Friday, January 11, 2008

Harry Potter


A few months ago I read the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. A few weeks before the book’s publication, there were a lot of rumors circulating about the plot. Everybody wanted to know what would happen to Harry and his friends and wanted to know if Voldemort would eventually be defeated or not. Like millions of people I waited for months for this seventh and last part. I was absolutely not disappointed: I really enjoyed the story which was full of twists and turns. It provides all the answers to the questions which were not solved in the first six books and I sometimes found that is was difficult to remember what I read years ago. Moreover, I read all the other parts in French and at the beginning I found that the shift to the English version was a bit difficult. Indeed, most of the names, places and curses are different and it took me a few chapters to get used to it.
The only negative aspect of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is according to me the epilogue. I would have preferred imagining myself what would have happened nineteen years later rather than reading that.
Nevertheless, we must recognize that J.K. Rowling has a great talent because she did more than simply writing a few books: she invented a whole world. I think that Harry Potter owes its success to the fact that it contains all the ingredients which are necessary to make a good fantastic story without becoming totally unrealistic. The central characters are endearing, they represent some important values and that’s why the reader can identify with them and can feel involved in their adventure. She also managed to create a story which is not childish or caricatural: that is why children as well as adults can enjoy reading Harry Potter.

1 comment:

pierre-yves said...

The wikipedia entry (can't put a link here :() on HP will teach you everything there is to know, and help you distinguishing who's who if you have trouble identifying characters, or even place names, spells, and the like