Plot Overview of the Novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher
J.K
Rowling’s 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. It is the first novel in the Harry Potter series and Rowling’s debut
novel, first published in 1997 by Bloomsbury. It was published in the United
States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone by scholastic corporation in 1998. The plot follows Harry Potter, a
young wizard who discovers his magical heritage as he makes close friends and a
few enemies in his first year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry. 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.
J.K Rowling was born in
Chipping Sodury, July 31st 1965. From an early age, Rowling had an
ambition to be a writer. She often tried her hand at writing, although little
came from her early efforts. Aged six she wrote a book about a rabbit with
measles. In her own autobiography she remembers with great fondness, when her
good friend Sean became the first person to give her the confidence that one
day she would be able to make a very good writer.
J.K Rowling studied at
St. Michael’s primary school in Gloucestershire, before moving to Chepstow,
South Wales at the age of nine. After finishing school, her parents encouraged
her to study French at the University of Exeter. She slightly regretted
choosing French, saying she would have preferred to study English. Ater having
spent a year in Paris, J.K Rowling graduated from university and took various
jobs in London. One of her favourite jobs was working for Amnesty
International; the charity, which campaigns against human rights abuses
throughout the world.
It was in 1990, that
J.K Rowling first conceived of the idea about Harry Potter from a long train
journey from Manchester to London. In the same year Rowling lost her mother,
who died of Multiple Sclerosis. She was very close to her mother, and she felt
the loss deeply. Her own loss gave an added poignancy to the death of Harry
Potter’s mother in her book. She says her favourite scene in the Philosopher’s stone is, The Mirror of
Erised, where Harry sees his parents in the mirror.
In 1991, J.K Rowling
left England to get a job as an English teacher in Portugal. It was here that
she met her first husband, Jorge Arantes and together they had a child Jessica.
However, after a couple of years, the couple split after a fierce argument;
where by all accounts J.K Rowling was thrown out of the house.
In Dec 1993, Rowling
returned to UK, moving to Edinburgh where she tried to finish her first book.
Eventually, she finished her first copy of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, and sent it off to
various agents. It was rejected by 12 major publishing houses. But, finally, a
quite small publisher, Bloomsbury agreed to take the book on. And on 21st
Dec 2006, Rowling finished her final book of the Harry Potter series- “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”.
On 27 Sep 2012, Rowling
released the Casual Vacancy an adult
novel. In 2013, The Cuckoo’s Calling was
published. Initially, the author was started as being Robert Galbraith. But
this was a pseudonym used by J.K Rowling. After her authorship was discovered,
sales went through the roof.
The novel won most of the
British book awards that were judged by children and other awards in the US.
The book reached in 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 seventy three other languages and has been made into a feature-length
film of the same name, as have all six of its sequels.
Ten-year-old Harry is
an orphan who lives with his uncaring Aunt Petunia, loathsome uncle Vernon, and
(worst of all) his spoiled cousin Dudley. Always in trouble for things that are
not apparently his fault, condemned to a life of drudgery and forced to sleep in
a cupboard under the stairs, Harry is astonished to receive a letter from the
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before he can open the letter,
Uncle Vernon takes it, but the house is soon plagued by letters and surrounded
by owls. On Harry’s 11th birthday, a giant called Rubeus Hagrid
appears with another copy of the letter. Harry rapidly discovers that it is an
offer of a place at Hogwarts, that he is a wizard himself, and that he acquired
the lightning-bolt scar on his forehead in the fight when his parents were
killed by the evil wizard Voldemort. Hagrid deals with Uncle Vernon and with
Dudley, and soon Harry finds himself in the magical world of Hogwarts under the
care of headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Harry’s eventful first year at the school-
with its successes and failures, friendships and enmities,
broomstick-stick-riding Quidditch matches, and potions lessons- is overshadowed
by dark thoughts of his parent’s murder and the dawning knowledge that one day
he may have to meet Voldemort, too. Harry’s curiosity is destined to lead him and
his friends into trouble, even danger, before they discover the truth about the
mysterious Philosopher’s stone.
A huge theme within Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
is that of the power or concept of choice and free will and its impact on the wellbeing,
on our lives, and on the lives of others. Another crucial theme in the novel
and the remaining book series is the theme of love. Rowling demonstrates the
power of love from the very beginning of the narrative by explaining that
Harry’s ability to survive Voldemort’s killing curse is a direct result of his
mother’s love. The importance of rebellion, humility, friendship, power and
death are some major themes which can be seen in this novel.
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