter enemy of James Potter and Sirius Black. As Hogwarts Potions master he sought to exact his revenge on the deceased James Potter by verbally abusing his son Harry. A former spy employed by both Voldemort and Dumbledore, Snape's loyalty is constantly under question though Dumbledore maintains that he unequivocally trusts him for reasons that he has declined to reveal. There are those who still remain sceptical, Harry Potter chief among them.

• Professor Rubeus Hagrid: Son of a wizard and a giantess, he is both surprisingly gentle and nurturing. One of Harry Potter's biggest supporters and most steadfast friends, he is also the Hogwarts groundskeeper and Professor of Care of Magical Creatures and it was he who reintroduced Harry back into the magical world. Hagrid also went to school at Hogwarts, but was expelled for reasons explained in the second book.

• Sirius Black: Best friend to James Potter and former rebellious youth who fled his pure-blood supremacist parents' home in his youth. Following the murders of James and Lily he was arrested for involvement in their murders though he later escaped.

• Draco Malfoy: A pure-blood supremacist and member of Slytherin house known for his white-blonde hair and grey eyes, in addition to his sharp tongue that often targets Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. As Harry and Ron became fast friends, Harry and Draco quickly became enemies, with the two facing off in various confrontations, including Quidditch, on numerous occasions throughout the series. He and his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, serve as the antithesis to the main trio.

Further information: List of characters in the Harry Potter books

Content and writing style

The books are written in third person limited omniscient mode, with Harry as the central character. They are generally written from Harry's point of view, with short exceptions in Philosopher's Stone, Goblet of Fire and Half-Blood Prince. The telling of the story through Harry Potter's perspective is perhaps one of the reasons that many readers feel so close to the character.

Rowling's main strengths as a writer include her ability to drive elaborate and largely seamless plots over a very wide canvas and to create a convincing internal logic of her fantasy world. These are largely accomplished by virtue of her extensive pre-writing for the series' universe, characters, and plot (whose construction she has said to glory in ), along with her masterful use of the red herring to subtly introduce planned characters or objects that will later be of much importance to the book in which it is contained or succeeding books. While these unexpected plot twists are often to the chagrin and bewilderment of unsuspecting readers, they are also to the amelioration of the series, making them seem well crafted and planned rather than cheap and superficial.

The series is lent further credibility in Rowling's portrayal of adolescence. While not throughly exploring her characters' sexualities, she does not ignore them either, refusing to leave Harry, as she has said, "stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence". Along the same lines is her realistically abrasive approach to evil. According to the author, "Evil is not something you can deal with lightly", and as a result, the consequences of the wizarding world's first war are shown painfully and irreversibly when Harry stands before the Mirror of Erised and sees his heart's greatest desire — his unreachable, deceased parents.

The series also appears to contain some elements of satire with Rowling humorously (though often unflatteringly) dealing with celebrity (Gilderoy Lockart, the acclaimed narcissist who, according to Ron, will "sign anything if it stands still long enough")Template:HP2, tabloid media (Rita Skeeter, whose stories on Harry give Hermione cause to call her a "cow")Template:HP4, and government (Cornelius Fudge, who, in spite of his short comings, manages to gain magical government's highest post).

In addition to satire and the believability of the series and its characters, there is much moral subtlety in many scenes, though the central clash between good and evil is drawn in largely black-and-white terms. Nevertheless, as the series develops, several characters have faced a choice between doing what is right or what is easy (a central theme), and moral "shades of grey" have been presented. This is especially relevant to characters such as Dolores Umbridge, some Ministry of Magic employees, Draco Malfoy, and Severus Snape.

While ideas of racism, genocide, anti-establishment and prejudice 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.

Love

The theme of love is perhaps the most enduring throughout the series, being portrayed as a powerful form of magic in and of itself. When Lily Potter willfully stepped in front of the curse meant for Harry, her sacrifice put in place an ancient and powerful magic grounded in love. Later in the series, the theme continues when it is revealed to the skeptical Harry that he possesses a "power the Dark Lord knows not," a force that, according to Dumbledore, Voldemort detests: the ability to love. It is Dumbledore's belief that it was this power that allowed Harry to resist Voldemort's temptations of power during their second encounter, prevented Voldemort from being able to possess him during their fifth encounter, and will eventually lead to Voldemort's downfall.Template:HP5 Template:HP6

Aside from its power, love is also displayed as a central motivating factor for many of the series' more virtuous characters. Lily Potter, Harry, his friends, Dumbledore, and the Order are generally motivated in their opposition to Voldemort by their love for others, contrasting with the motivations of the more morally grey Ministry (see Power & Ambition) and the still more malevolent Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, who are generally motivated by anger, hate, and individual gain.

Friendship & loyalty

Friendship and loyalty are perhaps the most "organic" of the series' themes. Their main conduit is the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, which allows these motifs to naturally develop as the three age, their relationship matures, and their accumulated experiences at Hogwarts test their trueness to each other. These ordeals become progressively difficult, keeping in line with the series' increasingly darker tone, and the general nature of adolescence.

"The trio" are for the most part portrayed as warm, supportive and quick to come to each other's aid. Though they do, over the course of the series, experience significant falling-outs, they quickly recover, once a greater crisis arises (or becomes apparent, where its obviousness was initially obscured by personal concerns) and the need to respond in unity supercedes the spat. Their mutually supportive and generally warm nature is in stark contrast to the relationship that Draco Malfoy shares with Crabbe and Goyle, who are better described as cronies than as friends. They are commonly portrayed as dim witted and dependent on Malfoy, who in turn uses them mostly for his own purposes. The result is a lack of genuine emotional support, which Malfoy discovers as he struggles through his sixth year at Hogwarts virtually alone. Harry, who has always dealt with his friends on equal terms, never experiences such isolation. Throughout his many trials at Hogwarts, he draws on the support of both Ron and Hermione, and also many more friends including Hagrid, the Weasleys, other Gryffindors, and Albus Dumbledore.

Prejudice & discrimination

Prejudice in the Harry Potter series first begins to be addressed in the earliest chapters of the first book. The Dursleys loathe any and all things abnormal, leading them to shun their magical relatives, the Potters, and abuse their son when he is delivered into their care. As the reader enters her world, J.K. Rowling shows that prejudice continues to exist in the wizarding community, as Harry learns that there are wizards and witches who hate Muggles and view them as inferior because of their lack of magical ability. Furthermore, the magical world utilises a system of designations, Muggle-born, half-blood, and pure-blood, to indicate a wizard's heritage. The more prejudiced within the magical community take these designations a step further, viewing them as a system of ranking to illustrate a wizard's worth, pure-bloods being the preferred sorcerers, and Muggle-borns (alternatively known by the slur "Mudblood") as the most despised. In addition to prejudices held for fellow humans, there is also a common shunning of non-humans and even part-humans (commonly known by the offensive epithet, "half-breeds").

At every turn, Rowling dispells these prejudicial views of marginalized magical groups. Hermione Granger, the so called "Mudblood", is made to be the brightest young witch at Hogwarts; Hagrid, derided by some as a dangerous "half-breed" for his giant blood, is shown to be a gentle lover of all creatures; half-bloods including Harry Potter, Severus Snape and Voldemort himself (though the theme is made more complex when one considers that Voldemort heads the Death Eaters, an organisation that subscribes to the supremacists' beliefs), are shown to be among the most magically powerful in the wizarding world. The subscribers of prejudiced views are often cast in a negative light, with characters like the Dursleys, Lucius Malfoy, and even Ministry of Magic officials as high as the Minister himself being portrayed as greedy, power-hungry, and at times, incompetent.

Further information: Blood purity

Choice

One of the most significant recurring themes is that of choice. In Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore makes perhaps his most famous statement on this issue: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."Template:HP2 He confronts the issue again in Goblet of Fire, when he tells Cornelius Fudge that what one grows up to be is far more important than what one is born. Template:HP4

Many pairs of characters with similar backgrounds throughout the series are presented with comparable situations but their choices with respect to handling them distinguishes them from each other, making them foils to one another. Both Sirius Black and Draco Malfoy were born into prejudiced pure-blood families but Black chose to reject his family's ideology, while Malfoy embraced it. Dobby and Winky were both born into slavery as house-elves, but Dobby aspired to freedom while Winky aspired only to servitude. Hagrid and Madame Maxime were each born half-giants, but only Hagrid chose to publically and unabashedly embrace his heritage while Madame Maxime chose to hide for fear of what others would think of her, declaring herself to be "big-boned." Template:HP4

One of the most powerful choices of the series was that presented to Lily Potter the night she died and Voldemort was defeated. After killing her husband, Voldemort ordered her to step aside so that he could dispatch the infant Harry. She refused, stepping in front of the curse meant for her son. Thinking that she was only buying Harry a few more seconds of life, her choice unknowingly gave him a magically powerful protective shield rooted in love that prevented Voldemort from doing him harm, causing Voldemort's curse to backfire.

As it has been for many characters throughout the series, what Dumbledore termed the "choice between what is right and what is easy" has been a staple of Harry Potter's career at Hogwarts and his choices are among his character's most distinguishing traits from Voldemort's. Both he and Voldemort were orphans raised in difficult environments, in addition to sharing characteristics including, as Dumbledore points out, Voldemort's "own very rare gift, Parseltongue — resourcefulness, determination" and "a certain disregard for rules".Template:HP2 However, Harry, unlike Voldemort, has consciously elected to embrace friendship, kindness, and love, where Voldemort knowingly chose to reject them.

Power & ambition

Rowling often presents morally grey characters, areas, and situations in the thematic context of power and ambition (usually in the pursuit of them, though the morally ambiguous character of Severus Snape is an exception). These are in stark contrast to the morals and motivations of Dumbledore and Harry who are often clearly portrayed as virtuous, and those of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, who are for the most part shown as evil (although inalterably bent on securing power and their own ambitions), with rare exceptions.

Such presentations include the relatively benign character of Professor Horace Slughorn, whose ambitions of influence over students who show promise of future power and prestige often result in the minimisation of those who do not. Darker is the recurring presentation of the Ministry of Magic, whose actions have been shown to blend the needs of the country with the personal needs of high-ranking officials. Action and policy in response to these are acted upon with varying degrees of precedence, sometimes with little regard for civil liberties. Examples of such Ministry actions include the imprisonment of Stan Shunpike, Rubeus Hagrid and Sirius Black, with little corroboration, no evidence and no trial respectively. All these instances served to either pacify the magical populace of worry and/or bolster the appearance of active officials and the Ministry in general, by giving them the appearance of being focused and engaged. Further seemingly abusive uses of power include the installation of Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts (first as High Inquisitor, then as a tyrannical Headmistress) in an attempt to undermine Albus Dumbledore, whose frequent proclamations of Lord Voldemort's rebirth in 1995 had caused much distress to the disbelieving wizarding world and Ministry of Magic, led at the time by Cornelius Fudge who had come to believe Dumbledore to be merely attempting to destabilise him.

Influences

Series' mythological influences as seen on the cover of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Rowling has stated that while there are a number of writers she "admires", it is more accurate to say that they represent an "untouchable ideal" to her, rather than an influence, as she doesn't "analyze" her "own writing in that way". Despite this, Rowling's Potter books draw upon a long tradition of boarding school-set children's literature in English, a school story genre originated in the Victorian era with Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes. Further seemingly influential works of the Victorian era include those of E. Nesbit, of whom Rowling has frequently characterised herself as being a fan of, praising Nesbit for her innovative "very real" child characters.

More controversial has been the alleged influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on Rowling. While Tolkienian scholar Thomas Shippey has maintained that no "modern writer of epic fantasy has managed to escape the mark of Tolkien, no matter how hard many of them have tried", Rowling has maintained that in the most meaningful of ways, she has (see criticism). Less controversial is the clearer influence of more general, less author-specific elements of the series such as classical myth and legend. Such influences as these are most often seen in Rowling's selection and creation of the creatures that inhabit her universe, e.g., dragons, the phoenix, and Hippogriffs. In addition to this is the influence of astronomy, history, geography, and language (especially Latin), often seen in Rowling's careful naming of characters, places, and magic in the wizarding world.

Criticism

While it is arguable that the archetypical familiarity of the stories contributed to their rapid elevation to classic status, critics of the Harry Potter stories are quick to argue that they lack originality, frequently pointing to its shared content with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Such content includes Tolkien's Wormtongue and Rowling's Wormtail, Rowling's Dementors and Tolkien's Nazgûl, and similarities between both authors' antagonists, Tolkien's Sauron and Rowling's Lord Voldemort (both of whom are sometimes within their respective continuties unnamed due to intense fear surrounding their names). Rowling maintains that she hadn't read The Hobbit until after she completed the first Harry Potter novel (though she had read The Lord of the Rings as a teenager) and that any similarities between her books and Tolkien's are "fairly superficial".

Critic A.S. Byatt went even further in attacking the perceived lack of originality of the series following the release of the fifth book in 2003, when she called Rowling's world a "secondary secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature [...] written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip". Byatt went on to say that readers' deference to this "derivative manipulation of past motifs" is for adult readers driven by a desire to regress to their "own childish desires and hopes" and for younger readers, "the powerful working of the fantasy of escape and empowerment, combined with the fact that the stories are comfortable, funny, just frightening enough". The end result being the levelling "of cultural studies, which are as interested in hype and popularity as they are in literary merit".

Some critics were in agreement with Byatt. Fay Weldon said, "She is absolutely right that it is not what the poets hoped for, but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose."

Others, like Charles Taylor of Salon.com, responded to Byatt by conceding 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", but rejecting her claim that the series is lacking in serious literary merit, owing its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers, stressing the progressively darker tone of the books filled with the discomfort of scenes including the murder of a classmate and close friend and the resulting psychological wounds and social isolation each causes. Taylor also points out that discomforting scenes disruptive to the childhood reassurances Byatt claims spurs the series' success are present in Philosopher's Stone (said to be the lightest of the six published books, citing "the devastating scene where Harry encounters a mirror that reveals the heart's truest desire and, looking into it, sees himself happy and smiling with the parents he never knew, a vision that lasts only as long as he looks into the glass, and a metaphor for how fleeting our moments of real happiness are", then asking rhetorically if "this is Byatt's idea of reassurance?" Taylor concludes that Rowling's success among children and adults is "because J.K. Rowling is a master of narrative".

Other critics, like Stephen King, concurred with Taylor calling the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", along with declaring "Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humour" to be "remarkable". However, he does write that despite the story being "a good one", he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle", the formulaic beginning of each of the six books published to date. King also rejects the view of the series often held by members of the fandom as being highly textured and thought-provoking, characterising the plot as "simple, uncomplicated fun".

King did, 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."

Controversy

In 1999 Nancy Kathleen Stouffer, who is sometimes known by her penname of N.K. Stouffer, quietly began to allege copyright and trademark infringement by J.K. Rowling of her 1984 works The Legend of Rah and the Muggles and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly.

The primary basis for Stouffer's claims lie in her own invention of Muggles, non-magical elongated humanoids of sorts and the title character of the second work, Larry Potter, a bespectacled boy with dark, albeit wavy hair (Rowling's Potter is characterised as having all of those, though with unruly instead of wavy hair.) Stouffer contended (and still does to this day) that it is not just these examples and similar names but that it is "the cumulative effect of all of it combined" with the other comparisons she lists on her real muggles website.

Rowling, along with Scholastic Press (her American publisher) and Warner Brothers (holders of the series' film rights), pre-empted Stouffer with a suit of their own seeking a declaratory judgment that they had not infringed on any of Stouffer's works. Rowling, through the use of expert witnesses who brought into question the authenticity of Stouffer's evidence, won the case with Stouffer's claims being dismissed with prejudice and Stouffer herself being fined $50,000 for her "pattern of intentional bad faith conduct" in relation to her employment of fraudulent evidentiary submissions, along with being ordered to pay a portion of the plaintiffs' legal fees.

Added controversy stems from some Christian groups in the United States who have denounced the series for promoting witchcraft and Satanism. "It contains some powerful and valuable lessons about love and courage and the ultimate victory of good over evil," said Paul Hetrick, spokesman for Focus on the Family, a national Christian group based in Colorado Springs. "However, the positive messages are packaged in a medium — witchcraft — that is directly denounced in Scripture." Accordingly, Harry Potter has been the subject of various book burnings. Continuing with the same line of reasoning, in 2002, Chick Publications went so far as to produce a comic book tract called "The Nervous Witch" about two teenage girls who get seriously involved in occult witchcraft and become demonically possessed as a direct result of reading Harry Potter books.

It has also been argued that when Pope Benedict XVI was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he also condemned the books in a letter expressing gratitude for the receipt of a book on the subject, stating they are "a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly". Monsignor Peter Fleetwood, a Vatican priest, wrote that these remarks were misinterpreted, and that the letter was likely to have been written by an assistant of the then-cardinal.

Owing to the very nature of the books and the matter-of-fact way in which Rowling addresses the use of magic, the series has been a frequent target of banning and censorship in libraries. The series taken as a whole is in the list of the top 100 most frequently challenged books at libraries (i.e., books that have been requested to be banned), currently listed at number seven on this list.

The series garnered more controversy with its most recent release, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when a grocery store in Canada accidentally sold several copies of the sixth Harry Potter book before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books in their possession. This sparked a number of news articles questioning the injunction's restriction on fundamental rights. Canadian law professor Michael Geist has posted commentary on his weblog. Richard Stallman has posted commentary on his weblog calling for a boycott until the publisher issues an apology. Some versions of this creed have been circulated by email including a spoiler for one of the major plot points in the novel. Whether this was actually the original posted version and was modified by Stallman is as yet unclear, though the tone of the sentence is substantially the same as that of the rest of the message.

Releases

Events

Crowds wait outside a Borders store in Delaware for the midnight release of the book

Following the Harry Potter media blitz or "Pottermania" of 1999–2000, the Harry Potter series developed a massive following of fans, so eager for the latest series release that book stores 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 incredibly successful at 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 in the first 24 hours.

Security

Copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince awaiting the stroke of midnight

As publication nears, the popularity of the series as seen in the 670 Barnes & Noble release parties and 1,800 others registered with PotterParties.com, along with the nearly 2 million pre-orders for the sixth book between Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, necessitates a level of security unprecedented in the publishing world including in some cases, armed police guards for truck delivery of the heavily sealed packages.

A shipment of Potter books to dealers also comes with strict instructions for distribution with the possibility of legal action and revocation of future books if proper procedure isn't followed.

Awards & honours

J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series have been the recipients of a host of awards since the initial publication of Philosopher's Stone including four Whitaker Platinum Book Awards (all of which were awarded in 2001), three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997-1999), two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (1999 and 2001), and the WHSmith book of the year (2006), among others. Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997), a shortlisting for the Guardian Children's Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors' Choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, New York Times, Chicago Public Library, and Publishers Weekly.

Commercial success

File:HP Promo.jpg

Harry Potter costumes promoting the film in Hong Kong.

The tremendous popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. The books have sold over 300 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been successful in their own right with the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ranking number three on the list of all time highest- grossing films and the other three each ranking in the top 25. The movies have in turn spawned five video games and have in conjunction with the games and movies led to the licensing of over 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod) that have as of July 2005 made the Harry Potter brand worth an estimated 4 billion dollars and J.K. Rowling a U.S. dollar billionaire, making her by some reports, richer than Queen Elizabeth II.

Future

There are currently three more Harry Potter films yet to be released. On 5th April 2006 Warner Brothers announced that the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, will be released in cinemas on 13 July 2007.

In December of 2005, Rowling declared on her website that "2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series." Updates have since followed in her online diary chronicling the progress of this the seventh Harry Potter book, though a title, release date, or proclamation of completion have not accompanied them. However, in a 2006 interview, Bloomsbury publishing director, Liz Calder, said that "the next Harry Potter book is likely to come out in 2007."

Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the seventh book was completed some time ago, before writing the third book. According to her, the last word in the book is currently "scar". In a July 2005 interview with fan sites Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron she cast doubt on this, saying, "I wonder if it will remain that way", and stated that certain details will have to be changed.

Regarding the existence of Harry Potter novels beyond the seventh, Rowling has said that she might write an eighth book some day. If she does, she intends it to be a sort of encyclopædia of the wizarding world, containing concepts and snippets of information that were not relevant enough to the novels' plots to be included in them. She has also said that she will not write any sort of prequel to the novels, since by the time the series ends all the necessary back story will have been revealed.

See also

• J. K. Rowling
• All Wikipedia articles about Harry Potter

• Harry James Potter
• Wizarding world
• Harry Potter Parodies

References

• Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747538492.
• Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Bloomsbury. ISBN 074754624X.

Further reading

• Beahm, George W. Fact, Fiction, and Folklore in Harry Potter's World: An Unofficial Guide.
• Beahm, George W. Muggles and Magic: An Unofficial Guide to J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Phenomenon.
• Chippendale, Lisa A. Triumph of the Imagination: The Story of J.K. Rowling. 2002, 2003.
• Fraser, Lindsey. Conversations with J.K. Rowling. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001.
• J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001.
• Lawrence, Daniel. The Ultimate Unofficial Harry Potter Trivia Book: Secrets, Mysteries and Fun Facts Including Half-Blood Prince Book 6.
• Rowling, J.K. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Sagebrush, 2001.
• --. Quidditch Through the Ages. Sagebrush, 2001.
• Shapiro, Marc. J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter. St. Martin's Press, 2000.
• Smith, Sean. J.K. Rowling: A Biography. Michael O'Mara Books, 1999.
• Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter (Analysis of Books 1-4). No location: Wizarding Press, 2003.
• David Colbert The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter. Penguin Books, 2001.

External links

Official sites:

• J.K. Rowling's personal website
• Official Harry Potter movies website (Warner Bros.)
• Harry Potter on Bloomsbury.com (International publisher)
• Harry Potter on Scholastic.com (U.S. publisher)
• Harry Potter on Raincoast.com (Canadian publisher)

Other resources:

• Harry Potter Wiki
• Harry Potter, an external wiki

For further fandom links, including "unofficial" websites, see Harry Potter fandom.