The fourth book in the Harry Potter phenomenon, at 734 pages, is what you call a wallow - one that some will find wide-ranging, compellingly written, and absorbing others, long, rambling, and tortuously fraught with adverbs (“‘What sort of objects are Portkeys?’ said Harry curiously”). have a hot butterbeer, future reader, and enjoy. There’s hope, too, for a lessening in the power Harry’s Muggle relatives seem to have over him - and so a probability that we won’t have to endure quite so much of these tiresomely one-dimensional characters in the future. The Quidditch action is the best yet the Hogwarts classes (Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Potions) are inventive and entertaining and Rowling pulls off a nifty bit of time manipulation in the book’s exciting climax. The characters are particularly interesting, especially the aforementioned new teacher, Professor Lupin, a man with a howling secret Sirius Black, a feared, possibly mad, escaped prisoner who is believed to have betrayed Harry’s parents and is now said to be after Harry and Harry himself, who in facing the reality of his parents’ violent deaths becomes a stronger person - and a more complex hero. But all the elements that make the formula work are heightened here. The basics remain the same: it’s another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (where there’s perforce a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher) it’s still Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Gryffindor House, and the headmaster versus Professor Snape, Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin goons, Lord Voldemort, and various other forces of darkness. For the record, then, O future reader, this latest installment in Harry’s saga is quite a good book. PARRAVANOĪll current reviews of Harry Potter books should probably be addressed to some future audience for whom Harry is book rather than phenomenon at the moment, reviews seem superfluous. ![]() Rowling clearly hit on a winning formula with the first Harry Potter book the second book - though still great fun - feels a tad, well, formulaic. But, truth to tell, you may feel as if you’ve read it all before. The atmosphere Rowling creates is unique the story whizzes along Harry is an unassuming and completely sympathetic hero. Once again, the attraction of Rowling’s traditional British school story is magnified tenfold by the fantasy elements superimposed upon it. Once again, Harry’s school experiences are colored by encounters with genial ghosts and antagonistic teachers, by the rivalry between good-guy Gryffindor House and slimy Slytherin House, and by an ominous mystery to be solved involving Harry’s archenemy, the dark sorcerer Lord Voldemort. In this sequel to the phenomenally popular Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry returns to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year after a miserable summer with his Muggle (nonmagical) relatives. A charming and readable romp with a most sympathetic hero and filled with delightful magic details. The light-hearted caper travels through the territory owned by the late Roald Dahl, especially in the treatment of the bad guys - they are uniformly as unshadedly awful as possible - but the tone is a great deal more affectionate. He makes friends (and enemies), goes through dangerous and exciting adventures, and justifies the hopeful predictions about him. He studies Herbology, the History of Magic, Charms, Potions, the Dark Arts, and other arcane subjects, all the while getting closer to his destiny and the secret of the sorcerer’s stone. ![]() Harry’s house is Gryffindor, the time-honored rival of Slytherin: he becomes a star at Quidditch, an extremely complicated game played with four different balls while the whole team swoops about on broomsticks. Hogwarts is the typical British public school, with much emphasis placed on games and the honor of the Houses. Harry’s astonished introduction to the life of wizardry starts with his purchase, under Hagrid’s guidance, of all the tools of an aspiring sorcerer: wand, robes, cauldron, broomstick, owl. Harry learns that his parents died saving him from an evil sorcerer and that he himself is destined to be a wizard of great power. On his eleventh birthday, mysterious missives begin arriving for him, culminating eventually in the arrival of a giant named Hagrid, who has come to escort him to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He sleeps in the broom cupboard under the stairs and is treated as a slave by his aunt and uncle. Orphaned Harry Potter has been living a dog’s life with his horrible relatives.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |