Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Categories: 1997 books | Harry Potter books

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first volume in a planned series of seven books written by British author J. K. Rowling, and featuring Harry Potter, a young wizard. The book was first published on 30 June 1997 by Bloomsbury in London, and has also been made into a film of the same name.

Both the book and the motion picture were released in the United States with the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, ostensibly because the publishers were concerned that the title would not instantly give the book an impression of magic and fantasy to the American public. However, it must be noted that the renaming of books for international distribution is not an uncommon practice, even for high-profile authors.

Whatever the reasons for the change, it had no effect on the sales figures, and demand for the Harry Potter series grew very rapidly among young readers, who seemed to be undaunted by the increasing length and complexity of the volumes.

Translations

See: Harry Potter in translation

Plot overview

Harry Potter, born on 31 July 1980, was orphaned on 31 October 1981, when the evil wizard Lord Voldemort murdered his parents, James and Lily Potter, a witch and wizard. Harry's mother died trying to save Harry, and her self-sacrifice caused the killing spell, Avada Kedavra, cast by Voldemort to backfire. Instead of killing Harry it formed a connection between the two, transferring some of Voldemort's powers to Harry and nearly killing Voldemort. Harry sustained a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and Voldemort vanished. Harry's mother's love and Voldemort's powers give Harry a lingering magical protection against future attacks by Voldemort.

Harry is rescued by half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, groundsman and keeper of keys of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, under the orders of headmaster and powerful mage Albus Dumbledore. He is put in the reluctant care of his Muggle (non-magical) relatives, his mother's sister Petunia Dursley and her husband Vernon. They live in Little Whinging, a suburb of London, along with their spoiled son Dudley (born June 22, 1980). The Dursleys intensely dislike magic and conceal from Harry any knowledge of his magical abilities and tell him instead that his parents were killed in a car crash. The Dursleys mistreat Harry, whose bedroom is a cupboard under the stairs, filled with spiders.

A week before his eleventh birthday, Harry begins receiving letters offering him a place at Hogwarts to learn magic. The Dursleys' try to intercept the letters and take Harry away to the remote countryside to escape them, but Hagrid eventually tracks them down. He tells Harry about his parents and introduces him to magical Diagon Alley, where he purchases the supplies he will need for school. Hagrid returns Harry to the Dursleys with a ticket for the school train to Hogwarts, from Platform 9¾ at King's Cross station, London.

All new students arriving at Hogwarts are 'sorted' into one of the four school Houses by trying on an ancient talking hat, once the property of one of the school's founders Godric Gryffindor. Each house has very specific characteristics. Slytherin is filled with ambitious, cunning witches and wizards. Ravenclaw is home to the most intelligent students. Gryffindor houses the bravest, and Hufflepuff is characterised by loyalty, fairness and honesty. Though the hat considers placing him in Slytherin, Harry is determined to enter Gryffindor, and the hat agrees. Two fellow Gryffindors, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, become Harry's closest friends and his biggest rival is Draco Malfoy, who belongs to Slytherin house.

During the year, Harry learns about wizards. He is given a mysterious christmas present of an invisibility cloak, which once belonged to his father, and which he uses to move unseen around the castle. He discovers the mirror of Erised, which allows him to see his parents. He learns about Quidditch, the favourite sport of wizards which is played on flying broomsticks and is nearly killed when someone jinxes his broom.

Harry, Ron and Hermione discover that a three-headed dog, christened Fluffy by Hagrid, guards a trapdoor in a forbidden corridor of Hogwarts. They speculate as to what it guards, deciding that Fluffy must be guarding the legendary Philosopher's Stone. The three friends come to believe that Severus Snape, the sinister Potions master, is trying to steal it in order to restore Lord Voldemort to power.

Believing the theft of the Stone to be imminent, Harry, Ron, and Hermione go through the trapdoor to get to it first. They negotiate the security system set up by the school's staff and find that Professor Quirrell, not Snape, is trying to steal the Stone. Snape was, in fact, actually - though grudgingly - trying to protect Harry from harm all along. Harry confronts Quirrell and survives a second encounter with Lord Voldemort, who has been living inside Quirrell on the back of his head. Quirrell is killed in the confrontation and Voldemort is driven away in a ghostlike form. Dumbledore agrees with Nicholas Flamel, the manufacturer of the Stone, that it should be destroyed to prevent future attempts by Voldemort to steal it.

External links

• MonoMyth.org - Mythological Structure of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter Series

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