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Some books are so famous that it is easy to forget they were once just a manuscript that nobody wanted. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is one of them. Today it is the opening volume of one of the best-known series in the world, and it has been translated into dozens of languages. But if you have only seen the films, or only know the story as a cultural reference, the first book still has something to offer that nothing else quite replaces: the experience of discovering its world one page at a time.
This review covers the background of the book and the opening of the story only. There are no spoilers for the later chapters or the ending.
The author and the book's beginnings
J. K. Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, in the west of England. The idea came to her in 1990 on a delayed train from Manchester to London, when the characters who would become Harry, Ron and Hermione appeared clearly in her mind. After moving to Edinburgh in late 1993, she wrote much of the book in cafés.
Finding a publisher was not easy. Her agent spent about a year sending the manuscript around, and many publishers felt it was too long. Bloomsbury finally took it on, and the novel was published in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1997. It did not stay quiet for long: that same year, the UK edition won a gold medal in the 9-to-11 age category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. By Wikipedia's count, it has since sold more than 120 million copies.
Where the story begins
Harry Potter is an orphan. He lives in the fictional English town of Little Whinging with his uncle Vernon, his aunt Petunia, and their spoiled son Dudley. The Dursleys treat Harry as an unwelcome burden, and Dudley bullies him whenever he gets the chance. Harry has no idea why his life feels so out of place, or who he really is.
Then letters begin to arrive, addressed to Harry. Strangely, his uncle will do almost anything to stop him from reading them. On Harry's eleventh birthday, a huge man named Rubeus Hagrid appears with news that turns Harry's world upside down: Harry is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts, a school of magic.
Hagrid takes him shopping in Diagon Alley, where Harry discovers that he is famous among wizards for reasons he never knew. He buys a wand, gets an owl named Hedwig, and a month later boards the Hogwarts Express. On the train he makes his first friend, a fellow first-year named Ron Weasley.
What waits for them at Hogwarts, and what the "Philosopher's Stone" of the title actually is, you will have to find out for yourself.
What makes it worth reading
The smartest choice Rowling makes is to start with a hero who knows nothing. Harry is as new to magic as the reader is, so every shop, every rule and every strange custom is explained naturally as he encounters it. You never feel lost, even if you rarely read fantasy.
The book is also, at heart, a school story. There are lessons, teachers you like and teachers you do not, friends who become family, and classmates you would rather avoid. Magic makes it all bigger and stranger, but the feelings underneath are familiar to anyone who has ever started at a new school.
Finally, there is the emotional thread that holds everything together: a boy who has never belonged anywhere slowly finds a place where he is wanted. Young readers enjoy the adventure. Adults who come back to it often notice how much of the story is about that simple, powerful wish.
The pacing is brisk, too. The humor is light, and a mystery builds quietly in the background. It is easy to read a few chapters "just before bed" and look up an hour later.
Who should read it
- Readers who know the films but have never opened the books
- Anyone curious about fantasy but put off by long, complicated series (you can start with this one and decide later)
- Parents looking for a book to share with children, or to talk about together
A note on editions and the title
If you are shopping in the United States, look for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." It is the same book. The US edition was published in September 1998 by Scholastic, whose editor felt the word "philosopher" might sound too old-fashioned to American children. Rowling later said she regretted agreeing to the change. Bloomsbury's UK edition keeps the original "Philosopher's Stone."
If the Dursleys' frantic battle against a pile of unopened letters makes you laugh, you are already halfway to Hogwarts.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (UK first publication date and publisher, US title and publication, awards, opening plot, translations, sales) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher%27s_Stone
- Wikipedia, "J. K. Rowling" (birth name, date and place of birth, origin of the idea, writing in Edinburgh) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling
- Wikipedia (Japanese), "ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石" (reasoning behind the US title change and the author's later comment on it) https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石