Book Review
Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Re-Read
Author: J K Rowling
Genre: MG/Fantasy/Adventure
Rating: *****
Review: So, it has been a while since I re-read this series but one of the challenges for the biannual Bibliathon is read a book that got you into reading and for me, it can’t be anything else apart from Harry Potter. It was the book my mother read to me, the first book I read independently and a series I love. Unlike my other reviews, I won’t be discussing every detail as we are all familiar with the story, so I will only be discussing my thoughts on key scenes throughout the novel.
Everything leading up to Hagrid’s arrival to collect Harry only serves the purpose of introducing characters and showing us the difference between Harry life at Private Drive and Hogwarts later on. It also shows us the similarities between Harry and Voldemort’s upbringings later on in the series as well. However, after re-reading this series many times you realise that the day Harry is left with his aunt and uncle is the day his parents died which means there are tons of other things happening in the background we don’t learn of until much later in the series. For example, at the same time Sirius is off hunting down Peter Pettigrew, the Longbottoms have been tortured and Neville moved to his aunt and Snape has turned spy for the Order just to name a few. Life with the Dursley’s also seems to highlight the key point that muggles can’t be trusted with magical children which fits with Voldemort’s agenda if you think about it. A further interesting point to bring up here is Petunia knows all about the magical world from Lily and yet mentions nothing to Harry, which takes her grudge against Lily from petty jealousy to absolute cruelty.
Hagrid’s arrival introduced a lot of questions for me. First is we know Hagrid’s age through simple calculations, we know Voldemort was 72 when he died, and Hagrid is two years younger making him 70 in the Battle of Hogwarts and around 63 when he introduces Harry to the wizarding world. We learn that he was expelled in his 3rd year marking him 13 but through Chamber of Secrets he knew Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort. This raises a major question, according to Pottermore Hagrid was a Gryffindor however, what business would a 3rd year Gryffindor have in the school dungeons (where the Slytherin dormitory is) in the middle of the night and why would the 5th year Slytherin prefect be familiar with this person unless they were in the same house. It makes sense as Tom framed Hagrid for opening the Chamber of Secrets and killing Myrtle, but the Chamber could only be opened by the Heir of Slytherin so for this to be accurate Hagrid would have to be a Slytherin (btw my house!) On a side note we know James and Lily were only around 21 when they were killed as Snape was in the same year as Lily and he was 37 when he died in the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry was 17 making Snape 20 when Harry was born, and the Potters’ were killed the following year.
I was a bit surprised that it takes almost 40% of the novel to get to the Sorting Ceremony which is something I hadn’t noticed before. However, before Harry even gets to Hogwarts two things stood out as peculiar to me. The first is the Weasley’s at King’s Cross, Molly makes the comment about the station being “packed with muggles” which is normal, and it draws Harry’s attention, however, the comment about the platform they are going wasn’t necessary. Although she seems to be doing it for Ginny’s benefit, Ginny probably accompanied her mother every year to see her brothers off as Arthur would be working so she would already know the platform number. It isn’t impossible to imagine that Hagrid told Dumbledore that Harry knew nothing of the magical world and therefore he asked an Order member, Molly, to keep her eyes open for Harry and offer him help if he needed it. Because of this, it isn’t a stretch that Harry’s friendship with Ron might have been orchestrated as well but this is a subject for a whole number post. It was also interesting to see that Ron disliked Hermione at first, but I don’t think Harry did. Harry has been shown through the series to be more intelligent than he lets on, so I felt if he had met Hermione first, they would have been close friends.
The sorting ceremony is a very interesting chapter for me as I felt that Dumbledore also orchestrated this for Harry to end up in Gryffindor when he doesn’t really belong there in my opinion. I felt that Rowling deliberately placed Harry, Hermione, and Ron in Gryffindor despite none of them belong there. In my opinion, Harry is more cunning than brave and therefore is a Slytherin, Hermione’s intellect and thirst of knowledge makes her a Ravenclaw and Ron’s loyalty makes him a Hufflepuff. Harry’s first potions lesson and flying lesson are also worth noting. We know from Deathly Hallows that Harry was a natural flyer in Lily’s letter to Sirius and it is a nice nod to Harry’s skill in this book and if we read into the questions Snape asks Harry, he is giving him a coded message about his mother which makes more sense when Harry views Snape’s memories in the Deathly Hallows.
One of my favourite scenes is the first encounter with Fluffy and how each of the trio reacts to the Cerberus. However, Halloween is an interesting chapter for me, with it being Harry’s first year at Hogwarts I was expecting Lily and James to be mentioned more often in ways that aren’t associated with Harry’s looks or behaviour but there isn’t, and Harry has to really dig for this information in the later novels. Even Neville who never really knew his parents gets lots of information from his family and family friends and it made me feel really sorry for Harry because he is being compared to people, he doesn’t even know.
We can also see the seeds of the mystery being sown throughout the novel and looking back with hindsight it is brilliant how well Rowling hides the reveal at the end. We see more scattered pieces of the puzzle pulled together over Halloween, the encounter with the troll and Harry’s first Quidditch match. However, by the time we get to the Mirror of Erised where Harry sees his parents for the first time, we see how much Harry wants a family of his own and why he fits in so well with the Weasleys. By the time, we get here though we are seeing some serious incompatibilities between Ron, Harry, and Hermione which are played up later on in the series especially in Deathly Hallows where these differences are enlarged by the Horcruxes presence and thus drives the trio apart. The incident with the troll, however, is what really binds the three together and makes them work so well, the combination of Harry’s bravery, Ron strategy, and Hermione’s intellect really plays out well here especially in the final chapters.
As the trio try and unravel the mystery of the trapdoor and what it is guarding it gives us a lot more insight to the rest of the series than we expect. Seeing Snape painting as a teacher and a bad guy gives us hints to his dual nature within the book. However, the most interesting thing for me is the role of the absent Weasley children. In this book, we are introduced to Charlie Weasley who works with dragons in Romania. Charlie although only briefly mentioned and seen in this book plays a huge role in the wider story as does Bill who we don’t meet for several books. Harry’s first encounter with the Forbidden Forest is also interesting as this is a place, he returns to several times for many different reasons, but it is interesting to note this is the first place he encounters Voldemort after arriving at Hogwarts and it is also the place he returns to as he faces the Dark Lord for one of the final times.
The last few chapters are where things get really interesting. I felt that each of the challenges the trio faces represented one of them. For example, Neville is represented by the Devil’s Snare as he is great at Herbology. Harry is represented by Flitwick’s challenge of the flying keys due to his Quidditch abilities, Ron finds his feet in McGonagall’s chess challenges as he is shown to be brilliant at strategy games and Hermione’s intellect shines in Snape’s potions challenge not only because she is good at potions but because the clues, she needs to find the answers are hidden in a riddle. I also liked the fact a riddle was used as it hints to the true identity of Voldemort in Tom Riddle. When Harry comes face to face with the Dark Lord again, he is tested with what he wants most in the world but doesn’t fall for Voldemort’s cheap lies and conquers him again, but it is only through Dumbledore that he realises the gift of protection his mother gave him. However, it is worth noting that Dumbledore knew a lot more than he let on at the time and sometimes but Harry in danger needlessly.
Overall, I still love this book and series and I felt I notice a lot more each time I re-read this book and as an adult, you definitely pick up on the subtle hints that Rowling slips in here and there that you would definitely overlook as a child. I will be continuing with my re-read of this series throughout the year and will be giving some of my thoughts and opinions of specific events and characters that I felt defined the series as a whole.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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