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The hype about Harry

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A Before you read

1. Have you read any of the Harry Potter books? How about your parents/siblings/friends?

2. Have you seen the films? Have you watched them in English?

3. Can you tell the basic story without a prompt?

4. Do you know what these words mean: muggle, Dementor, magic wand, potion, Patronus,

apparition? What other words have you learned from the Harry Potter books or films?

5. Did you ever “use” any spells from the books when you were a child? For example:

• Expecto patronum? • Expelliarmus?

B Read the text and complete the tasks

From rags to riches

Harry Potter is one of the best-selling series of books ever published. All seven of the books

have sold millions of copies. More than 100 million copies of the first book, Harry Potter and the

Philosopher’s Stone, have been sold since it was first published in 1997.

But why is Harry Potter so successful? The Sunday Telegraph called it “One of the greatest literary

adventures of modern times.” It is a fantasy story in which good overcomes evil and love can

conquer all. The first book tells a rags-to-riches story which captures the heart and allows the

average reader to dream of the possibility of a better future.

But which is the more interesting rags-to-riches story? Is it the story about a boy who lived in a

cupboard under the stairs with no friends and no parents and later was recognized as a hero? Or is

it really the story about a poor single mother who became the richest author of all time?

How it all began

Joanne Rowling (still without the K.) first had the idea for the story in 1990 while she was on a

train journey from London to Manchester, the city in the North where she was working at the time.

She was 25 and had studied French and Classics at university. Her adult life was only just begin-

ning but she could have had no idea how dramatically her life would change in the next ten years.

The death of her mother later that year was the first event that was to change her life. Following

that she moved to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. There she fell in love with and

later married a Portuguese television journalist. The marriage was not successful and in Decem-

ber 1993 Rowling returned to Great Britain, a poor, unemployed mother with nobody to help look

after her young daughter while looking for a job. Life looked grim and Rowling started to suffer

from depression which, she said, was like being kissed by a Dementor – all happiness was sucked

out of her. She sought medical help and refused to give up. She had finished the first three chap-

ters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone while she was in Portugal and worked out the story

of all seven books. Over the next eighteen months Rowling completed her first book, often writing

in cafés in Edinburgh, where she lived whilst looking after her small daughter.

The book was not easy to sell. Twelve publishers turned the book down on her first attempt – but

a year later her agent found a publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing. After warning her that it was

difficult to earn much money from children’s books, the publisher printed 1000 copies in June

1997. The book immediately won literary prizes and a year later went on sale in the United States.

Life had begun to look up for J. K. Rowling. (This pen name was chosen because the editors

worried that boys would not like to read the story if they knew it was written by a woman.)

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Hype about Harry

The books quickly became extremely popular. In July 2000, ten years after she had had the original

idea, the fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was published and sales of the

book broke all existing records. Three million copies were sold in the US alone in the first 48 hours.

Harry Potter had become a publishing phenomenon. Readers could hardly wait for the next book to

come out. Book shops held midnight “Potter Parties” so that people could buy the books just after

midnight on the day it went on sale. Many people read the book in one day. A new word –

“Pottermania” – entered the English language.

The UK version of the fifth book had 755 pages (the American versions are even longer, mostly

due to more pictures and a different font). Children were reading books with over 700 pages! It was

a sensation. At a time when adults were worried that children only liked TV and computer games, it

was discovered that books could still excite. And it was not only children and young people who were

reading them; adults loved them too. Books with different covers were published so that adults did

not feel embarrassed reading them in public.

The seventh and final book in the series was completed in 2006 and published in 2007, although

the final chapter had supposedly been written while she was working on the first book fifteen years

earlier. It sold over 11 million copies in the first 24 hours.

Critics’ reactions to the books were mixed. When the first book in the series was published, the

majority of critics praised it as original and imaginative. The Scotsman’s literary critic went so far as

to say it had “the makings of a classic”. But as further books in the series were published, the literary

critics were often more negative. Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer that her style was poor and

that the stories were conservative and patronising. There were too many clichés in the books, it was

said. Many people refused to read them at all, saying that they were only popular because of the in-

credible hype around them. The criticism, however, did not affect sales or people’s enjoyment of the

story.

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The final curtain?

The popularity of the series was extended by the production of the films – the first film being

released in 2001 and the

last one – with most of the

original cast intact. Each

one was, predictably, an

immediate success.

Rowling’s original plan

was to write the story in

a series of seven books –

the number of years an

English pupil spends at

secondary school before

he or she sits his or her

“A” levels, and so she has

never written a sequel to

the series. Or has she?

In July 2016 a new Harry

Potter story is appearing as a play in the West End of London. The two-part play, Harry Potter and

the Cursed Child, was written by Rowling together with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. It is set 19 ye-

ars after Lord Voldemort was killed. By this time Harry and Ginny are the

parents of three school-aged children. The audience is supposed to watch each part of the play

separately and in order. Critics’ and audiences’ reactions to the plays remain to be seen but financial

success is already practically guaranteed. In October 2015 tickets for the first four months of per-

formances went on sale and were sold out within hours.

Ostensibly due to pressure from fans who will not be able to watch the play, it was decided to

publish the script of the play as a book in print and digital form. Both of these will be released at 1

minute past midnight on July 31, 2016, the day after the premiere of the play (which is also, as you

may know, Harry Potter’s birthday).

In addition, the companion books to the Harry Potter series are being turned into films. The first

one, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will hit the cinemas in November 2016. And for those

who can’t get enough of Rowling, her website (www.pottermore.com) offers new writing and other

news relating to the books.

The impact

Whatever critics say about Harry Potter, few would deny the fact that the series has had a sub-

stantial impact on our present-day media. From being able to see a sign for platform 9¾ at King’s

Cross Station in London to words like “muggle” being included in dictionaries, Harry Potter is

present in everyday life. The Harry Potter books are included in many schools’ required reading lists

and have encouraged a wave of popularity for children’s literature.

Harry Potter is still being sold all over the world. Whether it will become one of the children’s

classics which will stand the test of time in the same way as the Hobbit or Alice in Wonderland

remains to be seen.

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C Comprehension

1. Put these events from Rowling’s life in the correct order.

a) She got married.

b) She had the idea for a story.

c) She completed the first book in the series.

d) She moved to the Continent.

e) She lost a close relative.

f ) She jointly wrote a script for theatre.

g) She had a child.

h) She moved to northwestern England.

i) She became extremely wealthy.

j) She struggled with depression.

2. Read the sentences. Are they true, false or not in the text?

true false not in the text

1. The story of Harry Potter is told in seven books.

2. J. K. Rowling’s own life affected the books.

3. Rowling created new words for her fictional world.

4. Rowling’s middle name begins with K.

5. The fifth book in the series is the longest.

6. There is a sign for platform number 9¾ at King’s Cross in London.

7. Literary critics’ reactions to the books were mostly positive throughout the series.

D Discussion

1. J. K. Rowling was not the only person to use a pen name so that the readers could not determine

the sex of the author. For example, over 200 years earlier George Elliot took her pen name so that

nobody would know that she was a woman.

Do you feel that a story about a female heroine is less authentic if it is written by a man or vice

versa? Why (not)?

2. Rowling was once asked why she chose a boy as the hero of the book. Do you think that the series

would have been less successful if the hero had been a girl? Why or why not?

3. Some people have called the Harry Potter series a modern classic. Identify characteristics of a

“classic” and argue for or against calling Rowling’s series a classic.


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Teacher’s page: The hype about Harry

Autorin: Pauline Ashworth, StuttgartBildquellen: Thinkstock -Getty Images Deutschland GmbH; Getty Images Deutschland GmbH RM

Opinions on the Harry Potter series are divided. A class discussion about what the students liked

or disliked about the stories or why they didn’t read them at all could serve as a good starting

point for your work with this newsletter.

A Before you read

muggle – a person whose parents are non-magical and who also has no magical powers

Dementor – a dark creature which feeds on people’s happy feelings and causes depression. They

guard the wizard prison Azkaban.

magic wand – a stick which makes it easier to cast magic spells

potion – a drink with magic properties

Patronus – a kind of force, usually in the shape of an animal which drives away Dementors

apparition – the ability to disappear from one place and appear in another

Spells:

Expecto patronum: this spell produces a Patronus

Expelliarmus: use this spell to disarm your opponent

C Comprehension

1. Put these events in order. h, b, e, d, a, g, j, c, i, f

2. Read the sentences. Are they true, false or not in the text?

true false not in the text

1. The story of Harry Potter is told in seven books. x (and one two-part play, plus several companion books)

2. J. K. Rowling’s own life affected the stories. x

3. Rowling created new words for her fictional world. x

4. Rowling’s middle name begins with K. x (that belongs to her pen name)

5. The fifth book in the series is the longest. x

6. There is a sign for platform number 9¾ at King’s Cross in London.

x

7. Literary critics’ reactions to the books were mostly positive throughout the series.

x

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