Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone
Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
is a fantasy novel
written by British author J.
K. Rowling. The first novel in the Harry
Potter series and Rowling's debut
novel, it follows Harry Potter, a young wizard
who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a
letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry
makes close friends and a few enemies during his first year at the school, and
with the help of his friends, Harry faces an attempted comeback by the dark
wizard Lord Voldemort,
who killed Harry's parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months
old.
The
book was first published in the United
Kingdom on 26 June 1997 by Bloomsbury.
It was published in the United
States the following year by Scholastic Corporation under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
It won most of the British book awards that were judged by children and other
awards in the US. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of
best-selling fiction in August 1999 and stayed near the top of that list for
much of 1999 and 2000. It has been translated into at least 73 other languages,
and has been made into a feature-length film
of the same name, as have all six of its sequels.
Most
reviews were very favourable, commenting on Rowling's imagination, humour,
simple, direct style and clever plot construction, although a few complained
that the final chapters seemed rushed. The writing has been compared to that of
Jane
Austen, one of Rowling's favourite
authors; Roald Dahl,
whose works dominated children's stories before the appearance of Harry Potter;
and the Ancient Greek story-teller Homer. While some commentators thought the book looked backwards
to Victorian and Edwardian boarding
school stories, others thought it placed
the genre firmly in the modern world by featuring contemporary ethical and
social issues, as well as overcoming obstacles like bullies.
Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,
along with the rest of the Harry Potter series, has been attacked by
some religious groups and banned in some countries because of accusations that
the novels promote witchcraft
under the guise of a heroic, moral story. Other religious commentators have
written that the book exemplifies important viewpoints, including the power of
self-sacrifice and the ways in which people's decisions shape their
personalities. The series has been used as a source of object
lessons in educational
techniques, sociological
analysis and marketing.
Synopsis
Plot
Harry
Potter has been living an ordinary life, constantly abused by his surly and
cold aunt and uncle, Vernon
and Petunia Dursley and bullied by their spoiled son
Dudley since the death of his parents ten years prior. His life changes on the
day of his eleventh birthday when he receives a letter of acceptance into Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry,
delivered by a half-giant named Rubeus
Hagrid after previous letters had been
destroyed by Vernon and Petunia. Hagrid details Harry's past as the son of James and Lily
Potter, who were a wizard and witch
respectively, and how they were murdered by the most evil and powerful dark
wizard of all time, Lord
Voldemort, which resulted in the one-year-old
Harry being sent to live with his aunt and uncle. Voldemort was not only unable
to kill Harry, but his powers were also destroyed in the attempt, forcing him
into exile and sparking Harry's immense fame among the magical community.
Hagrid
introduces Harry to the wizarding
world by bringing him to Diagon
Alley, a hidden street in London where
Harry uncovers a fortune left to him by his parents at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, receives a pet owl, Hedwig, various school supplies, and a
wand. There, he is surprised to discover how famous he truly is among witches
and wizards. A month later, Harry leaves the Dursleys' home to catch the Hogwarts
Express from King's Cross railway
station's secret Hogwarts platform, Platform
9 3⁄4.
On the train, he quickly befriends fellow first-year Ronald
Weasley and the two boys meet Hermione
Granger, whose snobbiness and affinity for
spells initially causes the two boys to dislike her. There, Harry also makes an
enemy of yet another first-year, Draco
Malfoy, who shows prejudice against Ron
for his family's financial difficulties.
Arriving
at Hogwarts, the first-years are assigned by the magical Sorting
Hat to Houses that best suit their personalities, the four Houses being Gryffindor, Slytherin,
Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
Harry hears from Ron about Slytherin's dark reputation which is known to house
potential dark witches and wizards, and thus objects to being sorted into
Slytherin despite the Hat claiming that Harry has potential to develop under
that House. He winds up in Gryffindor with Ron and Hermione, while Draco is
sorted into Slytherin like his family before him.
As
classes begin at Hogwarts, Harry discovers his innate talent for flying on
broomsticks despite no prior experience, and is recruited into his House's team
for Quidditch (a competitive wizards' sport sharing similarities to football,
but played on flying broomsticks) as a Seeker. He also comes to dislike the
school's Potions master, Severus
Snape, who is also the Head of Slytherin
House who acts with bias in favour of members of his House while perpetually
looking for opportunities to fail Harry and his friends. Malfoy tricks Harry
and Ron into a duel in the trophy room to get them out of their rooms at night
and secretly tells Filch, the school's caretaker, where they will be. Hermione
unintentionally is forced to come along after her failed attempts to stop them,
and they find Gryffindor student Neville Longbottom
asleep outside the common area because he had forgotten the password to get in.
After realizing the duel was a set-up to get them in trouble, they run away.
They then discover a huge three-headed dog standing guard over a trapdoor in a
forbidden corridor. The school's Halloween celebrations are interrupted by the entrance of a troll
into the school, which enters the girls' bathroom where Hermione was. However,
she is saved by Harry and Ron and, as a result, Hermione is grateful and the
three become best friends. Coupled with Snape's recent leg injury as well as
behaviour, the recent events prompt Harry, Hermione and Ron to suspect him to
be looking for a way to enter the trapdoor.
Hermione
forbids the boys from investigating for fear of expulsion, and instead makes
Harry direct his attention to his first ever Quidditch game, where his
broomstick begins to lose control and threatens to throw him off. This leads
Hermione to suspect that Snape had jinxed Harry's broom, due to his strange
behaviour during the match. After the excitement of winning the match has died
down, Christmas arrives and Harry receives an invisibility cloak from an
anonymous source claiming that the cloak belonged to Harry's father. Using the cloak
to explore the school at night to investigate what is under the trapdoor, he
discovers the Mirror of Erised, in which the viewer sees his or her deepest
desires come true.
A
visit to Hagrid's hut at the foot of the school leads the trio to find a newspaper
report stating there had been an attempted robbery of a Gringotts vault—the
same vault that Hagrid and Harry had visited when the latter was getting his
school supplies. A further indiscretion from Hagrid allows them to work out
that the object kept under that trapdoor is a Philosopher's Stone,
which grants its user immortality
as well as the ability to turn any metal into pure gold. Harry is also informed by a centaur named Firenze in the forest that a plot to steal the Stone is being
orchestrated by none other than Voldemort himself, who schemes to use it to be
restored back to his body and return to power. When the school's headmaster Albus
Dumbledore is lured from Hogwarts under false
pretences, Harry, Hermione and Ron fear that the theft is imminent and descend
through the trapdoor themselves.
They
encounter a series of obstacles, each of which requires unique skills possessed
by one of the three, one of which requires Ron to sacrifice himself in a
life-sized game of wizard's chess.
In the final room, Harry, now alone, finds Quirinus Quirrell, the Defence
Against the Dark Arts teacher, who reveals he had been the one working behind
the scenes to kill Harry by first jinxing his broom and then letting a troll
into the school, while Snape had been trying to protect Harry instead. Quirrell
is helping Voldemort, whose face has sprouted on the back of Quirrell's head
but is constantly concealed by his oversized turban, to attain the
Philosopher's Stone so as to restore his body. Quirrell uses Harry to get past
the final obstacle, the Mirror of Erised, by forcing him to stand before the
Mirror. It recognises Harry's lack of greed for the Stone and surreptitiously
deposits it into his pocket. As Quirrell attempts to seize the stone and kill
Harry, his flesh burns on contact with the boy's skin and breaks into blisters.
Harry's scar suddenly burns with pain and he passes out.
Three
days later, he awakens in the school's infirmary, where Dumbledore explains his
survival against Voldemort is due to his mother's sacrificing her life in order
for him to live. This left a powerful protective charm on Harry that lives in
his blood, which caused Quirrell's hands to burn on contact with Harry due to
him being possessed by hatred and greed. He also reveals himself as the one who
sent Harry his father's invisibility cloak, while Quirrell has been left to die
by Voldemort, who still lives, and the Stone has now been destroyed. The
eventful school year ends at the final feast, during which Gryffindor wins the
House Cup. Harry returns to Privet Drive for the summer, neglecting to tell the
Dursleys that the use of spells is forbidden by under-aged wizards and witches
and thus anticipating some fun and peace over the holidays.
Main characters
- Harry Potter is an orphan whom Rowling imagined as a "scrawny, black-haired, green eyed and bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard."[2] She developed the series' story and characters to explain how Harry came to be in this situation and how his life unfolded from there.[3] Apart from the first chapter, the events of this book take place just before and in the year following Harry's eleventh birthday. Voldemort's attack left a lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead,[3] which produces stabbing pains whenever Voldemort is present. Harry has a natural talent for Quidditch and became the first person in decades to get on their team in their first year.
- Ronald Weasley is Harry's age and Rowling describes him as the ultimate best friend, "always there when you need him."[4] He is freckled, red-haired and quite tall. He grew up in a fairly large pure-blood family as the sixth born of seven children. Although his family is quite poor, they still live comfortably and happily. His loyalty and bravery in the face of a game of Wizards Chess plays a vital part in finding the Philosopher's Stone.
- Hermione Granger, the daughter of an all-Muggle family, is a bossy girl who has apparently memorised most of the textbooks before the start of term. Rowling described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character[5] with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness".[5] Despite her nagging efforts to keep Harry and Ron out of trouble, she becomes a close friend of the two boys after they save her from a troll, and her magical and analytical skills play an important role in finding the Philosopher's Stone. She has bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.
- Neville Longbottom is a plump, diffident boy, so forgetful that his grandmother gives him a Remembrall, to remind him if he forgets something. Neville's magical abilities are weak and appeared just in time to save his life when he was eight. Despite his timidity, Neville will fight anyone after some encouragement or if he thinks it is right and important.
- Rubeus Hagrid, a half-giant nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) tall, with tangled black hair and beard, was expelled from Hogwarts and his wand was snapped in half (resulting in him never to use a wand again), however Professor Dumbledore let him stay on as the school's gamekeeper, a job which enables him to lavish affection, care and even pet names on even the most dangerous of magical creatures. Hagrid is fiercely loyal to Dumbledore and quickly becomes a close friend of Harry, Ron and, later, Hermione, but his carelessness makes him unreliable.
- Professor Albus Dumbledore, a tall, thin man who wears half-moon spectacles and has silver hair and a beard that tucks into his belt, is the headmaster of Hogwarts, and thought to be the only wizard Voldemort fears. Dumbledore, while renowned for his achievements in magic, shrugs off praise, though he is aware of his own brilliance. Rowling described him as the "epitome of goodness".[6]
- Professor Minerva McGonagall, a tall, severe-looking woman with black hair tied in a tight bun, teaches Transfiguration, and is able to transform herself into a cat. She is Deputy Headmistress, and Head of Gryffindor House and, according to the author, "under that gruff exterior" is "a bit of an old softy".[7]
- Petunia Dursley, the sister of Harry's mother Lily, is a thin woman with a long neck that she uses for spying on the neighbours. As a muggle, she regards her magical sister as a freak and tries to pretend that she never existed.
- Vernon Dursley, the husband of Petunia Dursley, is a heavily built man whose irascible bluster covers a narrow mind and a fear of anything unusual.
- Dudley Dursley is an overweight, spoiled bully and Harry's cousin.
- Draco Malfoy is a slim, pale boy who speaks in a bored drawl. He is arrogant about his skill in Quidditch, and despises anyone who is not a pure-blood wizard – and wizards who do not share his views. His parents had supported Voldemort, but changed sides after the dark wizard's disappearance, claiming they had been bewitched. Draco avoids direct confrontations, and tries to get Harry and his friends into trouble.
- Oliver Wood is Harry's Quidditch captain and keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
- Professor Quirrell is a twitching, stammering and nervous man who teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts. Reputedly he was a brilliant scholar, but his nerve was shattered by an encounter with vampires. Quirrell wears a turban to conceal the fact that he is voluntarily possessed by Voldemort, whose face appears on the back of Quirrell's head.
- Professor Severus Snape, who has a hooked nose, sallow complexion and greasy black hair, teaches Potions, but would prefer to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Snape favours pupils in Slytherin, his own House, and seizes every opportunity to humiliate others, especially Harry. Several incidents, beginning with the shooting pain in Harry's scar during the start-of-term feast, lead Harry and his friends to think Snape is aiding Voldemort.
- Argus Filch, the school caretaker who knows the school's secret passages better than anyone else except, perhaps, the Weasley twins. His cat, Mrs. Norris, aids his constant hunt for misbehaving pupils.
Other
members of staff include the dumpy Herbology
teacher and Head of Hufflepuff House Professor
Sprout, Professor Flitwick,
the tiny and excitable Charms
teacher, and Head of Ravenclaw House, the soporific History of Magic
teacher, Professor Binns,
a ghost who does not seem to have noticed his own death; and Madam
Hooch, the Quidditch coach, who is
strict, but a considerate and methodical teacher. The poltergeist Peeves
wanders around the castle causing trouble wherever he can.
In
the book, Rowling introduces an eclectic cast of characters. The first character
to be introduced is Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle. Most of the actions centre
on the eponymous hero Harry Potter, an orphan who escapes his miserable childhood with the Dursley
family. Rowling imagined him as a
"scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a
wizard",[2]
and says she transferred part of her pain about losing her mother to him.[8] During the book, Harry makes two close friends, Ronald
Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron is described by Rowling as the ultimate best
friend, "always there when you need him".[4] Rowling has described Hermione as a "very logical,
upright and good" character[5]
with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her
swottiness".[5]
Rowling
also imagined a supporting cast of adults. The headmaster of Hogwarts is the
powerful, but kind wizard Albus
Dumbledore, who becomes Harry's confidant.
Rowling described him as "epitome of goodness".[6] His right hand is severe Minerva McGonagall,
who according to the author "under that gruff exterior" is "a
bit of an old softy",[7] the friendly half-giant Rubeus
Hagrid, who saved Harry from the Dursley
family, and the sinister Severus Snape.[9] Professor Quirrell is also featured in the novel.
The
main antagonists are Draco Malfoy,
an elitist, bullying classmate[10]
and Lord Voldemort,
the most powerful evil wizard who becomes disembodied when he tries to kill
baby Harry. According to a 1999 interview with Rowling, the character of
Voldemort was created as a literary foil for Harry, and his backstory was intentionally not fleshed-out at first:
The
basic idea... Harry, I saw Harry very very very clearly. Very vividly. And I
knew he didn't know he was a wizard. [...] And so then I kind of worked
backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't
know what he was. [...] When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for
hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's
parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. [...]
And—so—but for some mysterious reason, the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's
left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse
rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since.[3]
Development, publication and reception
Development
The
book, which was Rowling's debut novel, was written between approximately June
1990 and some time in 1995. In 1990 Jo Rowling, as she preferred to be known,[a] wanted to move with her boyfriend to a flat in Manchester and in her words, "One weekend after flat hunting, I
took the train back to London on my own and the idea for Harry Potter fell into
my head... A scrawny, little, black-haired, bespectacled boy became more and
more of a wizard to me... I began to write Philosopher's Stone that very
evening. Although, the first couple of pages look nothing like the finished
product."[8]
Then Rowling's mother died and, to cope with her pain, Rowling transferred her
own anguish to the orphan Harry.[8] Rowling spent six years working on Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone, and after it was accepted by Bloomsbury, she obtained
a grant of £8,000 from the Scottish Arts Council, which enabled her to plan the sequels.[14] She sent the book to an agent and a publisher, and then the second agent she approached
spent a year trying to sell the book to publishers, most of whom thought it was
too long at about 90,000 words. Barry Cunningham, who was building a portfolio of distinctive fantasies by
new authors for Bloomsbury Children's Books, recommended accepting the book,[15] and the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury's chief
executive said it was "so much better than anything else".[16]
Publication and reception in the United Kingdom
Bloomsbury
accepted the book, paying Rowling a £2,500 advance,[17] and Cunningham sent proof
copies to carefully chosen authors,
critics and booksellers in order to obtain comments that could be quoted when
the book was launched.[15] He was less concerned about the book's length than about
its author's name, since the title sounded like a boys' book to him, and he
believed boys preferred books by male authors. Rowling therefore adopted the nom
de plume J.K.
Rowling just before publication.[15] In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher's Stone
with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, three hundred of which
were distributed to libraries.[18] Her original name, "Joanne Rowling", can be found
in small print on the copyright page of this first British edition. (The 1998
first American edition would remove reference to "Joanne"
completely.)[19]
The short initial print run was standard for first novels, and Cunningham hoped
booksellers would read the book and recommend it to customers.[15] Examples from this initial print run have sold for as much
as US$33,460 in a 2007 Heritage Auction.[20]
Lindsey
Fraser, who had previously supplied one of the blurb comments,[15]
wrote what is thought to be the first published review, in The
Scotsman on 28 June 1997. She described Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as "a hugely entertaining
thriller" and Rowling as "a first-rate writer for children".[15][21] Another early review, in The Herald,
said, "I have yet to find a child who can put it down." Newspapers
outside Scotland started to notice the book, with glowing reviews in The
Guardian, The
Sunday Times and The Mail on Sunday, and in September 1997 Books
for Keeps, a magazine that specialised in
children's books, gave the novel four stars out of five.[15] The Mail on Sunday rated it as "the most imaginative debut since Roald
Dahl"; a view echoed by the Sunday
Times ("comparisons to Dahl are,
this time, justified"), while The
Guardian called it "a richly textured
novel given lift-off by an inventive wit" and The
Scotsman said it had "all the makings
of a classic".[15]
In
1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9- to 11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.[22] The Smarties award, which is voted for by children,
made the book well known within six months of publication, while most
children's books have to wait for years.[15] The following year, Philosopher's Stone won almost
all the other major British awards that were decided by children.[15][b] It was also shortlisted for children's books awards
adjudicated by adults,[23] but did not win. Sandra Beckett commented that books which
were popular with children were regarded as undemanding and as not of the
highest literary standards – for example the literary establishment
disdained the works of Dahl, an overwhelming favourite of children before the
appearance of Rowling's books.[24] In 2003, the novel was listed at number 22 on the BBC's survey The
Big Read.[25]
Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
won two publishing industry awards given for sales rather than literary merit,
the British Book Awards
Children's Book of the Year and the Booksellers' Association / Bookseller
Author of the Year.[15] By March 1999 UK editions had sold just over 300,000
copies,[26]
and the story was still the UK's best-selling title in December 2001.[27] A Braille
edition was published in May 1998 by the Scottish Braille Press.[28]
Platform
9 3⁄4
, from which the Hogwarts Express left London, was commemorated in the
real-life King's Cross railway
station with a sign and a trolley
apparently passing through the wall.[29]
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