harry potter and the philosopher's stone book review

A review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone By J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone By J. K. Rowling Bloomsbury Pub Ltd Paperback: 224 pages, Feb 2000, ISBN-13: 978-0747532743

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling is a book about bravery and courage. As Professor Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, says “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it for muggles aged eleven and up. This is the first in the seven book Harry Potter series. I think readers must read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone before reading the other books in the series, as this book sets the scene for the Harry Potter world.

As the title suggests, the main character in this book is Harry James Potter, also known as the boy who lived. The book follows Harry in his first year at Hogwarts, where he meets Hermione Jean Granger, a genius, and Ronald Bilius Weasley, a red head with six siblings.

When he was just a baby, Harry’s parents were killed by a Dark Arts wizard named Voldemort. Voldemort also tried to kill Harry but failed, leaving Harry with a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead, and giving him the title the boy who lived. On the night of his parents’ death, Harry was placed on the doorstep of his aunt and uncle, the Dursley’s, much to their displeasure.

“Harry – yer a wizard” Harry was told on his eleventh birthday. With this news, he left the Dursley’s grasp for Hogwarts.

Harry, Ron and Hermione discover that in a room in the Forbidden Corridor on the third floor at Hogwarts, covered by spells and curses, lays the one and only Philosopher’s Stone – a stone that can transform any metal into pure gold and also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. During his time at Hogwarts, Harry develops the feeling that his potions teacher Professor Snape hates him, and has a gut feeling that Snape will try and steal the stone. One night, Harry, Ron and Hermione sneak up to the Forbidden Corridor to get the stone before Snape does. The trio pass through challenging obstacles. In the end, Harry has to finish the mission on his own and to his surprise, it’s not at all what he expected.

The theme of this story is magic and mystery. Nothing is as it seems, with changes at every turn.

This book is unlike any other; J. K. Rowling has opened the door to a whole new world of reading. Those readers who enjoy the Scarlet and Ivy series by Sophie Cleverly should also enjoy the Harry Potter series.

About the reviewer: Cleo was Commended in the 2019 Hunter Writers’ Centre/Compulsive Reader Review competition. She is in Grade 6 and her favourite subjects are novel study, reading groups and writing. Cleo has participated in the Premier’s Reading Challenge since she started school. Cleo plays as the Goal Shooter and Goal Attack in her local netball team, which she loves. Cleo’s dream is to have a dog and she is yet to know what she wants to be in the future.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling (Harry Potter: Book 1)

The Philosopher’s Stone is the first in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of seven novels that have made her the most successful literary author of all time, selling in excess of 400 million copies world-wide. The books are read and enjoyed by children and adults alike and have also been made into hugely popular films.

Do the Harry Potter books live up to the hype? When I first began reading the Philosopher’s stone I was immediately struck by how good - and laugh-out-loud funny - the humour was. You usually need to read a Terry Pratchett novel to ensure constant laughter throughout but Rowling has managed to infuse this book with a lovely wit and charm that will both amuse and delight adults and children.

Here is an example, with the ending being particularly good:

"Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel – Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig." Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: The Vanishing Glass

There are characters in this book that will remind us of all the people we have met. Everybody knows or knew a spoilt, overweight boy like Dudley or a bossy and interfering (yet kind-hearted) girl like Hermione. A large number of the younger readers will also be able to easily identify with Harry, especially with his initial feelings of isolation and not belonging, and then through to his excitement at finally leaving that life behind in favour of one where he belongs and will be happy.

When Harry begins his first term at Hogwarts (a wizarding school) he is not alone in being overawed:

‘Yeh’ll get yer firs’ sight of Hogwarts in a sec,’ Hagrid called over his shoulder, ‘jus’ round this bend here.’ There was a loud ‘Oooooh!” The narrow path had opened suddenly on to the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

Hogwarts is a truly magical place, not only in the most obvious way but also in all the detail that the author has gone to describe it so vibrantly. It is the place that everybody wishes they could of gone to when they where eleven. And there many adventures befall the trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione) and the stone in the book's title is centre to all that happens. The story builds towards and exciting conclusion that has the ultimate feel-good factor.

J.K. Rowling should be commended for getting so many people reading and excited by books. The biggest surprise must be the effect that this novel had on the adult population, both male and female - at the time the books were published many a commuting train was spotted with Harry Potter books providing world-weary workers with a wonderful sense of escapism. This book is highly recommended to anybody between the ages of 8 and 80.

Is all the hype about the Harry Potter books justified? In a word, yes, the books are a joy to read and possibly the most rewarding young adult’s book since The Hobbit.

9/10 A rewarding read, a classic for children.

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Review by Amanda White

136 positive reader review(s) for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

380 positive reader review(s) in total for the Harry Potter series

JK Rowling biography

Noona from Australia

This book is satisfyingly good, the entire idea of having a young boy who’s parents die in the hands in an blood thirsty super villain isn’t that unique... *cough* *cough* *Batman*. But she makes it so original with hoggwards and the mirror makes this book so good

Athena-Jayde from New Zealand

Best book of all time love the writing and the dream J.k Rowling is my all time favorite writer

Anon from UK

I never thought I'd enjoy Harry Potter so much! It's become my favourite series and absolutely LOVE the magic and everything about the book honestly. You can never get bored and all the chapters always leave you asking tons of questions! Love it! P.S. Joanne Rowling- I love your books. Keep on doing, what you're doing! You are such an amazing author and angel. 😃

Samuel from Australia

Could not tear my eyes away from this book.

Haniya from Pakistan

Harry Potter is the best English novel I read.

Priyal from India

We all know that the book is fab, but have you ever wondered , what if J.K. Rowling ended the book with the the last line saying- '' and then Harry woke up from the dream lying in the cupboard under the stairs....''

Great book for young and old, I have read it so many times i could say it word for word. I think that it is one of the best books that I have ever read.

Anonymous from Rather not Say

An interesting beginning for the award-winning series. This, unlike the other Harry Potters, wasn’t that good. Nearly each on got better. But some kids may find this book boring and lose interest. It just doesn’t have the action and sci-fi like the rest. Philosopher’s Stone: 6/10 Chamber of Secrets: 7/10 Prisoner of Azkaban: 9/10 Goblet of Fire: 9/10 Order of the Phoenix: 10/10 Half-Blood Prince: 6/10 Deathly Hallows: 9/10 Cursed Child: 2/10 Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them: 5/10 The Tales of Beedle the Bard: 4/10

Beauty Queen from India

It was very nice book. I am still reading it even after 100 times. It interesting you see I am a fast reader so I completed the book in 1 day. It tells about how Harry Potter a wizard and how his parents were murdered so he had only one relative his mom's sister Aunt Petunia and her family. Then a letter arrives at his house but his uncle won't let him see it but a giant named Hagrid the gamekeeper says the truth that he was an wizard like he studied in the school Hogwarts the magic school and made some friends too. But he needed to save the philosopher stone from the deadly wizard named Lord Voldemort but the problem was his least favorite teacher Snape who Harry thinks works for Voldemort but that isn't the end but I don't want to be a surprise spoiler so read it yourself I felt it was a good book. How about you?

Anoymous from Somewhere

Very good book. I had read it for more than 5 times.

Anonymous from Somewhere

It’s OK. There’s been better Harry Potters. But Artemis Fowl is more enjoyable.

Mia from Australia

This is the Summary Harry Potter he a kid on his eleventh birthday a big giant man name Hagrid told him that he was a wizard and his parents were witch and wizard too he never knew that he was famous. He started at Hogwarts. Harry made some new friends name Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger there found a three head dog name Fluffy and there need to find out what in that trap door let the magic begin. This is plot When Harry Potter start Hogwarts school of wizard and witchery and Find out what happen to his parents and he find the murder of his parents his name is Voldemort. This is imagery and symbolism That in Harry Potter has a lot of bright colours and some dark colours. Book is mostly about how Harry starts and through the year of Hogwarts. One of the may symbols are Harry scar because he the boy who lived right after Voldemort disappeared. Themes are magic, Friendship and Love because it shows the magic in Hogwarts, friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione and love between Harry and his mother and father who Harry lose.

Bill from UK

Harry Potter are the greatest books ever. I really enjoy these books the most book I like is The Prisoner of Azkaban because Buckbeak who is a magical creature is cute and the best it is the best book I have.

Sanu from Australia

It enthralled me and I finished all the books in grade 3. But I re-read them and still do! These wonderful masterpieces are perfect for kids and adults. Take a look at it.

Samiya from Bangladesh

Only one thing can say, the book is awesome and every moment and every chapter is incredible. It is the best book I ever read.

Harry Potter are the greatest books ever. I really enjoy these books, the book I likemost is The Prisoner of Azkaban because Buckbeak, who is a magical creature, is cute and the best. It is the best book I have.

Rose from Holly wood

Maria from Pakistan

This book has had me taken into another land in which i remain till now...even though i finished the whole series! I simply cannot get enough of harry potter and i highly recommend this book if you guys love fantasy and a bit of wizard action!😍😍😘😊

Rachel from United Kingdom

Simply the best!

Anna from United States

I don't like fantasy books. This is my one time I have to go against it. Harry Potter is in my top 2 favorite books of all time. It's amazing with all the unique things that you see around the magic world. You will have to think again when you chose a favourite book.

Suzanna from Wales

One of the best book series ever!! Charming and Witty, you just cant put the book down.

Nicole Fernando from Sri Lanka

Harry’s perfectly normal life at number 4 privet drive becomes extraordinary when he finds out that he is a wizard and Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry will teach him all he needs to know.Ignoring his aunt’s and uncle’s(Mr. and Mrs.Dursley) screams of protests Harry ventures into the wizarding world. But even in The wizarding world bad things happen like, the evil wizard ,Voldemort who killed who many innocent people( including Harry’s parents ) coming back to life.Even though Harry escaped from Voldemort once, Harry is not certain he can do it again.Join Harry Potter and his newly found friends Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger to save the wizarding World.Can they do it? Find out in Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone . This book is great for all ages.The author J.K Rowling created a world full of adventure,fun and mystical places and creatures.This is only the first book from a set of seven.People all around the world would love this series.This book is one of the greatest books I have ever read.

Anna from UK

It’s very good because I enjoy it and it makes me wanna read it a lot and see what happens next.

Anjitha from India

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is one of my favourite books in the Harry Potter series. Reading this book has made me crazy about Harry Potter and I wish to be one among the magical community. I can't imagine how thrilled I would be if I get a letter from Dumbledore saying that I am admitted to Hogwarts!!!!!!!

Cira from Canada

This book made me feel like I was taken to another land. I love it and others should too. I really enjoyed the humpr and thrill that were somehow mixed together into a perfect story. J.K Rowling has that little touch that makes everyone LOVE her books. EVeryone needs to buy it!

Risha from India

One of the best books I've read. Highly recommend it. It's for all ages and it's the best! Humour, thrill, action and a little love. A combo of everything.

Amber from India

It was the best book I had ever read. The first book was a blast. J.k Rowling has really outdone herself this time.I am reading the 7th book now, and it seems to be really interesting. Young readers, I am advising you to start reading Harry Potter, as it is truly amazing and interesting to boost your imagination..... The magical world of Harry Potter is includes dangerous, fun and legendary adventures, starring Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, who are three best friends in this fabulous story. They fought together against many fantastic and dangerous creatures, and came across many obstacles. Finally, it was the time, for Harry Potter to fight against the most powerful, dangerous wizard all the magical people could think of. You wanna know more about this legendary adventure, then reading the Harry Potter series is the best way possible.

Jotaro from Japan

It is very good.

Samit from India

Truly amazing

Neil from Malta

Purely amazing.

Sofia from Mexico

It was good.

Ava from Australia

Get ready to wave your wand, for this wizardry adventure. It start off with a young boy not knowing that he's a wizard until his 11th birthday, on his journey to Hogwarts Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) makes amazing friends with Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Wealsy (Rupert Grint). On learning how to prounce the famous spells like wingardium leviosa, lumos and alohomara, but in every story there's a troubling part were Harry fights for his life.

Jade from UK

This book is the only book I read because nothing else is interesting for me and I could never stop re-reading it.By now I must of read the Harry Potter series 20 times,they are just WOW and AMAZING.I would recommend this book to anyone!

Aoife from Ireland

Just perfect.

Amaal from Austrailia

It is definitely the best book I've ever read! I need to read all!!!! :) SO AMAZING! I now know 100% understand why J.K. Rowling is the most successful and richest author there is! 9.9 STARS!

Palak from India

i have read harry potter book it was amazing i like it

Sofia from USA

Harry Potter and the philospher's stone is one of the best series I have read it more than 8 times

Namratha from India

This is amazing I love it 😙😙😙😙😙😙

Shravani from India

I really loved Harry Potter series. It is one of the greatest fictions for children. The writing, the character development is very good. I really liked it.

Harry from Australia

Best book series if you ask me. I have read each book over 15 times except The Order of the Phoenix and Goblet of Fire. JK Rowling's writing is better than any other writing. I love Emma Watson / Hermione Granger. I have loved Harry Potter since I was in year 2.

Manya Rathore from India

It is the most interesting book I have ever read and It is a wizard story and is a inspirative story.

carissa from singpore

I LOVE harry potter so much that I can read the whole book series like about 20 times. I think that everyone should a lest try reading Harry Potter .

Mubeen from India

When i started reading harry potter and the philosophers stone i was unable to stop myself by reading i read it continously and i hd cmpltd it in just one day without getting bored.....these are the amazing book series i hv ever read....i would luv to read it again and again..

Juveriya from India

I love the harry potter series

Katie from 1 Direction Fandom

Get ready for swish and flick and wingardium leviosa! The best part is the last against Lord Voldemort.

Imogen from UK

Good book =-)

Electra from Greece

I love Harry Potter and I love the Philosopher's Stone so much because it is the book where all the magic began.

Olivia Myers from Australia

I love Harry Potter but I would rather watch the move than read the book :}

Heramb from Australia

Harry Potter was the best book series I've ever read and it is beast. If I could I would rate this 2,000,000 stars out of ten!

Ben from UK

Definitely advise reading these books.

Sanjanaa from India

I like Harry Potter.

Thomas from America

AMAZING! RECOMMEND IT!!!

Aaradhana from India

Whatever it has use for us , whatever it teaches , friendship , believe in magic , confidence in ourselves , whatever , its the craziest thing i have ever read or ever known in my life...I just go mad and imagine myself in that world and actually i wont ever be tired of reading it if its even 100 times 😃😃😃😇😇😌😌 I just love it n u r the most imp part of life-review of others who just shown me that its what makes the harry potter the best story ever atleast fr me... its my life. If i would even be of 50 yrs or more i won't stop admiring it and readinb... yes i am not the best fan but fr me its the best book/series 😁😁 Love u harry pottrr stories.... and yeah 1 thing i forgot to tell u i am really a great fan of Draco Malfoy/TOM FELTON....😍😍�...😄......was that too much to read!!!!�......

Rachana from India

What a nice book it was!

Keira from Canada

This book review is magical and helps me understand what this book is about. Also in my class we are making book reviews and you have helped me alot with exmaples! Thanks.

Frutopia10 from New Zealand

It was awesome! A book that is unforgettable! Even though the series gets better and better this book is a all time favorite for me.

Hemanth from India

This is the book that everyone has to read in their lifetime and the graphics are awesome. Thanks to J. K. Rowling for giving us a awesome book and after reading I realised why the book is so famous.

Akash from India

This book is so amazing. That I can't narrate and Ys I have decided to know what people are so much crazy about these series. At last the thinking of writer is lunatically awesome!!!!

Abcd1234 from Israel

An amazing start for an equally amazing series . The plot is immersive, it takes you by the hands and pulls you into the books. I Read the whole seven books in a row. Must read!!!

Lily from Australia

OMG! this book is amazing. JK Rowling is really good with words i have read this book 100 times i love it keep up the good work JK

Sahla from UK

The magic begins!!! This book is bewitchingly beautiful. I have read all of the Harry Potter books including the Cursed Child and I have to admit that this one never gets old! All book lovers across the world, children or adults, can enjoy this book. Honestly I believe no one can ever say they hate this book true to their heart unless their pathological liars.

Annie from India

This book is amazing. I really like that and I think everyone also like this boo . This book show a philosopher's stone that amazing and their wand spells superb . Thanks to J.K Rowling that gives us very interesting book.

Savannah from Australia

This book is amazing.

Satwika from India

AMAZING!!! I love the book. It is my all time favorite. I am dieing to go to a magical school like Hogwarts. I am inspired to write a fantasy novel.

Harry Potter Fan😍 from Hogwarts

I love this book. I saw the movie and have read the book a million times now!!! (LOL)😍😃😘

Ahmed from Saudi arabia

Awesome Book but chapter one was very boring plzz in the next series dont write all those kind of stuffs. Plzz begin the story neatly and nicely

Sohini from India

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is written by J.K Rowling. Even By reading this small summary I am well liked of the story. And really from now I like Harry Potter.

N from Ireland

AMAZING 😁

Sophie from UK

It was Fantastic!

MAISHA from INDIA

It's a fabulous book, I had heard about it from my friends, and when I found it very interesting. It was like I am in the story watching everything happening. I will now start to read the second book. From my point of view, I feel that JK ROWLING IS THE BEST WRITER IN THE WORLD IN THIS GENERATION.

David from US

The first book in the Harry Potter series has much going for it but I think it is the humour that stands out most for. It is many things but I just found it plain funny. Consistently. This is fantasy in its purest form and it offers wonderful escapement and wish-fulfilment. When a book becomes as massively popular as this those who do not like it tend to really hate it. But make up your own mind - if a school for wizards and oodles of adventure and excitement sound like your type of thing then your not going to find much better than this.

Great story mixed with fantastic world - building combine to form a literary classic of immense proportions.

Emma from America

Chamber of Secrets is the classic that started a classic story about the boy who lived. The book features well rounded characters, a mysterious plot, and heartwarming world-building.

Jessica from Australia

It's amazing! I recommend this book to all ages ❤️

Indrajeet from India

Best book in my life I have ever read before and I have all the version in my home and I read it in leisure time.

Sindhu from India

This wonderful book takes us on a magical journey you can't help falling in love with. The plot, the characters, the tiny details that Rowling so masterfully brings together... mindblowing. Easily the best book series I've ever read. Recommended for everybody- young and old.

ledi from Albania

I love this book because it is a very interesting, mysterious and thrilling book.

Lavisha Malik from India

I like this book. I thank the writer to write such a interesting type of book.

Houssem from Tunisia

What an amazing and fascinating book ! Wow. The journey passed so fast, how you dive into the pages,sink in the events and travel with the characters, how fantastic that is, purely wonderful ^^

Sashreek Havelia from India

This was an amazing book and was my second novel ever. I find myself in a stronghold of books just because of this wonderfully written and out of the box book. I must congratulate author J.K.Rowling on the success of all her books and her skill as an author.

Disha from India

It is very nice.

Harry from UK

I quite liked the book it was interesting I am now on the 2nd book of Harry Potter.

Trevor from US

The only people who don't like Harry Potter books are adults who seem to think that admitting they like Harry Potter makes them less of an adult. Oh, it's a great children's book. STFU. It's not a great children's book. It's just a great book. PERIOD.

Safia Ali from India

I just want to say that I AM MAD ABOUT THIS MAGICAL WORLD AS IT DID A GREAT MAGIC ON MY MIND AND HEART. JUST LOVE IT!

Brychan from UK

An excellent book combining magic and reality in a sensational mix. J.K Rowling has definitely succeeded in writing a brilliant book perfect for all ages. She has created a combination of happy, exciting and sad scenes to create an amazing book. If you have not already read the series then I definitely recommend that you read it as soon as possible. 9/10

Jasmine from India

This book is the best book I have read in a entire life. Love u JK Rowling.

Potter fan from India

Good book but lacks action...

Navneet from India

It really is the most fantastic book which I have ever read in my life.

Michael Anthony from US

Great book!!! Love it.

Himansh from India

Great book! I had read this book almost 10 times but am not at all bored of it. People who feel bored are dumb. The only word for this book is - awesome!!! But the Deathly Hallows is the last part. I'll miss Harry Potter!!!

#potterhead from Pakistan

Oh my god! These books are life. I just cannot describe how amazing they are. I've read them like a million times and I'm still not tired of them. Favourite books and I also lovvveeeee the movies. Potterhead for life!

Priyanka from Dubai

It is such an awesome book, I felt so sad when it was coming to an end. I wish there were more than 7 Harry Potter books.

Gordon from England

It is very funny those who give this book a bad review have a very poor grasp of the English language. Maybe they lack the intellegence to appreciate literature beyond wiser and chips? Totally awesome book.

Faizan from India

Excellent! Wonderful! I love the series of Harry Potter. I have read it 7 times continuously. No words to appreciate. Just enjoy the fantasy world of magic.

Sheepish from India

It is a nice and thrilling book which I had never read in my life. I love this book, thanx for this, bye.

Anakha from India

I love it. An amazing book!

Annastacia Buckley from Singapore

I absolutely loveee this book!! But, I would give it a 10 if the review was longer and have more coverage! Awesome book!

Gregory from Australia

This book was very impressive... how can people hate this book?

xxpa from canada

Great book, I couldn't put it down once I started reading this book. Dark, amazing, fast and thrilling. A must read for all!

Jack from US

It's so good, thanks, you gave me an idea for a book review.

Gunnhildur from Iceland

I loooooved this book! Those dumb Harry Potter haters don´t understand what they are missing! I really hope J.K. Rowling writes more of these, I have read all of them twice! Maybe some stories about Harry and Ron doing Aura business and other stuff!

Deepika from India

The only review is that they are... AWESOME!!!

Pinky from India

I can't give 10 points because it's not enough! Hey! I've started reading Chamber of Secrets. After I completed reading I came to this website. Ah! This book has fans all over the world.

Ramya from India

The best ever book I've read. Fascinating, mesmerizing, so on!!! No other words I've to describe it. I normally hate books but this is the one which gave me the interest to read novels. I'll say this book is best because it's SIMPLY GREAT GREAT GREAT... VERY GREAT!!!

Trina from US

You can't put it down. I really recommend this book, it's filled with enjoyment and it's fascinating. OK, I don't want to say really smart words but just kick back your feet and read - it is so good.

Harry Potter (wink wink) from Privet Drive

i just finished it and it only took me a day.... i couldn't put it down it was AMAZING. I came to this website before I read it just to be sure it is worth while. If you're doing this now... STOP and read it. No words can explain how good it is, I have already started Chamber of Secrets. There is so much detail in JK Rowling's books! I recommend read this first then watch the movie. It's a great book for all ages :)

Aymar from Canada

Honestly loved the first the most. But the entire series was the best series I have a ever read!

Xavier from Austria

Although I am not totally enamoured by the series as a whole I think the Philosopher's Stone is a beautiful stand-alone book. It oozes charm and offers wish fulfilment on a level I've only ever encountered in the Lord of the Rings. At turns funny, heart-warming, exciting and full of tension it is a book that everyone should read. Even if it is just to find out what the fuss is all about. A great book to read every Christmas.

Ilma from Bangladesh

The best book I've read!

Himika from India

This book taught me to love fantasy! I have read many books ever since, but HP for me is always special!

Rithu from India

The most exciting and interesting to all class of people.

Dang Trung Hieu from Vietnam

Great book!

Iris from Mexico

It was the book that taught me to love reading. And discover the feeling not to be able to leave the chair until you have finished the book. Highly recommended.

Harihara from India

No words can say how much I like this. The best series ever.

Sweata from India

It is a very thrilling book and also it has an interesting mythology... I loved this book very much... I thank J.K. Rowling for writing such a great book...

Samantha from Canada

Amazing, gripping, magnificent.

Sathwik from India

Harry Potter is awesome. It has a lot of action.

Joshua from England

Harry Potter to some is a "boring", "overexaggerated" book with no life in it whatsoever. Those people are absolute idiots. J.K. Rowling's books are gripping, stunning and filled with so much literature. The magic between the pages is just thrilling, when I started reading this particular book in my youth - around 4 years ago, I'm 13 now - it was impossible to put down, I would not sleep until it was finished. Lucky for me I'm a fast reader. In a few words Harry Potter is amazing: gripping and intelligent.

Shubham Mk from India

Just one word... CLASSIC!!! Thumbs up!!

Sarah from Pakistan

I liked this book very much, but this is my first book in the Harry Potter series and now I am very excited to read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets which I've got to read in the school holidays but this book is really awesome and I hope Chamber of Secrets will also be as interesting as this!!!

Julia from America

I thought it was brill!

Jimwel from Philippines

I really love the Harry Potter books, in fact I already finished reading all those 7 series and I really crave for more books. Hope J.K. Rowling make additional series but I don't suppose she will. But who knows?

Tom Marvolo Riddle from England

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the best book of all time!

Ieuan Jones from UK

I love Harry Potter but I think the first one lacks some action, where as the others have a lot of action from near the start, like Chamber of Secrets - there's the bit near the end where Harry kills the Basilisk and the Prisoner of Azkaban, there's the Womping Willow, whereas the first one isn't very exiting because all it is the first part of the end they get through that in like 2 mins of the film and then all they do is play chess and then Harry goes on to get bought in a fire for like a minute and then all it is is him in bed and Dumbledore steeling his sweet. So yeah, it isn't the best book but I think I would put it about 6th out of the eight :D

Amelia from Australia

I LOVE THIS BOOK AND ALL THE OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES!! They are so engaging and make the reader actually want to be a wizard!! I am absolutely crazy about Harry Potter!! My room is filled with Harry Potter stuff because I am so in-love with these books!!!

Andy from Reading

I have heard a lot of criticism of these books by quite a few adults, and whilst the writing may not be the best they are quite clearly wrong. These books have successfully engaged not just millions of young people across the world but millions of adults as well. Any author who can achieve such a following must be doing something right. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the story and go with the flow, yes there are shortcomings, however in this case it doesn't really matter if it gets millions of people engaged in reading.

Sarah from London

GREAT! That's all I can say!

Cat Fitzpatrick from London

A children's classic, what more can you say? Luckily I was eleven when the first book came out so I was the right age to follow them over the years, but I go back to them again and again even though I'm an adult because there's so much joy to be had in this magic, vivid world. It's funny, charming, heart-breaking and utterly wonderful.

Visenna from Poland

Really great, but still rather for younger readers.

Ankita from India

I love to watch the Harry Potter series.

Adam from Gregory

J.K. Rowling has sharp, lucid prose that carries Harry Potter beyond the realms of simple children's fantasy and into that of timeless literature. It's accessible and clear but at times it can be poetic and downright funny. In addition to her concise writing style, Harry Potter is populated with interesting and relatable characters that the reader can (and will) fall in love with. Yes, you could argue the plot devices are nothing we haven't seen before. Sometimes they even border on cliche. And yes, you could also argue that the villain is a bit too simple on the morality side of things. But none of this really matters, because the Harry Potter series are a helluva lot of fun to read and have a blast-ended-skrewt-sized heart.

Ian from Lisburn

The greatest fantasy series of a generation. If you haven't read these books yet please come out of your cave and rejoin the rest of the world!!! They reminded me why I love reading and fantasy.

Sharnali from London

The Harry Potter books to me are AWESOME!!! They are legendary. J.K Rowling is an inspiration, a William Shakespeare of the present day! ;]

Leisale from Vanuatu

The only word I have for the Harry Potter series is that they are... AWESOME!!!!

Kaan Can from Turkey

Harry Potter's magical world was created perfectly by JK Rowling. It's really interesting!!! The book series and movies are great!! This is a world phenomenon!! Read these books!

Samir from Oran

I wasn't going to read the Harry Potter series because I thought it was an overrated children's book. But one day, I decided that I had to see for myself why so many people liked this series. I couldn't be more wrong. It's an amazing fantasy series with a very solid and interesting mythology. The first book is great but the following books are even better.

Laura from England

I love Harry Potter, I started reading it in primary school and I keep re-reading the whole series - it's amazing! I love the magic of it all, it's so unique. I must have read the series through at least 6 times now, and I don't get bored! They are brilliant. I love all the characters, they're so interesting. This book is just....wow! Not my favourite of the series but I still love it... I like it when they go through the trap door, it's hard to stop reading :)

9.7 /10 from 138 reviews

All JK Rowling Reviews

Harry Potter (Harry Potter)
The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Harry Potter Companion)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Harry Potter Companion)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter: Book 1)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter: Book 2)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter: Book 3)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter: Book 4)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter: Book 5)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter: Book 6)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter: Book 7)

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Book Reviews

[Book Review] ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ by J.K. Rowling

Download Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone PDF by J.K. Rowling

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J.K. Rowling needs no introduction. She is, of course, the author of the famous Harry Potter series . She was born on July 31, 1965 at Yate General Hospital near Bristol, and grew up in Gloucestershire in England and in Chepstow, Gwent, in south-east Wales. Rowling conceived the idea of Harry Potter in 1990 while sitting on a delayed train from Manchester to London King’s Cross. Over the next five years, she began to map out all seven books of the series. She wrote mostly in longhand and gradually built up a mass of notes, many of which were scribbled on odd scraps of paper. The result is known to us all – a series of unparalleled fame and popularity that we all enjoy. Under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith , J.K. Rowling also writes crime novels, featuring private detective Cormoran Strike.

“The truth.” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

Harry Potter books tell the story of orphan Harry James Potter, the discovery of his secret magical powers and the role he plays in the safety of the hidden world of witchcraft and wizards.

After being raised in the miserably unfair home of his Uncle Vernon Dursley, Harry practically begins life anew when he discovers that he is a wizard and is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry . Among Harry’s first-year adventures are making new friends (Hagrid, Ron and Hermione), standing up to the torments of school bully Draco Malfoy, and becoming the star player of his Quidditch team (the favored sport in the magical world). Harry’s life as a Hogwarts “first-year” is more interesting than that of most attendees, because he is already famous for surviving the attack of the evil Lord Voldemort, who tried to kill him as an infant. Everyone in the wizard world knows more about Harry’s family and his story than he himself does.

Download free PDF Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J.K. Rowling

This first book – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – introduces you to this magical world for the first time, and it does so in a smooth and comfortable fashion, introducing both you and Harry to strange wonders never yet experienced. This makes the transition into the world of magic an easy and pleasant experience. Rowling has built a strong and multi-layered world with immense amounts of detail , yet it is written in such a way that it doesn’t feel tedious or as though you are being fed all the information at once, as is the case with many fantasy novels . Through Harry’s eyes, you encounter wands, monsters and spells with their magical properties, purposes and history laid out in small, easily consumable chunks. This means that the book never ceases to envelope you in its world or characters, whereas many epic fantasies have a habit of pulling you aside in a rather obvious fashion and indulging in the rather fruitless exercise of explaining every newly encountered item.

All the characters, teachers, students and bad guys alike have truly believable personalities, eccentricities and flaws, which, more often than not, helps to make them the truly lovable and long-standing characters that they have gone on to become. These friendships and relationships drive the book forward, providing comical respite and emotional engagement along the way.

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

There are characters in this book that will remind us of all the people we have met. All of us have known a spoilt, overweight boy like Dudley, or a bossy and interfering (yet kind-hearted) girl like Hermione. A large number of the younger readers will also be able to easily identify with Harry, especially with his initial feelings of isolation and a sense of not belonging, and then through to his excitement at finally leaving that life behind in favor of one where he does belong and will be happy.

Hogwarts is a truly magical place, not only in the most obvious way but also in all the sheer detail that the author has gone to describe it. It is the place that everybody wishes they could have been to when they were eleven , for that’s where many adventures befall the trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione), and the stone in the book’s title is center to all the events that unfold as the plot progresses. The story builds toward the exciting conclusion that has the ultimate feel-good factor.

In conclusion, this epic journey out of the Muggle world and into the school and world of witchcraft and wizardry bags 4 out of 5 stars. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a must-read for anyone within the age-group of 8 to 600 years (for those who have used the stone :p) who want to be mesmerized by an enigmatic world.

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Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone Book Review

With Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling introduced us to the magical world of Hogwarts, filled with dangerous challenges, heartwarming friendships, and epic adventures. This beloved first book in the series follows the young wizard, Harry Potter, as he discovers his true heritage and battles the dark wizard, Voldemort. Join us as we probe into this captivating story that has captured the hearts of readers of all ages around the world.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways:

Introducing the Magical World: “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” gives readers a captivating introduction to the magical world of Hogwarts, with its spells, potions, and fantastical creatures.
Themes of Friendship and Courage: The book emphasizes the importance of friendship and portrays the characters’ courage in facing challenges, making it a heartwarming and inspiring read for all ages.
Intriguing Plot Twists: J.K. Rowling masterfully weaves an engaging storyline filled with mystery and suspense, keeping readers on the edge of their seats as they follow Harry’s journey of self-discovery.

The Boy Who Lived

Even before we investigate into the magical world of Hogwarts, we are introduced to the central character, Harry Potter, in a most intriguing way. With his lightning-bolt scar and mysterious past, Harry’s journey begins with an element of curiosity and wonder.

Journey to Hogwarts

Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry, becomes the setting for Harry’s extraordinary adventures. As he boards the Hogwarts Express and launchs on his journey to the magical school, we are transported along with him into a world of spells, potions, and mythical creatures.

Plus, the journey to Hogwarts is not a simple one. Harry discovers new friendships with Ron and Hermione, encounters danger with the three-headed dog Fluffy, and experiences the thrilling excitement of flying on a broomstick during his first Quidditch match. The excitement and danger that await Harry at Hogwarts are just the beginning of his epic adventure.

Magical Characters

Meet harry and friends.

Magical friendships are at the heart of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Harry, Ron, and Hermione form a tight-knit trio as they navigate the wonders and challenges of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each character brings something unique to the table, making them a formidable team.

The Hogwarts Staff

One of the most enchanting aspects of the book is the diverse and colorful Hogwarts staff. From the wise and kind Dumbledore to the strict yet fair Professor McGonagall, each teacher contributes to the magical world of Harry Potter. The staff members play a crucial role in shaping the students’ experiences at Hogwarts.

Harry Potter And The Philosopher'S Stone Book Review: Dive Into Your Next Adventure

Meet the Hogwarts staff, a group of extraordinary individuals dedicated to nurturing young witches and wizards. Professor Snape’s mysterious demeanor adds an air of suspense, while Hagrid’s endearing nature makes him a favorite among students. Mad-Eye Moody’s vigilant eye keeps the Hogwarts grounds safe, although his methods may be a bit extreme at times. Each staff member brings a unique charm to the story, making Hogwarts feel like a second home to readers.

Themes and Magic

Many themes are explored in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, including the power of love and friendship, the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone, and of course, the magic woven throughout the story.

The Power of Love and Friendship

The story emphasizes the importance of love and friendship in overcoming challenges . From the unwavering loyalty of Ron and Hermione to the sacrificial love of Harry’s mother, Lily, it is clear that these bonds are the most powerful magic of all.

The Mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone

The Philosopher’s Stone is a legendary substance that grants immortality, and its presence at Hogwarts sparks a thrilling mystery that drives the plot forward . As Harry, Ron, and Hermione work to uncover the stone’s secrets, they face dangers that test their courage and intelligence.

The quest for the Philosopher’s Stone involves overcoming obstacles like the three-headed dog Fluffy and the life-threatening tasks set by the stone’s protector, ensuring a gripping read filled with suspense and excitement.

Overall, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ weaves together themes of love, friendship, and mystery with the enchanting world of magic to create a timeless tale that captivates readers of all ages.

Spellbinding Aspects

Not only does ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ captivate readers with its magical world and engaging plot, but it also researchs into the themes of friendship, bravery, and the power of love. J.K. Rowling’s intricate storytelling and imaginative detail keep readers on the edge of their seats, eager to uncover more about the wizarding world.

Points for Improvement

Not every aspect of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is flawless. One area that could be improved upon is the pacing of the story. Some readers may find certain sections to be slow or drawn out, impeding the overall flow of the narrative. Additionally, the character development of some secondary characters could be more robust to further enhance the depth of the story.

To enhance the reader experience, it would be beneficial to address these pacing issues and further develop secondary characters to immensely enrich the captivating world J.K. Rowling has created.

Taking this into account, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” serves as a captivating introduction to the magical world of Hogwarts and its unforgettable characters. The book effortlessly weaves together elements of mystery, adventure, and friendship in a way that keeps readers of all ages engaged from start to finish. J.K. Rowling’s storytelling and world-building skills shine through, making this a classic that continues to enchant readers around the world.

Q: What is the book ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ about?

A: ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is the first book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. It follows the story of a young boy named Harry Potter who discovers he is a wizard and is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Throughout the book, Harry makes new friends, learns about the wizarding world, and uncovers the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Q: Why should I read ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’?

A: ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is a beloved classic that has captured the hearts of readers of all ages around the world. It offers a captivating story filled with magic, friendship, and adventure. The book not only entertains but also teaches important lessons about courage, loyalty, and the power of love. It is a must-read for anyone looking to escape into a fantastical world full of wonder and excitement.

Q: What makes ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ a timeless story?

A: ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ has stood the test of time due to its timeless themes, relatable characters, and engaging storytelling. The book explores universal themes such as the battle between good and evil, the importance of friendship, and the journey of self-discovery. The characters, including Harry, Ron, and Hermione, are well-developed and endearing, making readers feel connected to them. The magical world Rowling creates is rich in detail and offers endless possibilities for imagination, ensuring that readers will continue to be enchanted by the story for generations to come.

Book review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter is the biggest-selling book series of all time. The books have gone on to produce one of the biggest movie series of all time. If you haven’t heard of Harry Potter, you’ve surely been living under a rock? But is the first book The Philosopher’s Stone actually any good?

Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase The Fellowship of the RIng via one of these links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you to support the blog. These links do not affect my final opinion of the product.

An introduction to Harry Potter

For the one person reading this who’s never heard of Harry Potter – it’s a seven-book series written by British author J.K. Rowling. The Philosopher’s Stone , the first in the series was first published in 1997 to commercial and critical success. The first book was then turned into a film in 2001 to, once again, huge critical and commercial success. What then happened was a snowball effect that saw Harry Potter become a household name across the world and become synonymous with the British.

Harry Potter is a boy who was abandoned at a very young age with his nasty Aunt and Uncle who make him live under the stairs. One day he is visited by a man who tells him he’s a wizard and whisks him off to Hogwarts, the wizarding world’s most famous school. Harry then makes friends, saves the world multiple times and comes up against some of the darkest, most evil wizards to ever live, fighting alongside some of the most powerful and greatest too.

The books instilled a huge sense of friendship – they’re imaginative, they’re witty, they’re sad at times, happy at others. They are a journey unto themself with some of the latter books hitting the high-hundreds in page numbers. They’re a book series that will likely never be matched for popularity. But what is the first book like? If you read the first book now, would the same success snowball from it or was it the subsequent books that built upon it making it the phenomenon it is today?

Plot – 4.5/5

The plot of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is simple: a young boy lives with his mean aunt and uncle whom he despises. His Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia clearly dislike him and so treat him so, having him cook for them, clean for them and live underneath the stairs. One day he receives a letter saying he is due at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, however, his Aunt and Uncle quickly dismiss this and move away. He’s then visited by a large man, Hagrid who claims to be the groundskeeper at this school and tells him he must come with him to Hogwarts. On their journey there, Harry realises he’s incredibly famous due to the scar on his head: the most powerful evil wizard to ever live – Lord Voldemort – tried to kill him as a baby but he survived.

During his time at Hogwarts, he makes two very important friends Hermione and Ron – the three of them quickly realise that someone is trying o steal something from Hogwarts and people may well be in danger if they don’t soon figure it out.

It’s hard to review the plot for this first novel is there’s so much nostalgia and love for this series in my heart. However, even without this, I must say, I found my reread of it utterly captivating. I was turning the pages so quickly or always had the audiobook on. The mini-stories within the larger story are written at such a good pace that they’re interesting within their own right, let alone the overarching story and direction you can feel Rowling taking you in. It’s not the strongest Harry Potter book plot-wise – you’ll have to wait and find out which my favourite is as I slowly review them all – however, it is a very strong entry and has a first hundred pages that would captivate any reader.

Characters – 4.5/5

One of the things mentioned throughout the Harry Potter series is the incredible friendship that J.R. Rowling develops between the main three: Harry, Ron and Hermione. However is this friendship evident in the first book? Well… yes. It’s obvious Rowling was aiming this book at people in high school – the relationships are tricky and well earned and the dynamics between characters isn’t always smooth. But what builds over the book is an obvious bond between the three main characters. Ron is the nervous but pure-hearted character, Harry has been thrown into this world and must adapt to it around him and Hermione is a magical genius but who doesn’t necessarily play well with other people. How they all develop over the few hundred pages is great to see and definitely makes you want to read the subsequent books.

The supporting cast throughout this book is also utterly wonderful. Hagrid is the big friendly giant who you can’t help but love, Dumbeldore is a wise and mysterious character who seems to have much more going on than the simple role of Headmaster, Malfoy is utterly diabolical and annoying as all good enemies are, and everyone else that pops in either offers comic relief or builds on the storyline.

The Philosopher’s Stone summary – 5/5

If you’ve read the previous 900 words and gotten to this point then I congratulate you. If you’re somebody who has already read HP a million times over and are simply here to read another view – thank you. If you’re somebody who has never read the books and wants to know if they’re any good – I hope I’ve summarised the book well enough for you.

I would recommend Harry Potter to absolutely everybody. It transcends the fantasy or YA genres some would argue it fits into. The Philosopher’s Stone is a very solid first book and you can see why (after her many attempts to actually have it accepted by publishers – google it) J.K. Rowling hit a home run with this first novel.

One thought on “ Book review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling ”

Is it Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone? Or is it really the first act in the lamentable tragedy of Albus Dumbledore? Arguably the most powerful wizard of all time, self-imposing a constraint on himself as the school headmaster to contain his lifetime lust for power and domination.

Intelligent enough to manipulate nearly every character throughout the course of the all seven books – either directly or indirectly – he has to be content with nurturing Potter who, by all accounts, is a reasonably mediocre wizard who is elevated by far more powerful witches and wizards around him.

Not forgetting it was Dumbledore himself who was partly at fault that Harry is an orphan in the first place.

Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the first instalment of a magic-fuelled Bildungsroman. 4/5

The first act of Albus Dumbledore, master manipulator, the man behind the curtain. Rowling creates a juggernaut of a character that shows evil on multiple levels… even hiding behind a warm smile, long silvery hair and half-moon glasses – 5/5

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The Literary Edit

Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J. K. Rowling

However, I recently asked for recommendations from the BBC Big Read and got a rather curt reply from my best friend Lexy: ‘Lucifer please do yourself a favour and just bloody read the Harry potter books! They’re brilliant, easy and quick to read and you can tick a load off your list – what’s stopping you?!! X’ And so, having run out of excuses as to why I didn’t want to read them, I gave in and began the first in the series of seven: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

I’ve previously spoken about how I tend to avoid books that every second person on the tube appears to be reading and it was with a certain amount of reluctance that I finally read J. K. Rowling’s debut; one that has made her a millionaire many times over and catapulted her to the kind of stardom that is usually reserved for actors and popstars. However, as soon as I began Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, it became crystal clear why the books are so ingrained in the hearts of many readers.

Following the death of his parents, Harry Potter is left in the care of his non-wizzard family, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia who are parents to the particularly vile Dudley, a spoilt bully and Harry’s chief tormentor. After ten years of being made to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs, having coat hangers given to him as Christmas presents and being forced to wear Dudley’s hand-me-downs, Harry is summoned by Rubeus Hagrid to wizzard-school Hogwarts, which is where his adventures begin.

With echoes of the Enid Blyton boarding-school tales I grew up reading and a not dissimilar battle between good and evil to that found in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone also has a great deal of its own magic. With a lovingly created cast of characters and a fantasy world which immediately sweeps away its reader, it’s little surprise that the first four Harry Potter books, and indeed the only four that had been published at the time the BBC Big Read results were announced, all made it into the nation’s 100 best-loved books.

As the saying goes, ‘better late than never’ and while I may have jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon 15 years after it first started, I’m sure I’m in for one hell of a ride!

About Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he’s the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord’s curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers, which could be valuable, dangerous – or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

About J. K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling is the author of the record-breaking, multi-award-winning Harry Potter novels. Loved by fans around the world, the series has sold more than 450 million copies, been translated into 80 languages and made into eight blockbuster films.

She has written three companion volumes in aid of charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (in aid of Comic Relief and Lumos), and The Tales of Beedle the Bard (in aid of Lumos).

In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital company and digital publisher Pottermore was launched, a place where fans can enjoy the latest news from across the wizarding world, features and original writing by J.K. Rowling.

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Its definitely a series most people would enjoy 🙂

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Review: Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone Book

harry potter and philosopher's stone book

In Harry Potter series J.K. Rowling’s first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , is an amazing story that combines everyday life with incredible adventures. It’s like a magical rollercoaster ride through the captivating halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The way the author combines the ordinary things we know with extraordinary magic is just fantastic. Readers experience a world where the impossible becomes possible, making it a timeless masterpiece that continues to enchant people of all ages.

The book start by telling us about Harry Potter, who seems just like any other kid at first. But, surprise! On his eleventh birthday, he learns he’s far from ordinary. J.K. Rowling’s amazing storytelling talent comes into play here. She weaves a story packed with secrets, buddies, and magic enchantment. Imagine this: Harry, on his way to Hogwarts, steps onto Platform 9¾ and boards the Hogwarts Express. And poof! Readers are whisked away into a place where things that seem like they’re from a dream are actually real life.

It’s a world where the extraordinary is so regular, and the usual stuff becomes mind-blowing. Rowling does a brilliant job of making us feel like we’re right there with Harry, discovering the magic and wonder around every corner. The story is like a magical journey that takes us to a school for wizards, and every page is like opening a door to a new and exciting adventure.

Rowling’s superpower is her talent for making places come alive in the story. She creates a world so detailed and real that you feel like you’re right there. Picture this: from the busy Diagon Alley, where wizards shop for magical goodies, to the grand halls of Hogwarts, everything is described with such care. It’s like you can see and touch the magic around. Now, let’s talk about the Philosopher’s Stone. It’s this super important magical thing everyone’s after.

The cool part is, it’s not just a random object—it’s like the key to the whole story. The way Rowling uses it keeps you on the edge of your seat, mixing excitement and curiosity perfectly. It’s like a magical puzzle piece that makes the whole adventure even more thrilling. So, in a nutshell, Rowling doesn’t just tell a story—she paints a vivid picture of a magical world that feels so real, and she ties everything together with this mysterious and powerful Philosopher’s Stone.

The Character in the story are just as fascinating. Harry, Ron, and Hermione make this awesome trio. They’re not only from different parts of the wizarding world, showing how diverse it is, but they also stand for some really important stuff like sticking together, being brave, and having great friends. Rowling does a fantastic job of making these characters feel real. As you read, it’s like you’re growing up right alongside them, facing all the tricky parts of their first year at Hogwarts. The way she makes the characters change and learn makes you feel a strong connection with them. It’s like they’re not just in a book; they’re your pals going through magical adventures, and you’re right there with them.

The bad guy in the story, Professor Quirrell, brings in this mysterious and scary vibe that makes you want to know what happens next. Rowling is like a master storyteller here, making a tale where good and bad are in a big showdown. There’s this feeling of darkness lurking around, giving a hint of the bigger troubles that will show up later in the series. It’s like she drops these little hints that make you go, “What’s going to happen next?” The way she does it is like magic itself, keeping you hooked and excited about the adventures and challenges that Harry and his friends will face as they go on.

The heart of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is all about letting our imaginations soar. Rowling fills the story with cleverness and funny moments that make people of any age laugh and enjoy. The reason this book stays awesome is because it connects with the kid inside us. It brings back that feeling of being amazed and curious, reminding us that magic is all around if we look for it. So, it’s not just a story; it’s like a celebration of the incredible things our minds can dream up and the joy that comes with seeing the world with a touch of magic. Rowling’s storytelling is like a spell that keeps us believing in wonder and the enchantment of imagination.

What makes Harry’s journey even more awesome is that it’s not just about magic – it’s about facing fears, making true friends, and standing up for what’s right. Rowling weaves all these elements together, making the characters and their adventures relatable and inspiring. So, when you read about Harry and his friends, it’s not just a story about wizards; it’s a story about discovering yourself and having the courage to face whatever comes your way. And that’s what makes the characters in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone so unforgettable.

overall, If you a fantasy fan the you must start the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone isn’t just a book; it’s a magical journey that grabs readers from start to finish. Rowling’s mix of magic and everyday life, along with her unforgettable characters, turns this into a timeless classic. It’s the kind of story that will keep inspiring readers for generations to come.

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Harry potter and the philosopher's stone, by j.k. rowling.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , published in 1997, is the first book in the Harry Potter series and introduces the character of Harry Potter. It’s no secret that this is the book that got a whole generation of children reading, and the book doesn’t disappoint. We learn about Harry’s miserable life living in a cupboard under the stairs in the house of his ghastly aunt and uncle followed by the liberating news that he is a famous wizard and will not remain the downtrodden orphan forever. Leaving the direness of suburbia behind, he goes off to boarding school at Hogwarts.

Stories of English children going to boarding school have been popular fare for generations, and the combination of clever wizarding/magical touches with the boarding school format are a fun backdrop to the various adventures that take place. Also, unlike later books in the series, it’s not an overly long book.

Note: In the US, the book was published as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone , which isn’t as good a title. At the time, J.K. Rowling was an unknown writer, and probably not in a position to point out it didn’t make as much sense.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first book in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. British actor Stephen Fry narrates the audiobook beautifully. (The recording seems to predate the movie, because he pronounces some of the words differently).

Narrator: Stephen Fry

Length: 9 hours and 33 minutes

Other books by J.K. Rowling

Harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban by j.k. rowling & minalima (illustrators), harry potter and the order of the phoenix by j.k. rowling & jim kay (illustrator), harry potter and the philosopher's stone by j.k. rowling & levi pinfold (illustrator), our most recommended books, demon slayer: kimetsu no yaiba by koyoharu gotouge, danny champion of the world by roald dahl, harry potter: the complete series by j.k. rowling, reckless: the petrified flesh cornelia funke, translated by oliver latsch, ben rothery's deadly and dangerous animals by ben rothery, the animals of farthing wood by colin dann.

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That Love Podcast

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

By joao nsita.

In the realm of modern literature, few books have stirred as much universal excitement and sustained appeal as J.K. Rowling’s debut novel, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone." Since its release in 1997, the book has not only transcended the boundaries of children’s literature to become a beloved staple among readers of all ages, but it has also ignited imaginations worldwide, inviting us into the enchanting corridors of Hogwarts and the complex, magical world that Rowling has crafted with unparalleled skill and narrative flair.

Rediscovering Magic Through the Eyes of Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone introduces us to Harry Potter, an unassuming boy who lives under the stairs at his cruel aunt and uncle’s house, unaware of his celebrated past and monumental future. On his eleventh birthday, he receives a letter that would change his life forever, revealing his true identity as a wizard. From this moment, the reader is whisked away into a world where the ordinary mingles with the extraordinary, and where the quintessence of youthful adventure begins.

As Harry enters Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rowling masterfully constructs a universe replete with vivid detail— from the bewitched ceilings of the Great Hall to the enigmatic Forbidden Forest. The school itself becomes a character, rich with secrets and histories that promise countless adventures. Through Harry’s eyes, we rediscover the wonder of the world, where magic is not just a fantasy, but a reality that coexists with the everyday challenges of childhood and adolescence.

The Power of Friendship and Courage

At its heart, the book is a testament to the power of friendship and courage. Harry, along with his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, forms an unbreakable bond that would carry them through trials and triumphs. Rowling’s depiction of their friendship provides a robust emotional anchor throughout the book, resonating with anyone who understands the invaluable worth of true friends. Together, they face off against the darker elements that lurk within the magical world, including the sinister forces that once empowered the infamous Lord Voldemort.

A Layered Narrative That Appeals to All Ages

Rowling’s narrative is ingeniously layered, making it accessible and deeply engaging for both young readers and adults. For children, the story is a grand adventure that speaks to their deepest fantasies of heroism and belonging. For adults, it’s a return to the wonders of youth, viewed through the lens of mature insights into themes of loss, choice, and identity. The humor—often understated yet profoundly effective—along with a host of eccentric and meticulously crafted characters, enriches the story, making it a joy to read and re-read.

Literary Craftsmanship and Universal Themes

Rowling’s literary craftsmanship shines throughout the novel. Her prose is both straightforward and richly descriptive, ensuring that the narrative pace does not overwhelm the young reader, yet is robust enough to engage an adult audience. This balance is masterfully maintained, propelling the story forward through its various magical and mundane hurdles, and setting up a series that grows in complexity and depth with each subsequent book.

The themes explored in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone are universally resonant. The fight against a seemingly insurmountable evil, the struggle for acceptance in a new world, and the search for one’s identity are all challenges that echo the human experience. Rowling weaves these themes into her narrative with a deftness that is both subtle and impactful, allowing each reader to find their own path through Harry’s story.

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If you want to buy this book, you can buy it on amazon here.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is more than just a book; it is a portal to a world that continues to inspire and captivate. It reminds us of the power of storytelling to provide escape, to challenge our perceptions, and to remind us of our shared humanity. Rowling invites us all to believe in magic—not just the magic of wands and wizards, but the deeper magic of friendship, love, and bravery.

For those picking up the book for the first time, prepare to be enchanted. For those returning, may you find the same joy and wonder as before, rediscovered through the fresh eyes of nostalgia. In every sense, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" is a modern classic, deserving of the accolades and adoration it continues to receive across the globe. This is not just a book for the young or the old; it is a book for the ages, for anyone who believes, if just for a moment, that magic is real and all around us, waiting to be discovered.

Children's / YA Book Recommendation

‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ book revisited: Fall under its spell

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone will welcome you home like an old friend.

Hypable’s “revisited” series looks back at older pieces of media and attempts to evaluate their meaning today. Are they better or worse than we thought when they were originally released? What have we learned from them and what has their lasting impact been?

Related: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone movie revisited: As magical as ever

At the age of seven, I fell head-over-heels for a funny looking book with a pink cover and a strange name. I had stolen the book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , from my brother, who had shown very little interest in reading it. Curled up in a corner, I recall racing through Harry’s adventures, not least because I couldn’t wait to read them, but I was also acutely aware that my brother, older by four years, might not look so forgivingly on my act of thievery.

The copy of Philosopher’s Stone I read to write this review is that same, old and worn, stolen paperback. I never returned it. I look after my books, but Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has received more love than most. My paperback has the slightly crumpled cover, creased pages, and the tea and tear stains accumulated over many, many rereads to prove it. In the intervening years, I must have read it at least 50 times (not counting all those times I listened to the story via Stephen Fry’s excellent audiobook narrations). I know that opening sentence by heart. Okay, I know a lot of it by heart.

But it almost didn’t happen. I, like all Harry Potter fans, am lucky, because Philosopher’s Stone was very nearly not published at all. Just like many other bestselling novels, including childhood classics Anne of Green Gables and A Wrinkle in Time , numerous publishers rejected Rowling’s first novel. It was eventually picked up by Bloomsbury, who gave the first book a print run of 500 hardback copies, 300 of which were sent to libraries. In hindsight it is almost impossible to believe, but it was not expected to be a success.

When I first read this book, I was reminded of the many delightful stories by Roald Dahl that saw children triumph over oblivious, cruel, or downright stupid adults. Dahl’s influence is certainly still identifiable, but now I see glimpses of Dickens in the caricatured descriptions of the Dursleys, and touches of Austen in Rowling’s wit (which is often imparted through Harry). The courage of Rowling’s writing also strikes me more clearly than before; I understand the hesitation of publishers who were not confident in publishing a long and complex children’s book that opened with a double murder.

At seven years old, I envied Harry for being invited into the kind of fantastical world I frequently dreamed about. Rowling’s imagination captured my own, and her colourful and vibrant descriptions of Harry’s new life drew me easily into the world she was creating. I disliked the Dursleys, laughed with the Weasleys, and developed an admiration of Hermione Granger that lasts to this day.

What surprises me sixteen years later is the fierce love I feel for Harry himself. The world Rowling has created is as expertly described as I remember and it is easy for me to sink back into this familiar setting. But now I find myself growing more concerned for this young boy. At seven, Harry’s grand age of 11 seemed awfully grown up and I was not at all concerned about him living in his cupboard and chasing danger around Hogwarts. At 23, the neglect and abuse that Harry experiences at the hands of the Dursley’s breaks my heart.

I am more sensitive to the darker elements of Rowling’s novel. These are aspects I have always been aware of, but frequently dismiss in Philosopher’s Stone because I am busy indulging the imagination of my inner child. The familiarity I feel for her work has, in the past, masked these complex narratives; many readers will pinpoint Goblet of Fire as the true beginning of Harry’s saga, but as I read Philosopher’s Stone I am not so sure. Ignoring, for a moment, the murders that bookend this story, what intrigues me most is the racial and social stratification of both Rowling’s England and the wizarding world. Her social commentary is mature and well considered, without overwhelming the whimsy of her narrative.

Objectively, Philosopher’s Stone is not the best of Rowling’s writing. And – this is not an opinion that will make me popular to Potter fans – although her prose does clearly develop over the course of the Harry Potter series, her writing has never amazed me. Rowling’s strengths are many: her dialogue is clever and entertaining, her world building unrivalled, her descriptions of characters pointed, and her novels somehow downright funny and tearjerking.

The weakest point of Philosopher’s Stone is the prose itself, which is readable, but not astounding. This does not diminish my enjoyment of Harry Potter , and should not diminish the importance of her work, which delves into themes worthy of any piece of classic literature. In saying so, I do not mean to disparage this book. After all, at what point did we decide that prose is the most important aspect of a novel?

The plot, characters and setting of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone are all first class. Rowling’s clever and subtle foreshadowing is also of particular note, especially when you remember that, superficially at least, this is a children’s book. That Rowling’s writing is undemanding does not take away from the overall enjoyment or skill required in constructing such a story. For me J.K Rowling is not a wonderful writer, but she is, without a doubt, a wonderful author.

If you were lucky enough to get your hands on one of those first 500 copies of Philosopher’s Stone , I hope you held onto it, because one sold in 2011 for $29,875. There have been over 100 million copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold, and the series has been translated into over 70 languages. When Bloomsbury took a chance on that funny looking book, they printed only 500 copies. A decade later, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , the series’ American publishers gave the novel an initial print run of 12 million copies.

The books have long been cited by parents and teachers as encouraging children to read and improving literacy skills; a recent study demonstrated a correlation between reading the Harry Potter books and a greater tolerance by children toward minority groups. It is not an exaggeration to say that Harry Potter has had a lasting influence on the world of publishing and children’s literature, as well as millions of readers around the world.

That is the beauty of this book. It is perhaps not the most fully developed or the best written book of the Harry Potter series, but what Philosopher’s Stone does so effectively is draw you under its spell. As I can attest, this ability to enchant is not diluted by an increased familiarity formed through rereading. And if you are lucky enough to be reading it for the first time now, regardless of your age, I have no doubt that you too will be swept away by this magical world.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published on June 26, 1997, and as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States on September 1, 1998.

Today marks the sixteenth anniversary of the book’s United States release. It is also, of course, the day that the Hogwarts Express leaves Platform 9 and 3/4 for Hogwarts.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – Book Review

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a YA magical fantasy written by JK Rowling. It was first published in 1997. It is the first book in the Harry Potter series.

Synopsis (acc. to Goodreads)

Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he’s a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry. Though Harry’s first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it’s his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined. Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.

I read this book in February. I thought that I will write reviews for all the books together in a week but I can’t stop. This book is just amazing. I am reading the series 1 st time. Yes, I haven’t read it yet neither have I watched any movie because I was waiting to read the books first.

I loved the book, I loved the characters and I loved the world it was set in. The story was full of surprises and plot twists and the end was so worthed. I gave it a 5+ rating because it was amazing and I couldn’t stop myself from continuing the series. But I took a month break from the series because I tend to get overwhelmed when I read a particular series together in one go. I did not want to get bored from this particular series.

I am currently reading the second book in the series and I am loving it too. I definitely recommend this book and the series too.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling - review

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

My favourite series and possible favourite book of all time are the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Before I write this review can I just say that I'm not a fantasy reader. If I was given £10 to spend on a book I would automatically head for the horror, sci-fi or thriller sections so the fact that Harry Potter is fantasy just shows how amazing the books are!

The first book is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The story starts with Number 4 Privet Drive about a boy called Harry Potter who lives in the cupboard under the stairs of a house owned by Mr and Mrs Dursley with their overly spoiled son called Dudley. In the fist quarter of the book it shows how Harry begins to receive letters which are addressed to him, in his cupboard and at the top of the letter a crest show the letters S,G,R AND H embellished with a snake, a griffin, an eagle and a badger. Even though this alone sounds mysterious Mr and Mrs Dursley don't allow him to read the letters and will go to any length to stop him. As the book progresses The Dursleys go away to a hut in the middle of the ocean to ensure no letters can arrive, but at midnight (before Harry's birthday) a giant of a man, later on to be recognised as Hagrid, bursts in and tells Harry he's a wizard! Hagrid also tells Harry how he came to live at Privet Drive as his parents were murdered by the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort. He also gives Harry the letter he had been hoping for for weeks it includes a letter to say that Harry will be attending Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry and a list of essentials for his year ahead.

Hagrid also informs Harry that he will have to catch the Hogwarts express which is located at King's Cross at platform 9 and 3/4. When arriving at King's Cross Harry soon realises that there is no platform 9 and 3/4, or at least that is visible. Then Harry meets what is going to be his second family, The Weasleys with 7 children, the youngest boy being Ronald Weasley who will soon become Harry's best friend for life. When they arrive at Hogwarts the first years wait to be sorted by the sorting hat. Harry and Ron are both placed in Griffindor to the delight of the other Weasley children currently attending Hogwarts. (The other houses are Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.)

As the year goes on at Hogwarts Harry and Ron attain a new best friend for life by the name of Hermione Granger and to the end of the year they have to all three face a battle against the dark Lord!

Below is the list of things every first year attending Hogwarts must bring just for some extra information.

First-year students will require: Uniform Three Sets of Plain Work Robes (Black) One Plain Pointed Hat (Black) for day wear One Pair of Protective Gloves (dragon hide or similar) One Winter Cloak (Black, silver fastenings) Please note that all student's clothes should carry name-tags at all times. Books The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble Other Equipment 1 Wand 1 Cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) 1 set of glass or crystal phials 1 telescope 1 set of brass scales Students may also bring an Owl OR a Cat OR a Toad. PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.

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Travel & study abroad – fantasy & historical fiction – children's fiction – and anything that makes me laugh., harry potter and the philosopher’s stone | honest book review | j.k. rowling.

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone

I really loved the artwork on this version, plus this was the original title. This was the first time I’d ever ready Harry Potter (although I have seen movies 1-3 before) so I’m a little late to the game. That said, I regret nothing. These books are enjoyable no matter how old you are.

A boy with messy hair ends up at a school that teaches a very specialized skill set to its students. He makes friends with a boy that is seemingly incompetent, but surprisingly good at a chess, a girl too smart for her own good, and a giant of a man with a penchant for animals that would as soon as eat you as play fetch. He also makes several enemies, a sneering boy, a sneering professor, and a sneering villain. Overall there’s lot of sneering that happens.

I love getting to hear Harry’s internal dialogue, which is something you really miss out on in the movies . This was probably the most enjoyable aspect of the books for me since I already had a pretty good idea of how the story ended.

It reads like a mystery in terms of how it’s set up. You have the clues, a mystery that the main character is trying to desperately solve, and then you have a sort of “whodunnit” scene and reveal where all of the pieces are fit together. It’s interesting, since I was expecting more of the stereotypical fantasy plot where the character is up against the forces of evil and has to fight them off. This is essentially a mystery novel disguised and a middle grade fantasy book! That said, it was great! The suspense and clues were well done, and even though I had watched the movie I still found myself caught by surprise at certain parts.

I don’t understand how the teachers at the school are okay with everything that goes on in the school, they seem a little lax safety-wise. Which doesn’t matter except it doesn’t make sense. There’s a dangerous chamber of secrets and all the school does is seal off a hallway and guard it with a ferocious beast? It seems like they could have done a bit more….

There is a lot of time spent on the world building , which was a bit tedious since I’d already seen the movies. I find that if the movie does a good job then it’s sometimes a bit redundant to read all the world-building aspects in the book.

Draco Malfoy and Snape are perhaps a bit stereotypical and at times seem unreasonably bent on making Harry’s life difficult. For Snape, there’s a back story there (which you don’t find out the full truth until later in the series and so it makes more sense). Even so, I felt like some of the conflict was just a little too obvious. That said, it could just be that writers have started copying Rowling, and elements that feel familiar are things she originally spearheaded?

Final Thoughts

A strong start to a strong series! This first book does a good job setting the stage, and didn’t skimp on confict or character building. It could be a standalone book almost, but it’s even better knowing that there’s a whole series that follows it.

I would give this first book 3.8 avocados. It was good, but after reading this first book I wasn’t fully bought in yet. It was definitely good, but I didn’t buy into all the hype quite yet.

What did you think of the first book?

Share this:, 6 thoughts on “ harry potter and the philosopher’s stone | honest book review | j.k. rowling ”.

So fun! I do think Rowling gets stronger as a writer as the books go on (though she got so big that I feel the last couple books could have used a bit of an edit), and hearing Harry’s internal monologue and how sassy he gets as time goes on is fun.

I’m currently listening to this series as I need some comfort reading for this year!

Very true! Yeah I feel book 4 is where she really hit her stride. Nice! How is listening to the books versus reading them?

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If you like audiobooks, I think you’d enjoy them. The narrator for the British version is Stephen Fry (weirdly they have a different narrator for the American version? no idea why), and I think he does a good job of bringing the stories to life.

While I definitely read faster in my head than a narrator can read them aloud, I’ve enjoyed listening to the stories.

It’s fun to hear your thoughts after having seen the movies and so many years after this book first came out. I read this one when I was about 13 which was before the movies were around and it was so fun and engaging. I think even then Draco and Snape were pretty stereotypical villains but because the book was seen as a kids book it didn’t really matter. This was a pretty straightforward fantasy book for kids and it was more in the later books that Rowling got more complex in plot and motivation, I think.

That’s true! It does start out pretty straightforward, which for the first book in the series and a kids book works really well. But I’ve loved the complexity later on in the series more. I’m not sure what I would’ve thought if I’d read this when I was younger? I often wonder that about favorite series or children’s books, if I just like them because I read them when I was younger.

Versus this is a series I never found till now, yet I still love it! A sign of a great childrens/YA book in my opinion!

I agree! I have re-read the series a couple times now, including as an adult, and it is still so fun and engaging!

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The latest book reviews and book news, harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: book review.

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

A novel that needs no introduction is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling. It is the novel that has shaped the lives of millions of readers and is still one of the most read novels today! Keep reading to find out why this novel and series is as popular as it is.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Summary

On his eleventh birthday, Harry Potter finds out he is a wizard and will be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before then, Harry did not even know that magic was real or that he was famous. As Harry learns about his past and his parents who died protecting him, he prepares to embark on a new journey.

Harry arrives at Hogwarts and becomes friends with two of his classmates Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. The trio all are members of house Gryffindor and help each other pass the first year at Hogwarts. But as they find out throughout the course of the year, they will face many challenges and enemies.

Suspicious activity at Hogwarts like a three-headed dog guarding a trap door and a troll somehow entering and attacking Hogwarts makes the trio suspicious. Harry, Ron, and Hermione soon discover Professor Dumbledore is hiding something at Hogwarts and someone is trying hard to steal it. As the first years try to manage the workload, they must also stop whoever is after the secret artifact before it is used by the dark forces at the school.

Originally published as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the United Kingdom in 1997, within the first six months of release, the children’s book took off. When Scholastic bought the U.S. rights, Scholastic’s Arthur Levine believes that the title wouldn’t work for American readers. After some discussion, the novel’s title was changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone which was suggested by Rowling.

Rowling went on to say that she wished she hadn’t changed it but since it was her first novel, she didn’t have as much leverage. The title change was not necessary and makes it a bit confusing for some people. The good thing is that that is the only novel where that happened. Maybe Scholastics should give readers a little bit more credit.

I was first introduced to the Harry Potter world by the movies. As a kid, I was always intimidated but the size of the Harry Potter novels and did not believe I would be able to read a book that big. It was later on in my life that I tackled bigger novels and even later when I finally read the Harry Potter novels.

I fell in love with the novels wholeheartedly. The writing is great, the characters are wonderful, and the overarching plot and how everything connects was done perfectly. One thing the movies never did well was showcase Harry’s struggle of not having a family and his loneliness. In the novel, we see how they affect Harry’s state of mind and acting out because of those feelings, something the movies don’t do that well.

This novel and the whole Harry Potter series should be read by every reader in my opinion. Not everyone has to like it but reading it and finding that whether you do or not should be a test given to everyone. It will get a lot if children into reading and that is always a great end result. Expect reviews for all the novels in the series in the coming months!

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In the first paragraph u wrote eep instead of keep… XD

Thanks I’ll fix it now 🙂

I used to be a huge fan of the movies but never read the books. It’s always interesting to hear the differences. Good to know that the book expands on the characters a bit more!

The entire series ends differently in the books than in the movies. the boom ending in Deadly Hallow makes much more sense.

My daughter made sure all her copies were the the UK versions

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these series made a reader out of me, thanks for sharing 🙂

Thanks for reading! 👍

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I also saw the movies first. It wasn’t until after “The Goblet of Fire” film came out that I started reading the books. But I read the 4th one first, and the rest out of order, until “The Deathly Hallows” book was released. Not too long ago, I started rereading the 1st “Harry Potter” novel, and picked up on some new details and moments that I’d missed before, including some dark ones.

Rereading them now and there’s a lot that you realize that you missed. Rowling thought it all out!

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I love Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone also known as. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

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The cover was good, but I read a little, and I thought that if I read more it would be more interesting. Well, beyond interesting, but my new favorite book!

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Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone review

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It isn't stretching the truth to say that Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone has arrived with the weight of the world on its shoulders. There isn't a more adored chunk of literature than the boy-wizard series. There's a sense that, post-September 11, people need something to make them feel good again. And Hollywood has to redress the balance after an annus horribilis of shoddy budget-busters. The good news is that Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone gets so much right. The bad news is there's a hefty ""But..."" in there.

Where does Harry Potter conjure up the goods? Well, it's all about details, and the details in Harry Potter are superlative, from the suburban dreariness of Privet Drive, to teeming wizard street Diagon Alley, to Hogwarts itself, an exultant medieval citadel of soaring spires, shadowy passageways and swivelling staircases. The effects, too, are mostly knock out, be they throwaway (edible, hopping chocolate frogs; baby dragons) or essential (Harry's invisibility cloak; the much-anticipated Quidditch match).

The esteemed line-up of British thesps also fulfill their duty of breathing vivid life into their characters. Robbie Coltrane furnishes most of the laughs as genial lug Hagrid, Maggie Smith is a stern but benevolent Professor McGonagall and Alan Rickman, as sinister potions wizard Professor Snape, stops time dead each time he appears on screen. Okay, so he's a peripheral figure, but he is set up brilliantly for future chapters.

At the risk of sounding scrooge-y, it's the kids who don't hold the attention as well. Appearance-wise, Daniel Radcliffe is perfect, with all the charm and English moppet ingredients to make a great Harry, but he's not always so enchanting in the acting department. You can practically hear Chris Columbus barking directions: ""Open your eyes wide - - look surprised!"", ""Furrow your brow - - you're really mad!"" Rupert Grint, as Harry's best friend Ron Weasley, milks his comedy stooge moments, but spends much of the film with a look of mild indigestion on his face, leaving Emma Watson as bossy Hermione top of the class by default.

Thankfully, though, that's it as far as nasty surprises are concerned. Columbus sticks faithfully to JK Rowling's story, striking a neat balance between the action, the comedy and the book's darker traits. The challenge was always going to be to make an entertaining film out of Rowling's weakest book, as well as establishing the Hogwarts universe to the uninitiated. Along the way, he may have sacrificed the sense of wonder that, say, Terry Gilliam, would have brought, but will Harry Potter fans really give a hoot? No way. What's important is that all the novel's best bits are there on the screen, and that Harry Potter the movie is worthy enough to fulfill its destiny as a children's classic. Roll on The Chamber Of Secrets.

Harry Potter's adventures in wizard-land are cozy and comfortable in Chris Columbus' faithful adaptation. Daniel Radcliffe's not the greatest actor, but at least he looks the part. A rewarding and charming first stop on the HP franchise trail.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.

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Most Popular

Title/Author

1997

Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy - until he is rescued by an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. The Reason : HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD!

Reader Reviews

your own Review for this book?

Review by Nadine (230706) Rating (8/10) Review by Paul (010202) Rating (9/10) Review by Nigel (010901) Rating (8/10) Review by Vex (310701) Rating (7/10) Review by Chrissi (310501) Rating (9/10) Review by Ray (280201) Rating (7/10)

The story started simply enough, and for the benefit of anyone who has managed to miss it I will summarise: A misfit of a boy, orphaned as a baby and neglected by his guardians, is one day confronted with the truth about his heritage... his parents were wizards. He is offered a place at the school his parents attended - a school of magic, where he will finally find his true place in the world. But his family's tragic past is linked to a lingering evil presence in the magical community, and Harry finds himself caught up in mysterious and frightening events that threaten not only his own life, but the future of all wizards.

A pleasantly diverting couple of hours ensued. I found myself drawn into what seemed to be a moderately clever and engaging plot, and was greatly impressed by the development of the characters. I've rarely come across such vivid, colourful personalities in a book. The calm, wise Professor Dumbledore, jovial Hagrid and vitriolic Snape all seemed to leap straight from the pages and into my head as fully formed, real people. It was like I was reading about people I once knew.

I found it all highly imaginative and entertaining... if a little simplistic and predictable.

I am very easily led.

Just when I thought I had the author's plan figured out, and was confident that I knew exactly what direction the story was going in... Bam! A plot twist! It seemed I had fallen for every red herring and misdirection that the author intended me to, and the ending was as much a surprise to me as I imagine it was to any ten-year-old. I still clearly remember frowning at that page, re-reading the same passage again and again, going over all the clues in my head as the revelation gradually sank in. I still feel that sense of delighted amazement that came from realising I had been utterly wrong… not only about how the plot would turn out, but also in my preconceived idea of the storytelling standard.

I closed the book feeling a lot more respectful towards the Harry Potter phenomenon than I did when I thought it was all a load of marketing hype. I was not yet an addict, but I was ready to concede that the book's enormous success was deserved after all. In fact I felt rather guilty for so badly underestimating it. I also felt mildly alarmed that I had nearly let my misguided assumptions get in the way of reading it at all... and what a treat I would have missed out on!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone taught me a valuable lesson: Sometimes hype happens for a reason. Nadine (23rd July 2006)

Terrible. An awful read. I don't think that's been said. :)

Honestly, I thought they were wonderfully written and I have only one problem with J. K. Rowling's books. I read quicker than she writes, I can't wait for the next instalment. If you thought it is all just the usual hype think again. Perfect for the child in us all. Paul (1st February 2002)

Harry is orphaned as a baby and left to grow up with his not very nice Aunt and Uncle, not knowing anything about his destiny. Harry, however, is a wizard and receives an invitation to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Leaving his gruesome Aunt and Uncle and his room under the stairs he begins his first year at this fantastic school. Soon, however, things start to happen that draw Harry and his friends into adventure.

This book is really quite good. It is very simple with a fast plot and story line and is perfect for children (and adults after a long day!) I also think it's a modern take on the typical British childhood adventure. The settings allow for anything to be possible yet at the same time not seeming too far-fetched.

Very well written and readable for both children and adults. The point people miss when they say "but it's a children's book!" is "does it matter?"

Ms Rowling has sold millions of her novels and I'm sure has created a generation of readers. An amazing achievement in this modern age. Nigel (1st September 2001)

I know several people with young-ish families and the bed time story seemed to have been given a new lease of life - up until the point where one mother got into trouble with her sons for reading ahead and finishing the book because she wanted to know how it ended, and did not want to wait several bedtimes hence. So, when even Ray sent in reviews, we got the books and they sat on the shelves for a while, until I got around to them.

I must admit that I read the complete series in a very short space of time, end on end. And I really enjoyed them. I can see why they have carved a niche for themselves in our national consciousness, they are quintessentially English, somehow, the boarding schools, divided into houses, even the weather is English.

But I digress... Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone is the first of the Harry Potter series and it finds him living with his awful aunt and uncle and their dreadful son. When he was small he was the unwanted child after his parents died in an accident. He survived with only a strange scar across his forehead, like a lightening bolt.

Harry is desperately unhappy and badly treated in the house, living in the cupboard under the stairs, while his fat cousin has two bedrooms - one for new toys, which he sleeps in and one for the broken and discarded toys, which is like a toy graveyard. Harry accepts that this is life, until one day, a letter arrives for him. He has never had a letter addressed to him before, but his horrible guardians, leaving him wondering what it contained destroy it.

Fortunately, the sender of the letter is tenacious, and keeps sending more, resulting in a battle of wits to see who is going to get the post each morning. It becomes so stressful that the whole family is taken away to a remote island to try to escape the letters. But the mysterious letter writer manages to get through. The letters to Harry have been from the Hogwarts School, and say that he has been enrolled there from the start of the following school year.

It is all so beautifully written that you cannot help but get caught up with the story. You want Harry to have a better life than the one he has with his gruesome guardians and it is so much the better that he will have a very special life at Hogwarts. There is so much for him to learn, a whole secret history he does not know and lots of new people to meet.

I do not want to spoil the story for you, if you have not read it, but you want to read it, once you have passed the first few pages, you will want to carry on. I was not expecting such a book, it is not illustrated, (well, my copy isn't,) so it is not like a book for children from that point of view, but it is superb. You will love Harry Potter. Can't say better than that.

Note about the Harry Potter books I have been careful not to give away too much of the story, because even the cover jackets are very light on details. It would be a shame to spoil the story by doing this. They do it on the blurb for most adult books, and it annoys me, so I have not done it here. Chrissi (31st May 2001)

Children and adults alike will identify with one of the characters in this book. Harry and his new found school friends Ron and Hermione begin the life of training to be wizards. Along the way they find time to have more than enough adventures! Throughout it all the goodies prevail and the bad guys get their just desserts.

Lots of twists and turns and you'll find yourself hoping the bad guy gets it in a minute makes you keep coming back to this book.

The showdown at the end is inspired and unexpected! A friend lent me this book and I was at first sceptical as its wildly regarded as a children's book. But I was glad I persevered. I found it hard to put down and was quite impressed at its ability to keep me reading one more page.

Its a short book and you can easily finish it in one sitting and you'll be sorry if you don't. :-) Ray (28th February 2001)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: 20 Years of the Boy Who Lived

Vintage book review: harry potter and the philosopher’s stone (1997) by j.k. rowling.

I first met Harry Potter in the summer of 1999. A trilogy of Harry Potter books was given to me that summer by a dear friend of mine, when I stayed with her family in Norfolk, England. Entranced from the get-go, I never looked back. I have dutifully pre-ordered every subsequent installment, rereading all the previous books before the next sequel was due. So, yeah, I have read and reread these books many, many times during the past 18 years.

RELATED: Great Expectations (2012) – A Great Adaptation for Harry Potter Fans

And this year, two decades after its initial publication, I had the pleasure of sharing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ) with my own son, who is now tearing through the series, loving it. Although he does wonder sometimes why Harry does never seem to have a quiet year at Hogwarts.

Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign … to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever. It is in your very skin.

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Harry potter: the boy who lived.

Harry Potter is an orphan, friendless, living with his fuddy-duddy relatives, the Dursleys, who treat him very poorly, very poorly indeed. His aunt and uncle spoil extravagantly their son Dudley, with Harry only getting scraps of Dudley’s broken leftovers. Harry has no recollection of his parents. He’s got a strange lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. And sometimes weird things occur in his presence, inexplicable things, which inevitably enrage his guardians. And then one day, nearing his eleventh birthday, Harry gets a letter that changes his life forever.

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You see, Harry Potter, unbeknownst to even himself, is a wizard, a very famous wizard, renowned for banishing, possibly killing, the evil sorcerer Lord Voldemort a decade ago. It’s a feat of which he has no recollection, but it has made him a celebrity in the wizarding world. And there is a wizarding world, a world of magic hidden to the Muggle world (the non-magical realm, which is to say this reviewer’s reality), and the whole magical world opens its doors to Harry with that letter. He is to start at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is to learn magic, make friends, fly on broomsticks, become a wizard.

Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.

Thus, begins the education of Harry Potter at Hogwarts. The magical realm is, well, magical, with many fantastic realities, animals, candies, creatures, music. At school, he is befriended by a ginger-haired Ron Weasley, who stems from a large family and feels generally unremarkable and overlooked. Hermione Granger, a goody-two-shoes know-it-all, daughter of non-magical dentists, eventually becomes a friend. This little trio ends up on an adventure to protect the philosopher’s stone – a stone that grants immortality – from the evil that is seeking it.

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I won’t say any more.

The truth – it is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.

A Modern-Day Classic for Good Reason

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – and the world it introduced and the series it ignited and the movies it inspired – is a modern-day classic and for good reason. It’s riveting and relatable and fun and funny. J.K. Rowling’s writing is vivid and evocative, with many great characters, fantastic descriptions of the fantastical, not to mention many beautiful, thoughtful and quoteworthy passages on love and truth, on evil and goodness. In this, her first book, readers often compare her to Roald Dahl, which is certainly not a bad thing.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a beautiful book and still a fresh, engaging read twenty years on. And I suspect that it will continue to find new readers in the decades to come.

So butterbeers up and cheers to Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling for twenty years of magic!

RELATED: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – A Nostalgic Trip Back to Hogwarts

Content Note: There are some thrillingly intense scenes, but nothing decidedly disturbing or inappropriate for the young (or older!) reader.

Adaptation Recommendation: The films completed to huge success. First released in 2001, the last film in this eight-film series came out a decade later in 2011. The young actors playing our adventuresome trio, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione), aged with their characters, became superstars and teen idols, and have since moved on and grown into other things. The series has been hugely successful, and a return to the magical wizarding realm has begun with a spin-off prequel, penned by J.K. Rowling, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them . It is the first in a new five-film series, which hit theatres last year.

RELATED: Are Prequels Necessary? On the Value of Prequels

OVERALL RATING

“The stuff that dreams are made of.”

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A lover of words, stories and storytellers since her youth and just plain curious by nature, Jessica embarked on a very long academic journey that took her across a continent (from Canada's west coast to its east) and even to the other side of the globe, where she currently lives an expat existence in Denmark. She now trails many fancy initials behind her name, if she ever cares to use them, and continues to be ever so curious. She's a folklorist, a mother, a wife, a middle child, a small town girl, a beekeeper, an occasional quilter, a jam-maker. She curates museum exhibits, gets involved in many cultural projects for this and that, collects oral histories when she can find the time and continues to love stories in all their many and varied forms. The local librarians all know her by name.

2 thoughts on “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: 20 Years of the Boy Who Lived”

Has it really been 20 years? :O I don’t hear much about the controversy these days, but I remember feeling subversive when I read it, because churches like mine were full of “Harry Potter teaches kids to be witches!” nonsense. But it was all fun to read–well, except for the depressing bits. One of these days I hope to read through it again. 🙂

I know — when I realized that two decades had gone by, I just wondered where the time had gone! And I guess Harry Potter became so phenomenally successful, so mainstream, that the initial controversies surrounding it died down. They couldn’t stop this juggernaut…There were and are, anyways, other, more pertinent things to rant about in this world than the boy who lived (-: And I never really understood the backlash — it seemed to me that the ranters never even had read it. Because if they had, they would see that it was a wonderful story, full of growth and love and friendships and higher power and trying to do what is right. There are strong religious themes running through this work…I avoided seeing the movies for years because I didn’t want them to ruin my own visions of the books (-: The books are still great!

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

By j.k. rowling.

'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' by J. K. Rowling works as an introduction to the world of magic for Harry Potter.

About the Book

Article written by Mohandas Alva

M.A. Degree in English Literature from Manipal University, India.

The story plays in the perspective of Harry Potter , who is also just discovering magic. Therefore, the reader, like Harry Potter, is introduced to the nuances and establishments of the magical world in this book. Like Harry Potter, as the reader advances in the book, they are tackled with a vast history of magic, magical beings, items of magical significance, and cultural nuances that are very interesting to read. Furthermore, the story also has a tight-knit plot that sometimes digresses to describe the world of magic but eventually falls back and moves forward without effort.

Key Facts about Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the USA.
Published: 26 June 1997
Literary Period: Contemporary
Genre: Fantasy
Point-of-View: Third Person, omniscient
Setting: 1990s Great Britain
Climax: When Harry Potter faces Lord Voldemort as the latter tries to steal the Philosopher’s Stone
Antagonist: Lord Voldemort

J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Rowling started writing ‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ around June 1990. When on a train journey to London, she suddenly conjured a story of a small, black-haired boy with spectacles going to a wizarding school. She took around 5-6 years to write this book. Her mother’s sudden death caused her to channel her grief into the orphan Harry’s anguish. J.K. Rowling would go to several publishers and get turned down multiple times before Bloomsbury finally saw potential in her story and decided to publish it. Like Harry Potter’s fame in the world of magic for vanquishing Lord Voldemort, both J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter book series have garnered major praise and a passionate audience throughout the world. Rowling’s ascent to fame is considered a great inspiration and has been documented several times. She has managed to establish herself as an important children’s writer amidst being a single mother struggling to make a living. Jane Austen is one of Rowling’s major influences, and scholars have attributed elements like foreshadowing in her novels as being similar to Austen’s style.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Digital Art

Books related to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Several books have drawn comparisons with ‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone .’ Other popular fantasy novels like C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series and the J.R.R Tolkien ’s The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series have been compared to ‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ owing to similar elements like magic, witches, wizards, and a large community of magical beings. Most notably, the character Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series has been compared to the wizard Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit as their roles of a mentor and guardian angel to the respective heroes of each story are similar. Furthermore, the Harry Potter series has also been compared to Jane Austen’s works as the writing styles happen to be quite similar. Other significant comparisons include that to the works of Victorian-era writings, mainly because of the depiction of the education system and mannerisms of Hogwarts. In recent times, there have also been a lot of comparisons between the Harry Potter books and the superheroes of American comic books. Characters from either book have supernatural powers, have been wronged by powerful evildoers, and are driven by bravery and righteousness to save their respective worlds from the tyranny of such villains.

The Lasting Impact of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

The story of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ has had a significant impact since its first publication in 1997. It soon spanned six more sequels, all of which attained major success and have furthermore given rise to a large number of different adaptations. The movie ‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was released in London on 14 November 2001. Warner Bros. had purchased the film rights for the books with some creative control given to Rowling herself, and all the books have been adapted to their respective movies, with the last book split into two separate movies. The movies have garnered positive reviews and established one of the most popular film franchises. Rowling has continued the legacy by writing for a spinoff prequel movie series called ‘ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.’ Some older characters from the Harry Potter books are major characters in this film series . ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ has also been adapted into video games, most notably the eponymous video game, which was released first on 15 November 2001 by Electronic Arts. Furthermore, the book has been translated into over 76 different languages. It has spanned a variety of other adaptations and references in the form of fan fiction, merchandise, memes, and also an official game of Quidditch.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Summary

Harry potter and the philosopher’s stone important quotes 💬, harry potter and the philosopher’s stone review ⭐, harry potter and the philosopher’s stone character list 🧙‍♂️, harry potter and the philosopher’s stone themes and analysis 🪄.

The Harry Potter section of Book Analysis analyzes and explorers the Harry Potter series. The characters, names, terminology, and all related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros ©. The content on Book Analysis was created by Harry Potter fans, with the aim of providing a thorough in-depth analysis and commentary to complement and provide an additional perspective to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

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Pictures on Pages

Religion and Science

Painting the Figure, Illuminating the Soul

The art of the book, cats, cut-outs and wonderful wizards.

Created with Sketch.

From Leonardo da Vinci to Harry Potter, A World of Illustrated Books

A picture paints a thousand words, right? But what about a picture surrounded by a thousand words? Well, that’s the stuff of mysteries and myths and childhood dreams. For centuries, book illustrations have put a face to the names of classic characters.

Winnie-the-Pooh and Sherlock Holmes became visually, as well as imaginatively, enlivened by the illustrative magic of E.H. Shepherd and Sidney Paget. Through their art, readers could see what the bear was up to in the Hundred Acre Wood and follow the world’s most famous sleuth down Baker Street. Writing sews seeds and illustrations water them, a fertile literary tradition that has endured for centuries.

This summer, Sotheby’s Fine Books & Manuscripts sales in New York, London and Paris, offer an array of literary treasures – from the 13 th century to the present day – that also celebrate a gallery of marvellous and inventive visual interpretations by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Henri Matisse. It also introduces us – in a swirl of railway steam – to a young wizard named Harry Potter.

View 2 of Auction: Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana

Religion and the Sciences

The earliest illustrated volumes offered are, understandably, either religious or of a scholarly scientific nature. A 13 th -century illuminated English Bible, painted by the Sarum Master, arrives with a remarkable provenance, having been formerly in the collections of both J. Paul Getty and Ernst Boehlen. Also from the Boehlen Collection, comes an illuminated early 15 th century vellum manuscript of a historiated initial depicting the Annunciation, painted by Cristoforo Cortese.

The more visceral aspects of the human body can be found in De Humani Corporis fabrica libri septem (the Royal Institution copy of Andreas Vesalius’ epochal publication from the mid-16 th century, described as “one of the most beautiful scientific books ever printed”). Here, readers can survey the inner workings of bones, muscles, cartilages and arteries.

More gruesome details can be found in a 13 th century collection of cautery drawings from an Italian medical manuscript. However, more genteel material resides in the pages of Venetian lace pattern books, with their woodcut illustrations of women engaged in needlework.

View 2 of Auction: Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern

From the sewing room to the studio for Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato della pittura , the master of masters' great treatise on painting. Appearing at Sotheby’s London is the only pre-publication manuscript copy of the work that contains small sketches, known as Urbinate drawings, and copies of Poussin's illustrations.

Another extraordinary find is the Rothschild copy of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience , printed by William Blake, and colored by William and Catherine Blake. Of the handful of copies created during Blake’s lifetime that remain in private hands, this is the first to appear at auction since 1989. In Blake, we find a poet, painter and printmaker working his various talents in harmony to produce a collection of illustrated poems on the passage from childhood innocence to the realities of adult life.

La Nouvelle Chute de l’Amérique saw Pop Art giant Roy Lichtenstein, arguably one of the most significant figures of the movement, join forces with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in a collaboration that addresses the political and social turmoil of America in the 1970s. Both Lichtenstein and Ginsberg were acutely aware of the national mood in a country reeling from the aftershocks of the Vietnam war, and increasing racial tensions throughout the United States. Employing Lichtenstein’s trademark comic book motifs and the iconic Ben-Day dots, the images (10 original colour etchings and aquatints) boldly depict themes of industry, landscape, identity and religion present in Ginsberg’s commentary.

Elsewhere in the Livres et Manuscrits sale in Paris, an original gouache drawing in the artist's own hand brings to life Salvador Dalí's La Femme Visible from 1930, and Louise Bourgeois's deeply personal Ode à ma mère , which sees the artist revisiting the spider motif (intrinsically linked to her relationship with her mother) that appears throughout her work, from large-scale sculptural interventions to the delicate dry-point etchings and poetry we see here.

Modern readers have particularly enjoyed the artistic potential of music and mayhem (along, of course, with a few cute pets). With Jazz (1947), Henri Matisse created one of the most spectacular art books in history, including 20 exceptional pochoirs – a fine limited-edition stencil process – of swimmers and sword swallowers, all created from cut-outs made while the artist was bedbound in his final years.

Kathleen Hale, the author and illustrator of Orlando, the Marmalade Cat , delivers a charming illustration of kittens at the opera, while in a presentation copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , we find Dorothy rescuing Toto from the howling winds of a hurricane, captured in W.W. Denslow’s acid-bright artwork. Elsewhere, we find the fairy tale imaginations of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, with examples from the “Golden Age” of illustration.

There is both life and death on view in these books. Sidney Paget’s original pen and ink and wash drawing of The Death of Sherlock Holmes for Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story The Final Problem shows us the demise of the brilliant consulting detective, as he tumbles from the Reichenbach Falls. Or does it?

Meanwhile, an origin story of an icon can be found in Thomas Taylor’s watercolor for the cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , J.K. Rowling’s runaway bestseller. Taylor’s image of the bespectacled novice wizard heading off to Hogwarts from Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station, set millions of readers – and Harry – on a journey like no other.

All of these remarkable volumes highlight a kind of collaborative alchemy. While an author opens a window, an illustrator shows you the view.

View 2 of Auction: The Library of Dr. Rodney P. Swantko

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Rare first edition Harry Potter book sells for more than €53,000

A rare first edition Harry Potter book had been sold at auction for more than £45,000 (approx. €53,000).

The novel, "The Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", was auctioned off at the Lyon and Turnbull auction house in Edinburgh.

The copy of J. K. Rowling’s book is one of the first 500 printed in 1997; publishers produced only a small number of copies because of the uncertainty towards its popularity.

It was predicted to sell for between £40,000 and £60,000, because of some unique errors. The book eventually sold for £45,201 (€53,500), and features a spelling mistake of ‘Philosopher’s’ on the lower cover and ‘1 wand’ is written twice on page 53 in the list of equipment.

It was obtained in London by its previous owner two decades ago at Adrian Harrington’s Kensington Church Street Shop.

"A first edition of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone is an exceptionally rare book to find in any condition, and one in such an excellent condition could well be called the jewel in any Harry Potter collector's crown,” said Cathy Marsden, head of books and manuscripts.

"Given that much of the writing took place in Edinburgh, it's fitting that this early and important piece of Harry Potter history will be sold in the capital," Marsden added.

Alongside the first book, the lot, which came from an American collector, also featured a 1998 first edition copy of "Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets", which sold for £7,560 (€8,900), and an early 1997 edition of "Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone" which contains a note written by Rowling to the previous owner.

Other high-value items included a copy of " Casino Royale ", the first novel in the James Bond spy series, which features an inscription by author Ian Fleming. It is inscribed by the author to Ion Smeaton Munro, Fleming’s night editor at Kemsley Newspapers, who was a decorated army officer much in the mould of Bond himself. The inscription reads: "To I.S.M, who's [sic] staunch keeping of the night watches freed the author for this extra-mural opus, Ian Fleming, April 1953."

It was valued between £30,000 and £50,000 and sold for £38,951 (approx. €46,100).

A 1924 first edition of "When We Were Very Young" by Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne also sold for £15,120 (€17,900) during the auction.

Following the sale, Marsden said she was “delighted” with the results which she feels “show the strength of modern first editions in today’s market”.

“Works by literary giants, such as Ian Fleming and JK Rowling, continue to prove very popular at auction and I hope that these books are much enjoyed and treasured in their new homes."

RETRO REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Is Still a Staggering Achievement

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It's important to remember the ongoing controversial statements by the creator of the Harry Potter franchise. CBR supports the hard work of industry professionals on properties fans know and love, and the wider world of Harry Potter that fans have adopted as their own. You can find CBR's continuing coverage on Rowling here .

Taking over $90 million dollars at the box office in its opening weekend, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an immediate hit. With Home Alone director Chris Colombus and The Amazing Spider-Man screenwriter Steve Kloves behind the camera, the movie put J.K. Rowling's boy wizard in safe hands. And with Rowling having not yet written books six and seven in the novel series -- leaving readers in limbo as Voldemort's army advanced on Hogwarts -- 2001 seemed like the perfect moment to year Harry Potter in cinemas.

Cut to 2024 and Warner Bros. has continued to make the Harry Potter franchise makes money, having brought in over $9.5 billion at the box office across 11 films. The boy wizard is now an industry with his own theme park tie-ins and an upcoming TV reboot on Max . If anything, Harry Potter is more popular now than he has ever been, raising the questions of what exactly made his movie adaptation so special and why was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone the perfect launch pad?

The Sorcerer's Stone Was World Building at Its Best

The first harry potter movie was a real eye-opener.

The flagstone floor in Hogwarts' Great Hall is real.
Production designer Stuart Craig based his design of Hogwarts on Durham Cathedral.
All the floating candles in those initial films were real, until health and safety demanded they be replaced with CGI.

The magical first chapter of the Harry Potter films -- known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone outside the U.S. -- is a true rite of passage. In the opening minutes audiences are wonderfully introduced to Professor Albus Dumbledore , Professor McGonagall and Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid. They arrive in the dead of night delivering a baby boy to his only living relative, highlighting a wealth of visual effects and establishing a world of infinite possibilities.

Production designer Stuart Craig was key in making that happen, whether audiences were looking out across the lake at Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry, or down Diagon Alley, where artifacts were bought and sold. From the great hall at Hogwarts through to the massive miniature castle, production design played a huge role in establishing the Harry Potter universe. Practical effects combined with award-winning make-up gave audiences a world they could immerse themselves in. Two decades on, those effects still hold up.

That attention to detail lavished on each element by Craig and his team earned them five Oscar nominations across seven Harry Potter films, each one upping the ante as Harry's world became more complex. However, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is impressive for more than its ability to lift Rowling's creations off the page and bring them to life. Without an impressive array of acting talent on screen to add the human element, the outcome would have been very different.

Harry Potter's Wizarding World Was Packed With Great Actors

Alan rickman stole the show as professor snape.

10 Harry Potter Actors & Their Most Serious Role Outside The Franchise

The Harry Potter films are chock full of actors whose talents have graced screens big and small.

J.K. Rowling insisted on Robbie Coltrane for the role of Hagrid.
Richard Harris turned down the role of Dumbledore until his granddaughter threatened to disown him.
Playing Hermione Grainger was 11-year-old Emma Watson's first acting job.

Although audiences would grow to love Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was never intended to showcase their talent. While Watson was Harry Potter 's breakout actor with her precocious turn, the young actors relied more on enthusiasm than technique, as the established supporting cast did the heavy lifting. Robbie Coltrane (well known to British fans from starring in the TV series Cracker ) really impressed as Hagrid, while Richard Harris gave audiences a more understated Dumbledore than his successor Michael Gambon ever did.

However, Alan Rickman made the biggest first impression as Severus Snape -- despite having minimal screen time. In his small number of scenes, Rickman shaped a despicable character through simple gestures, whispered dialogue and a rigid demeanor. Snape was Harry’s harshest critic, offered him the least support, and put any displays of Harry's talent down to blind luck. Rickman's work was a stroke of genius, since he was playing emotional poker with his audience, hiding everything beneath a thick shroud of indifference. Villainy never contained such casual on-screen cruelty or gave off an air of evil so incarnate. Snape was a master class in character creation as Rickman slowly stole the film out from under his costars. While other Harry Potter actors would also impress , no one quite reached the heights that Rickman did.

How Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Successfully Captured the Book

The complexity of the movie is still astonishing.

Harry Potter (actor Daniel Radcliffe) is surrounded by Wizarding World characters

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's Biggest Changes From Book to Film

Everyone loves Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but there are a few details about them that die-hard book fans refuse to let slide.

The cover of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was created by artist Thomas Taylor in two days.
Publisher Arthur A. Levine, who was in charge of distributing the first book in America, suggested Harry Potter and the School of Magic as an alternative U.S. title before Sorcerer's Stone .
A staff member at U.K. publishing house Bloomsbury suggested they print an adult edition, after seeing someone hiding their copy inside another publication on the train.

The Harry Potter book series provided J.K. Rowling with the opportunity to make her mark in Hollywood. Rowling has publicly said on her website that it took her five years to write Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . Family trees, character connections and an entire ecosystem were unraveled before putting pen to paper. The character of Harry Potter might have come into her head fully formed on a train trip back from Manchester, England, but the rest took serious work -- and that's why Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was able to translate into a great movie.

The film contained a classic rags-to-riches story, embraced genuine tragedy and celebrated the protective power of love. Through Harry and his friends, Rowling gave audiences a collection of characters with genuine flaws and used them to explore the human condition. Plot points in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone look even more poignant in retrospect than they did when the movie was released, now that audiences know Rowling was still writing the books during the movie's production. All the pieces fell into place in the way they usually only do when a movie series is particularly planned out. That story flow ensured the continued success of Harry Potter as a franchise. Stuart Craig and his team created an amazing Wizarding World, but Rowling's source material and Kloves' strong screenplay provided that world with a foundation.

How Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Launched the Movies

The film paved the way for the rest of the wizarding world.

Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione celebrate Christmas in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

10 Things Harry Potter Does Better Than Any Other Movie Franchise

The Harry Potter movie series is truly unlike any other in cinema history, it reinvented the wheel in many respects and still holds up to this day.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone broke the single-day box office earnings record multiple times.
It also held the record for highest gross across Thanksgiving weekend for 12 years, until it was beaten by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in 2013.
Variety critic Todd McCarthy compared the movie to the cinematic classic Gone with the Wind .

Audiences are still fascinated by the Wizarding World -- with very good reason. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone remains a memorable debut for one of the biggest fantasy franchises of all time. Between the Oscar-nominated world building, performances by Oscar-winning actors alongside clearly developing talents, and a universally identifiable story, the film made a statement in every way possible. It thus set the bar high for the rest of the Harry Potter movies .

Caught up in the possibilities of a world without boundaries, producer David Heyman and his revolving door of collaborators ensured that Harry Potter would have a legacy that lasted. Looking back, people might not have guessed that the movie would lead to billions of dollars in revenue and countless offshoots, or that young Daniel Radcliffe would grow up to win a Tony Award for the 2024 Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along while Emma Watson would be named one of Time 's most influential people in 2015 and Rupert Grint would play all kinds of surprising roles. But they were able to achieve those things because Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone provided a starting point for not only their talent, but those of many other artists in front of and behind the camera, who made the movies as big as the books.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.

World building on this first film is outstanding
A world class cast bring these classic characters to life
The story telling is unparelleled
The child actors including Daniel Radcliffe are still finding their feet

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Book 1

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Sorry, there was a problem., harry potter and the sorcerer's stone, book 1 audible audiobook – unabridged.

Jim Dale's Grammy Award-winning performance of J.K. Rowling's iconic stories is a listening adventure for the whole family.

Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'.

Close your eyes and enter the magical world of Harry Potter. In these editions, Jim Dale's characterful narration is so entertaining, fun, and theatrical you can almost hear the crackle of the fire in the Gryffindor common room.

Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

Having become classics of our time, the Harry Potter stories never fail to bring comfort and escapism. With their message of hope, belonging and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new listeners.

Book 1 of 7 Harry Potter
Listening Length 8 hours and 18 minutes
Author J.K. Rowling
Narrator Jim Dale
Audible release date November 20, 2015
Language English
Publisher Pottermore Publishing
ASIN B017V4IMVQ
Version Unabridged
Program Type Audiobook
See all details

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Product details

Listening Length	8 hours and 18 minutes
Author
Narrator
Audible.com Release Date	November 20, 2015
Publisher
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B017V4IMVQ
Best Sellers Rank	#74 in Audible Books & Originals ( ) #1 in #1 in #1 in

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Screen Rant

How old the harry potter cast was compared to their characters.

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Every Harry Potter In Order (And & How Long Their Runtime Is)

All 7 wizarding schools in harry potter (& where they’re located) , how did sirius black buy harry potter the firebolt is it a plot hole.

The Harry Potter film series accurately portrayed the ages of the main characters, with actors like Daniel Radcliffe being the same age as their characters.
Some actors, like Emma Watson and Tom Felton, were slightly younger or older than their characters, but the age differences were not significant enough to affect the believability of their performances.
The cast of Harry Potter consisted of actors of various ages, with some actors like Richard Harris and Robbie Coltrane significantly younger than their aged characters, showcasing their acting abilities.

The Harry Potter film series is widely regarded as one of the more successful book-to-movie adaptations , yet how successful was the series in accurately portraying character ages? The Harry Potter film series began in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and spawned seven sequels. Ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011, the film series was a critical and commercial success and is still held as the high standard regarding young adult books being adapted into film.

Across the eight films, several characters were introduced from the book series at different points. From the central trio of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger in the first film to important characters like Sirius Black and Voldemort's true form coming later, the series saw some of the most iconic book characters come to life with fantastic accuracy. However, many have often wondered how accurately the film series portrayed the various characters' ages, specifically in terms of how well each Harry Potter cast member matched up to their respective character's age in each of their debut appearances .

A collage of Hermione, Harry, and Ron with their wands pointed, and Harry holding his wand for the first time in Harry Potter

While the story of Harry Potterhas ended, it seems like the end is nowhere in sight yet for The Wizarding World. Let's look at every movie so far.

15 Daniel Radcliffe (11) - Harry Potter (11)

Debuted in harry potter and the sorcerer's stone.

Beginning with the first film in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 's differences to the book were minimal. Aside from the film being originally released as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the U.K., most of the changes from book to film were minor. This extended to the age of the titular character in comparison to actor Daniel Radcliffe.

When filming began in 2000, Daniel Radcliffe was 11 years old . His character, Harry Potter, has his 11th birthday in the film's first act, meaning the accuracy was almost dead on regarding the ages of Radcliffe and the Boy Who Lived. Having that age explicitly stated in the beginning of the movie is significant as it marks the beginning of his life as a wizard and being exposed to this magical world around him.

14 Rupert Grint (12) - Ron Weasley (11)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone also introduced Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend at Hogwarts. Ron is presented as the mischievous one in the Golden Trio, with him growing in maturity over the course of the movies but still being a bit goofier than his friends. The fact that he is a younger brother with brighter, more talented siblings also gives him a chip on his shoulder.

Grint is slightly older than Radcliffe, with the actor turning 12 a month before filming began in September 2000. Ron is the same age as Harry in the books and films due to being in the same school year, meaning Grint was one year older than Ron's age of 11 when filming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a barely noticeable difference from the character.

13 Emma Watson (10) - Hermione Granger (11)

The youngest of the three main actors in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was Emma Watson. Watson was only 10 years old when filming began on the first film , placing her as younger than her costars. Just like Harry and Ron, Watson's Hermione Granger was 11 in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , meaning the young actress was slightly younger than her counterpart.

This presented an interesting challenge for Watson when taking on the role as Hermione is always a character who is seen to be wise beyond her years. She is not only a brilliant and dedicated student, usually showing up her fellow Hogwarts classmates, but she also acts as the most rational member of the group of young heroes. She comes up with plans, steers her friends away from poor decisions, and keeps them out of trouble as much as possible.

12 Tom Felton (13) - Draco Malfoy (11)

Another of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's fellow pupils in Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone is Draco Malfoy, Harry's Slytherin bully. Also supposed to be 11 in the film, Malfoy actor Tom Felton holds the biggest age disparity between actor and major Hogwarts character. Felton was born in September 1987, meaning he turned 13 during the first month of filming on the series.

The older age of the actor actually helps to define Felton's performance in the movies. Draco is shown to have a cockier demeanor than his fellow first-year students, especially Harry Potter. Having Felton be older than them adds to this dynamic even if the characters are meant to be the same age. Of course, Draco can often seem like one of the most immature characters with his tough and confident attitude often shrinking away at the first sign of danger, right up until Draco's ultimate redemption .

An image of Hogwarts over a map for the Harry Potter franchise

The wizarding world of Harry Potter is full of skillfully concealed magical schools, but there are seven that have gained worldwide renown.

11 Matthew Lewis (11) - Neville Longbottom (11)

Alongside Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Gryffindor house was Neville Longbottom, with his debut also coming in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . And like his peers, Neville's age was also 11. Neville was definitely one of the shyer students at Hogwarts, and unsure of himself in these early days, and as a result, Neville felt a lot younger than the rest.

Actor Matthew Lewis had turned 11 three months before filming began on the first film . He fits nicely into the timid youngster role that made the meek Neville such a fan-favorite Harry Potter character. However, those early days of Neville at Hogwarts only made his eventual arc all the more satisfying as he gradually found more confidence in himself and even took on more of a leadership role among the heroic Hogwarts students.

10 Harry Melling (11) - Dudley Dursley (11)

While not playing a major role in the first film, Harry's spoiled cousin, Dudley Dursley, was also introduced in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . In many ways, Dudley is the first villain Harry faces in the movie as he mistreats his cousin and makes his life as an orphan even more miserable. In both the first book and film, Dudley's birthday is shown as being around a month before Harry's. The two are therefore essentially the same age, with Dudley being 11 throughout the first film.

Harry Melling, the actor responsible for playing Dudley, was also 11 when filming for Sorcerer's Stone began . Having Harry and Dudley the same age is an effective way of showing how differently the two children live. While Harry makes the best of his lonely and put-upon life, Dudley is given everything he could possibly want and still finds a lot to complain about.

9 Bonnie Wright (9) - Ginny Weasley (10)

Another character whose role grew as the series went on yet debuted in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister. Ginny is a year younger than Ron in the first film as she starts Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , meaning she is 10 years old when Harry first meets her. She is not much of a prominent character in the first movie but becomes more important in the sequel.

Bonnie Wright played Ginny throughout the Harry Potter film series and was one of the youngest core cast members at only nine years old at the time of filming beginning. It has often been discussed why J. K. Rowling decided to make a romance between Harry and Bonnie, given she was the little sister of Harry's best friend. However, the age difference between the characters is not very noticeable nor is it substantial.

8 Evanna Lynch (15) - Luna Lovegood (15)

Debuted in harry potter and the order of the phoenix.

Luna Lovegood is a character whose first appearance came in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , yet she played an integral role in the final four movies of the series. Lovegood is a Ravenclaw member at Hogwarts and was 15 years old at the time of her debut as Harry meets her during his fifth year at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Evanna Lynch, Lovegood's actress, was also 15 when filming began for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix . Luna's age in the story is an interesting detail as she is another character who seems wiser than her years, seeing things that others don't and providing useful advice to Harry and the others. However, she also has a spacey quality to her that makes it seem a little like she is an even younger child wandering through this magical world.

7 Gary Oldman (44) - Sirius Black (34)

Debuted in harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban.

Sirius Black's role in the third through fifth Harry Potter movies cannot be understated as an important member of Harry's family. While the films do not specifically divulge Black's age, the books state he was born in 1959, meaning he was 34 in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban . Despite the film series being a more modern retelling of the books, it can be assumed the timeline is similar and Black was 34 in his film debut.

Oscar-winner Gary Oldman portrayed Sirius Black and was 44 when filming began on the third film. It is not surprising that the movie was willing to stretch the age of the character somewhat to get an actor of Oldman's caliber on board. Also, with Daniel Radcliffe being 15 by the time Prisoner of Azkaban came about, having an older character with appropriate gravitas step into this paternal-like role was essential.

Blended image of Harry with the Firebolt and Sirius Black in Harry Potter

Sirius Black bought the Firebolt broomstick for Harry Potter, but as he was a fugitive at the time, how did he manage to not get caught?

6 Ralph Fiennes (41) - Voldemort (68)

Debuted in harry potter and the goblet of fire.

Despite appearances in various forms in earlier films, the series' main villain, Voldemort, was properly resurrected in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . Voldemort's age is up for debate, given his various life forms throughout the series. However, the time between Tom Riddle's birth and Voldemort's resurgence in Goblet of Fire was 68 years.

Though several actors played Voldemort at various stages of his life throughout the franchise, Ralph Fiennes became the iconic version of the villain , bringing him to life between Goblet of Fire and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Fiennes was 41 when filming began on the former film. While there is a big discrepancy between the ages of the character and actor, it is not something that is noticeable as Fiennes dons extensive makeup that not only makes Voldemort less human but also succeeds in making him appear older.

5 Robbie Coltrane (50) - Rubius Hagrid (72)

Another character who debuted in the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , was the lovable Hogwarts groundskeeper Rubius Hagrid and the person who tells Harry that he is a wizard. In the first film, Hagrid is 72 years of age . The beloved half-giant was brought to life by the late, great Robbie Coltrane, who played the character over the course of the entire series, although Hagrid's role was sadly diminished more and more with each sequel.

Coltrane's birth year of 1950 meant that he was 50 years old when filming began on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . Coltrane passed away in 2022, one of several Harry Potter cast members to have died following the end of the series. In a case of bittersweet irony, Coltrane was 72 years old, the same age as his beloved character Hagrid when he is first introduced in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone .

4 Richard Harris (69) - Albus Dumbledore (110)

The oldest character in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the mysterious Hogwarts headmaster, Albus Dumbledore . At the time of the first film, Dumbledore is a staggering 110 years old. Of course, no actor would be able to match that age upon casting, but it helps to set Dumbledore up as a truly epic and legendary character as well as one of the most powerful wizards in the Harry Potter universe .

Dumbledore was played by two actors throughout the Harry Potter films, with the late Richard Harris portraying the old wizard in the first two. When filming began in September 2000 for Sorcerer's Stone , Harris was 69 years old with his 70th birthday coming a month later. Harris sadly passed away in 2002 at the age of 72. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released after he had passed, featuring his final appearance as Dumbledore.

3 Michael Gambon (64) - Albus Dumbledore (112)

With the passing of Richard Harris in 2002, the pivotal role of Dumbledore needed to be recast for the next Harry Potter adventure . Originally, Harris' family had hoped that his old friend Peter O'Toole would be given the role, however, there were concerns about being able to ensure O'Toole given his age and health. Therefore, it was eventually decided that fellow Irish actor Michael Gambon would take over the role.

Taking place in the third year of Harry's time at Hogwarts, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban would mean Dumbledore was 112 at the time with Gambon well below that age at 64 years old . Interestingly, Gambon brought a more aggressive and active take on the character compared to Harris' version. While there is still some debate over which actor was better, Gambon was able to bring the necessary experience and stature to the iconic role.

2 Alan Rickman (54) - Severus Snape (31)

Severus Snape is one of the most complex and interesting characters in the Harry Potter universe. He was initially portrayed as a petty teacher at best with him not hiding his disdain for Harry. At worst, he was suspected to be a villain working alongside Voldemort. However, the more that is revealed, including Snape and Lily's relationship , the more the audience comes to understand and respect Snape and his actions. Rickman was 54 when filming began on Sorcerer's Stone , over two decades older than his 31-year-old character.

However, few complained about the significant age difference between the actor and character, as Rickman was praised as one of the highlights of the series. It is an important age to acknowledge as Snape was someone who grew up with Harry's parents and thus his age reflected how old they would be if they were still alive. Sadly, Rickman passed away in 2016 at the age of 69.

1 Maggie Smith (65) - Minerva McGonagall (56)

Aside from Snape, Minerva McGonagall was the most important and central Hogwarts teacher throughout the course of the series, appearing first in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and going right to the end of the franchise. Though she is tough and expects a lot as a teacher, it is never in question that McGonagall has the well-being of her students always in mind. Legendary actor Maggie Smith was 65 when filming began on the first film, nine years older than her character Minerva McGonagall .

DID YOU KNOW: Maggie Smith and Daniel Radcliffe had already worked together before the Harry Potter franchise, in the TV show David Copperfield (1999).

McGonagall was supposedly 56 during the events of the first film, marking another disparity between the actors of Harry Potter and their respective characters. However, Smith's more experienced and established take on works perfectly for McGonagall, making her the perfect second-in-command at Hogwarts behind Dumbledore and cementing her power position once he is gone.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a multimedia franchise about an orphaned boy who enrolls at Hogwarts School of Wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family, and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world. Adapted from the novels, Harry Potter is an eight-episode film saga that follows the journey of Harry Potter and his friends, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley, as they navigate the tricky world of growing up, school life, and magic. Starting from year one and moving to their seventh year, the films chronicle the students' time at Hogwarts while unfurling a sinister plot that centers around the unsuspecting Harry. With the return of the dark wizard, Voldemort, the students and professors at Hogwarts will fight to carry on as the world around them may change forever. Harry Potter has expanded beyond the world of its films and novels with several video games, a spin-off film series titled Fantastic Beasts, and even attractions at Universal Studios.

The Harry Potter Director That Cemented the Franchise's Legacy

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One of the Most Devastating 'Harry Potter' Scenes Was Cut From the Films

No '80s remake improved on the original more than this horror comedy, this western classic with 100% on rotten tomatoes doubles as a grim revenge thriller, the big picture.

Chris Columbus had a significant impact on the Harry Potter franchise, setting the tone, casting the perfect actors, and faithfully adapting the books.
Columbus' previous work as a director and screenwriter prepared him well for the challenge of bringing J.K. Rowling's world to life.
Columbus established the visual language of the films, with his emphasis on cozy, gothic aesthetics and his ability to seamlessly shift between different tones throughout each movie.

The Harry Potter franchise has been graced by many fantastic filmmakers, but none have had as big of an impact on the Wizarding World as the first director to bring it to life — Chris Columbus . The footprint that he left on the movies and general franchise to come cannot be understated. Between the series' tone, casting choices, creative team assembled, and degree of accuracy to the books , Columbus' work on both Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets was so great that everyone had no choice but to follow his lead. It's not that his movies are the best, but without Chris Columbus, we wouldn't have the Harry Potter franchise as it is today.

It's 2023, and even though there hasn't been a box-office-shattering movie in the franchise in years, the Harry Potter name continues to run strong in our culture. Between movies, video games, a stage play, short stories, documentaries, and theme parks surrounding the Wizarding World, the series hasn't seen a dry moment since J. K. Rowling 's original novels first hit the shelves of bookstores in 1997. The franchise's '90s years were entirely guided by Rowling's voice, but once the first film came along with the turn of the century, a sea of artists have tried their hand at the Wizarding World. And while Rowling might have been the inventor of everything Harry Potter , when it comes to filmmakers, no one has had as much of an impact on this series as Chris Columbus.

Chris Columbus' Road to the 'Harry Potter' Series

If you look at his filmography leading up to Philosopher's Stone , it might seem like Columbus was an odd choice to kick off this franchise . That said, the closer you look at his early credits, the more sense he makes as the series' premiere director. Columbus spent a large chunk of the '80s as a screenwriter for titles like Gremlins , The Goonies , Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland , and Young Sherlock Holmes , all of which revolve around kids that go on varying degrees of fantastical adventures.

He made his directorial debut with Adventures in Babysitting , then went on to craft hits like the first two Home Alone movies, and even Mrs. Doubtfire . The mid-'90s saw an interesting era in his career, with films like Nine Months , Stepmom , and Bicentennial Man . What these years indicate the most is a filmmaker who's looking to expand his abilities as an artist. By this time, Columbus had made kids' movies, dramas, comedies, science fiction movies, and romantic dramas, and had proven himself as a reliable studio director. Sounds like a great hand to take on a big franchise!

Chris Columbus' 'Harry Potter' Films Are Faithful to the Books

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) wearing the sorting hat in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

That's exactly what happened. After Steven Spielberg heavily toyed with the idea of taking on an adaptation of Philosopher's Stone , Chris Columbus somehow ended up being the one to take on the job, and what came to pass was a global sensation. The first Harry Potter movie went on to gross $974,755,371 at the box office, an enormous sum of money for any movie to make at that point in history. But why did this adaptation resonate so deeply with fans? A movie isn't guaranteed to be a success just because it is being lifted from a beloved book. It might rake in a ton of cash initially because of high fan expectations, but earning a billion dollars in the early 2000s generally meant that a movie had to be good.

First things first, Chris Columbus had to have known that he couldn't mess with the Harry Potter narrative too much when adapting the series. Instead of changing up major character arcs so that he could have his own spin on the series, or doing something as extreme as bringing the setting to the United States, Columbus kept things simple and approached the franchise with a longing to do justice to the novels, their author, and their fans. The Harry Potter books were a big deal before the movies ever came along, so if Columbus thought to stray far from the foundation, there would undoubtedly be hell to pay.

Of course, this became a trickier tightrope to walk as Rowling's books became longer and longer. Before they would go on to run around 700 to 800 pages, these first few novels were the perfect length to accurately adapt for the big screen. As the series entered its later entries, those movies' filmmakers couldn't be entirely faithful to their source material , but they were with the most important aspects.

The-Wizarding-World-Harry-Potter-Fantastic-Beasts-JK-Rowling-Daniel-Radcliffe

Neville Longbottom's past is just as tragic as Harry's.

Columbus Established the Look and Tone of the 'Harry Potter' Movies

Hogwarts as seen in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Columbus also had to craft the visual language of the Harry Potter films, almost from the ground up. Alfonso Cuarón is often credited for bringing an even more stylized flavor to The Prisoner of Azkaban , the third film in the franchise, but Columbus was the filmmaker who gave these movies their gothic, cozy touch. His emphasis on earthy colors, rich fall and winter imagery, battered books, comfy costume design, and near-crumbling architectures would be maintained throughout the franchise to come. His mastery over shifting tones would also be felt in later films. These first two films seamlessly alternate between happy, mysterious, sincere, spooky, and adventurous in their two-and-a-half-hour runtimes. Of course, John Williams makes these changes in narrative timbres even smoother. There's no doubt that he and Columbus had to have collaborated closely on creating the perfect sonic dimension for these movies.

Columbus Helped Find the Perfect Cast for the 'Harry Potter' Movies

harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-cast-02

More than anything, the Harry Potter movies wouldn't have been the sensation that they were if they weren't given the right cast. Thankfully, we had Columbus behind the scenes, working to find the right kids to fill the roles of Harry Potter ( Daniel Radcliffe ) , Hermione Granger ( Emma Watson ), Ron Weasley ( Rupert Grint ), Albus Dumbledore ( Richard Harris ), Severus Snape ( Alan Rickman ) , and more. When faced with longtime friends and frequent collaborators trying to break their way into the franchise, Columbus stuck to his guns and aimed to cast the right people for every part, not just his buddies. Robin Williams , the star of Bicentennial Man and Mrs. Doubtfire , even tried to play Hagrid , but Columbus maintained his integrity to find an Irish or English actor for the part. Moving forward, the franchise would face minimal recasting choices, with stars like Michael Gambon filling the role of Dumbledore , and Ian Hart only briefly filling the role of an adult Voldemort in Philosopher's Stone . By and large, the cast that you find in Columbus' first two movies is the cast that the series would stick with until the end.

Who Directed the 'Harry Potter' Movies After Chris Columbus?

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) look shocked in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

After Chris Columbus left the director's chair, Alfonso Cuarón shook the franchise up to fit his own visionary style in Prisoner of Azkaban . While he might have ended up with what many deem the best Harry Potter movie, he didn't build its living, breathing world from the ground up like Columbus did. Mike Newell came nowhere close to the highs of the filmmakers that preceded him with Goblet of Fire , despite pushing the series in a darker direction . After Newell, longtime series director David Yates would bring a much more mature tone to the franchise, but until he split Deathly Hallows into two parts , his movies would bring middling reactions from fans due to their inability to be highly accurate to such lengthy books. He's also not nearly as stylistic as Cuarón, or even Columbus for that matter, so his impact on the franchise is mostly felt in the number of entries that he spearheaded.

While the Harry Potter movies have had a handful of directors helm their movies, no one has had as big of an impact as Chris Columbus. He established the series' tone, look, degree of accuracy to the source material, and most of all, its cast, and should be recognized for his efforts. Without Columbus, there's no telling what kind of Wizarding World we would have seen on screen .

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Review
A comprehensive review of the first book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Learn about the story world, themes, characters, and writing style of this popular children's book.
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J.K. Rowling. 4.47. 10,166,487 ratings164,349 reviews. Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy - until he is rescued by an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel.
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Find out in Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone . This book is great for all ages.The author J.K Rowling created a world full of adventure,fun and mystical places and creatures.This is only the first book from a set of seven.People all around the world would love this series.This book is one of the greatest books I have ever read.
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Ameya gives 4 out of 5 stars to the first book in the Harry Potter series, praising its smooth and comfortable introduction to the magical world of witchcraft and wizardry. She also appreciates the believable and lovable characters, the exciting plot and the feel-good conclusion.
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I would recommend Harry Potter to absolutely everybody. It transcends the fantasy or YA genres some would argue it fits into. The Philosopher's Stone is a very solid first book and you can see why (after her many attempts to actually have it accepted by publishers - google it) J.K. Rowling hit a home run with this first novel. Harry Potter ...
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Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone Book Review

Key Takeaways:

The Boy Who Lived

Journey to Hogwarts

Magical Characters

The Hogwarts Staff

Themes and Magic

The Power of Love and Friendship

The Mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone

Spellbinding Aspects

Points for Improvement

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Book review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

An introduction to Harry Potter

Plot – 4.5/5

Characters – 4.5/5

The Philosopher’s Stone summary – 5/5

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Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J. K. Rowling

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Review: Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone Book

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – Book Review

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling - review

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