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Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone Is A: Book Critique

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the popular Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. It follows 11-year-old orphan Harry Potter, who discovers on his birthday that he is a wizard and attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At Hogwarts, Harry makes friends, enemies, and encounters the evil Lord Voldemort who killed Harry's parents but failed to kill Harry as a baby. The book was a worldwide commercial success and launched the Harry Potter franchise while also receiving critical praise and some religious criticism for its focus on magic and wizardry.

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239 views1 page

Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone Is A: Book Critique

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the popular Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. It follows 11-year-old orphan Harry Potter, who discovers on his birthday that he is a wizard and attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At Hogwarts, Harry makes friends, enemies, and encounters the evil Lord Voldemort who killed Harry's parents but failed to kill Harry as a baby. The book was a worldwide commercial success and launched the Harry Potter franchise while also receiving critical praise and some religious criticism for its focus on magic and wizardry.

Uploaded by

Gerald Peralta
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Book Critique

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.
I choose this because it has been a source of object lesson in educational techniques,
sociological analysis and marketing.

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