Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by: J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is an extremely significant novel in terms of my personal life.  It was the first novel I ever read and really became a kick start to my love of reading and a love of stories.  I had originally seen the DVD of the film at a yard sale about a year after it came out and as I was very young I asked my parents if I could watch it as it looked really cool.  My parents were of course apprehensive about someone as young as I was watching a PG rated film so they said you can watch it with your grandparents if you read the book first.  So we went to the local library and picked up a copy and I only got as far as Chapter Eight before we stopped as it was my birthday and my uncle sent me my own copy of the novel.  I finished reading it with my father and I eventually did see the film.  This was in 2002 and it became tradition that every year my uncle would send me a copy of the next Harry Potter book which of course stopped in 2007 with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  There was one exception to this of course, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which I bought on my own in 2004 when I realized that the film had come out and we wanted to rent it on VHS.  Yes we rented it on a VHS tape.  Needless to say I am a big fan of this franchise, and with the release of the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on July 31^st it’s time for me to look at where it all began with the original novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, (I am using the American title as that is the version of the novel I read).  For these novel reviews I will be taking an in depth look at how well the novel is written and how the story is told by breaking the plot up into segments.

 

The story opens by introducing us to Vernon Dursley a fat man who works for a drill company who goes to work to see a lot of strange people in robes and owls on the street.  I point this out as it allows author J.K. Rowling to set up the world the story is set in.  Rowling makes everything initially seem normal, but hooks the reader by showing us hints that not everything is what it seems until the end of Chapter One which sees Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid leaving the newly orphaned Harry Potter on the doorstep of 4 Privet Drive, the home of the Dursleys who are of course Harry’s only surviving family.  This is the first real glimpse that magic not only exists in this world, but also that it is hidden from ordinary view and that the Dursleys are connected by blood to a wizarding family.

 

Chapter Two however plants us right back into the normal world as we flash forward ten years to see that Harry has been abused by the Dursleys and is a social outcast.  Now fans will know that Harry is going to become the Chosen One for the Wizarding World and doing this could have been a great flaw for Rowling, but as this wasn’t decided until well into writing the novel, Harry is given a defined character.  He is socially awkward and has his own insecurities.  He isn’t flawless as he wants to see his cousin in pain and even makes little jabs at Dudley as retaliation for the constant bullying.  It doesn’t take long however for the magic of the world to rear its head as it is Dudley’s birthday and the entire family and one of Dudley’s friends go to the London Zoo.  Harry even gets to have a semi-decent time at the zoo until they go to the Reptile House where he takes sympathy on a snake which eventually talks back to him.  Dudley pushes him to the ground and the glass on the exhibit disappears forcing Dudley and his friend to fall into the tank and the snake escapes.

 

Chapters Three, Four, Five and Six work as transitions from the Muggle world into the Wizarding World as letters start arriving for Harry at Privet Drive.  These letters eventually overrun the house and force the Dursleys to pack up and leave the home.  They eventually stop at a rundown hut in the middle of the sea where in the middle of the night Hagrid reenters the narrative to tell Harry he’s a wizard.  He gives Dudley a pig tail and takes Harry away to Diagon Alley where we actually get the backstory to what happened to Harry’s parents, they were killed by Voldemort and somehow Harry survived making him famous.  Harry gets his schoolbooks and equipment in Chapter Five which is the heaviest on the exposition on how this world works and we see Harry’s eyes opened to the wonder of this new world.  We get to meet Draco Malfoy who utterly confuses Harry with his knowledge of the wizarding world and once everything is done at Diagon Alley we actually remember that it’s only July 31^st and Harry has a whole month left at the Dursley’s.  This is a slight flaw in the storytelling as it does stop to a halt to show just how terrified the Dursley’s are of their nephew.  Chapter Six of course is the final transition as Harry leaves the Muggle world far behind to go on to Hogwarts.  On the way he meets Ron, Fred and George Weasley and they become close friends almost immediately once they get over the shock of meeting a celebrity.  Hermione Granger is also introduced in this chapter, but as she is a complete know-it-all at this point of the story they don’t become friends.

 

Chapter Seven and Eight become the final chapters in exposition as we get to know Hogwarts, what Harry thinks of his professors and an introduction to the supporting characters.  The other students outside of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Neville and Malfoy are where Rowling fails.  In this novel they really don’t get to be extremely fleshed out and while they aren’t forgettable they are reserved to being one note.  Some of the professors don’t fare much better.  That said with the massive amounts of exposition Rowling’s prose throughout the novel is incredibly easy to read. She takes Stephen King’s advice of just putting what’s necessary and letting the reader fill in the gaps which really works.  However this causes the back half of the novel to suffer as the first eight chapters are dedicated to two months, Chapters Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen take us through the next seven months in an extremely sped up time period.  Harry gets the position of Seeker for the Gryffindor House Quidditch team and has his duel with Malfoy that makes them discover Fluffy, have their encounter with the Mountain Troll developing the main trio’s friendship rather quickly, has Harry’s broom jinxed, have Snape referee the next match immediately following, gets the Invisibility Cloak, discovers the Mirror of Erised and who Nicholas Flamel is in these five rather compacted chapters.  As the book is trying to be a mystery it is going through the rising action extremely quickly to get to the climax which is a real problem for the novel.  These chapters however do take time to develop Oliver Wood as he explains what Quidditch is, McGonagall as she gets to show that she does in fact care about her house, and Dumbledore as he shows just how much of an oxymoron he is as a character.  Harry gets his biggest jump in character in Chapter Twelve as the Mirror of Erised allows for us to see just what he wants.

 

The pace however slows down to a more manageable speed for Chapters Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen and Seventeen.  This is where we really get the most development for the characters as Harry, Ron and Hermione work out what Fluffy is guarding and that it is Voldemort trying to steal the famous Sorcerer’s Stone to regain his power.  It’s how they try and confront Voldemort that is the highlight of the novel as Rowling closes their character arcs as they get to have their own trials.  Harry shows just how much he has grown, not allowing Voldemort to intimidate him as he confronts adversity.  Ron shows just how loyal he is as he sacrifices himself in the giant chess game and Hermione actually gets to use her logical skills as she comes from the Muggle world.  The final chapter, Chapter Seventeen, however almost makes the falling action happen way to fast after a climax of trials and reveals.  The end of the book however does the right thing and leaves the reader eager for more of the adventures at Hogwarts.

 

To summarize, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a great example of how a novel should be written even if it does have some pacing issues.  It isn’t the best of the Harry Potter series by any meas, but that mean that it is bad, just a way to kick start the franchise.  75/100.