Book: Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling
Krishna
Okay, first a confession : I have not been living under a rock all these years and therefore have already read this series once. This is a re-read. How do I know that, you ask? We have reviewed both Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows and Harry Potter The Half Blood Prince earlier. Please check them out to see what was said about them.
This is the book that started the whole phenomenon and this is also one of the smallest books. There are several legends around the series. One is that the first book manuscript was rejected by almost all the major publishers and finally, Bloomsbury agent accepted it when he was ‘reading the manuscript while waiting for a bus and realized that he had missed two buses that went by’! Also, Bloomsbury decided to print ‘a cautious 500 copies for its first printing’ with no inkling of the mania that was to follow when the series went on to publishing heights with a frenzy from the reading public never seen in modern times, if ever.
Enough of a prologue. On with the story (in case you never knew the story!!)
The story starts with the memorable arrival of owls in daytime and cloaked figures all over England, a highly unusual set of events. . Mr Dursley was a respectable director of a firm that made drills. Mr Dursley was enormous (a good choice of casting in the movie, I thought) and Mrs Dursley was a nosy parker. Their adored son, Dudley was thoroughly rotten and spoilt – not that the Dursleys considered him anything but ideal. It so happens that Mrs Dursley was the sister of Mrs Potter tries to hide the fact that she has a strange sister and an equally strange husband. Dursley remembers that they have a son called Harvey or Harold or Harry, whom he definitely does not approve Dudley associating with in any manner.
The genius of Rowling is to weave items in the first few pages that would permeate throughout the series. For instance, there is a plump cat that sits near the house and stares at Mr Dursley. When an old man with a long beard and hair, called Aldus Dumbledore arrives in the night (after everyone is asleep), he recognizes the cat as Professor McGonagall. She confirms from Dumbledore that Lily and James Potter are indeed dead. (A pivotal incident that you will appreciate more as you plough through the long series). Voldemart seems to have gone.
Hagrid arrives in a flying motorbike borrowed from Sirius (another major character in the later books. Amazing how the author is able to link plots throughout the series. In addition, there is a very interesting twist in each book in itself – even this one, which largely seems to set the stage for the following books).
Hagrid gives the bundle with the baby (with a lightening shaped scar on the head) to Dumbledore who places the baby in the basket with a letter attached to the basket and they all depart.
Ten years pass and it is Dudley’s birthday. Harry is of course tolerated, like Cinderella but Dudley is the apple of everyone’s eye. But strange things happen around Harry. When his head was almost shaved off by aunt Petunia one evening, the hair was back as never been cut the next day. When bullies chased him, he suddenly found himself at the top of the roof without knowing how he came by it.
When they go to the zoo, the Dursleys are forced to take Harry since the usual (and terrible) babysitter they employ broker her leg in the last moment and was unavailable. The snake seemed to ‘talk’ to him and then the glass vanished and the snake went off telling ‘I am going home, to Brazil’.
Letters star arriving for Potter and Dursley does his utmost to keep it from Harry. He even takes the family to a remote mountain resort in the midst of storm. Only to be visited there by none other than Hagrid.
Hagrid takes him to Diagon Alley, where the magic of Rowling is on full display. They buy cloaks, potions, an owl (named Hedgwig by Harry) from Hagrid as a birthday present, and finally a wand from the wandmaker Ollander. Ollander says that it is the wand that chooses its master and not the other way around. After (unsuccessfully) trying many wands, Ollander tries out a special wand which works ‘and chooses’ Harry. Ollander is speechless as it was an exact replica (twin) of the wand that chose Voldemart all those years ago!
When it is time for Harry to go to Hogwarts, he is supposed to find the Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Dursley gleefully abandons him near platform Nine and goes away, first heckling him for thinking that there was indeed such a platform. But then he meets Weasleys who help him find it. When he does, he enters another world and in the train, sits in the caboose and shares it with Ron Weasley, the youngest of the Weasley family bar his sister, who is not old enough to go to school and so stays back. They form an instant friendship.
There are the unforgettable scenes of how he sees Hogwart first, Ron’s mouse pet, and the inimitable Sorting Hat. Well known scenes, sparkling even on a second read.
The tie ins to later books are remarkable. The characterization of the stuttering Professor Quirrel is funny.
There is a sequence where a troll almost gets Hermione and both Harry and Ron rush to save her. She protects them from the teachers’ wrath, which makes her their friend. (They are together for the rest of the series). Then there is Snape who had gone to get a treasure by stealth from Cerberus and got his legs mauled. (Harry happens to see it when he went to get his book, which Snape had confiscated, back)
In Quiddich, the broom of Harry’s goes out of control almost throwing him off. Hermione realizes that Snape is intently looking at it and goes and lights his gown on fire. His concentration wavers and Harry’s broom comes back into control.
When Hagrid lets slip the name Nicholas Flamel when they asked him about what Cerberus was guarding, they go to the library to search for the name but in vain. Meanwhile Harry gets an invisibility cloak as Christmas present from an unsigned person (We know who that in a later book, attesting to how Rowling is extraordinary in leaving no loose ends, however small) and is now thrilled – because the whole of Hogwarts is now his to explore!
He goes alone and discovers a mirror where he seems to see his family. He brings Ron next day to show him but he does not see anything. Then on the third day he goes alone. This time Dumbledore is waiting for him. Dumbledoor explains that it shows people their deepest wish and so is very entrancing and can keep them hooked. He tells Harry that this is not what he thinks is reality. Asks him to stay away.
Meanwhile Harry wins the next Quiddich match by catching the snitch. This despite the trio’s (Ron, Hermione and Harry himself) suspicion of Snape. Harry is reassured that Dumbledore chose to attend the match.
Meanwhile they find out that the treasure being guarded by Cerberus is the Philosopher’s Stone, given by Nicolas Flamel, an old friend of Dumbledore and an alchemist.
Meanwhile the friends catch Hagrid trying to hatch a dragon egg illegally in his wooden hut!
Harry catches Snape threatening Quirrell in the middle of the forest. It appears that Snape is keen to know what curse Quirrell put on the treasure and also if Quirrell can tell him how to get past Cerberus.
Meanwhile the dragon’s egg hatches and the baby dragon that comes out is named Norbert by a happy Hagrid. That secret is out when Malfoy finds out they have a dragon. They hatch a plan to send it away with Charlie to Romania and by the time they implement it, with the help of the invisibility cloak, it is just touch and go. Malfoy has been found and sent back with points off.
When Harry, Hermione and Ron are back, they had forgotten their cloak and so were caught ‘wandering’ and lost fifty points each. Griffindor had blown away all the lead gained by the acts of three First Year students!
As part of detention, Neville, Harry and Hermione (and also Malfoy) join Hagrid to go into the forest.
Something is drinking the blood of Unicorns and they find a body. Two centaurs come and converse with Hagrid. In fact, right in the first book, Rowling pulls many of the folklore creatures in.
When they have served out the sentence, Hagrid tells that he told a man with a hood, when drunk how to get past Cerberus. The trio is aghast and they are certain that it was Snape. Now there is no stopping the successful theft of the treasure, which they know now is the Philosopher’s Stone.
Harry is determined, that night to go and stop the theft. After trying to dissuade him – they do not need more penalty points for Griffyindor, they agree but only if Hermione and Ron can join him. The invisibility cloak has been mysteriously returned to his bedside with a note ‘Use it wisely’. So they take the cloak and go. They play music, making Cerberus sleepy – Hagrid’s secret – but find that someone had gone in already. Next, they go through the trapdoor and get caught in Devil’s snare. Just Hermione manages to get far. She then remembers and defeats the snare with heat from her wand.
Next they go through another room where multiple keys are flying around and there is a closed door. Harry guesses correctly that they need to find and snare the right key. They do but find that someone had already been there before. They open the door and are faced with a giant chess board. They play as three of the pawns and Ron realizes that to win, he has to sacrifice himself. He does.
They face a troll who has already been knocked out by their predecessor and then come to a table with bottles. Another test but what?
That turns out to be a logical puzzle. Hermione helps Harry with that, but he needs to go forward alone now.
The final twist in the story – as Rowling very famously is able to do in each of the stories – follows. The final scene (before the closing off feast and the return to the Muggle world which takes about ten pages) is absolutely exhilarating.
I do not have to tell you what fun it is to read a book that appeals equally to children and adults. Rowling has done it again and again and it is a remarkable feat.
So, let me say 9/10 for this book.
— Krishna