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What Genre is Harry Potter: The Magical Classification

  • October 16, 2023
  • 10 min read

Table of Contents:

Defining genre in literature, fantasy literature, the magical core, growing up in harry potter, family and friendship, historical fiction, magical history, how many books are there in the harry potter series.

  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, harry potter and the goblet of fire, harry potter and the order of the phoenix, harry potter and the half-blood prince, harry potter and the deathly hallows, can you recommend similar books to the harry potter novel genre, the chronicles of narnia by c.s. lewis, percy jackson & the olympians by rick riordan, his dark materials by philip pullman, essential main themes and detailed insights.

In the world of books, very few stories are loved by many and have such a big impact as the Harry Potter series. But what kind of Harry Potter genre in the world of literature? This article looks into the different types of stories that make up the Harry Potter series, like magic and adventure.

Genre in literature is a fundamental concept that serves as a framework for understanding and categorizing various works of literary art. It is a means of classifying and organizing literature based on common characteristics, themes, and styles. The literary genre is crucial for both readers and writers as it provides a structure for exploring and creating diverse forms of storytelling.

Genres in literature encompass a wide array of elements, including:

Fantasy books , like the Harry Potter series, create a fascinating magical world for readers of all ages.

 The way a story is narrated, the language used, and the overall aesthetic of the writing can define a genre. For example, a romance novel might feature flowing, emotionally charged prose, while a detective novel might have a more concise and precise style.

The emotional and thematic atmosphere of a work often falls within the boundaries of a particular genre. A tragedy, for instance, typically carries a somber tone, while comedy exudes humor and light-heartedness.

The subject matter, themes, and motifs explored in a piece of literature also play a significant role in genre classification. Science fiction might dig into futuristic technology and speculative ideas, while historical fiction transports readers to the past, recreating bygone eras.

While many literary works can exhibit characteristics from multiple genres, they typically possess a dominant classification that helps readers and writers understand what to expect. This classification is not rigid but provides a helpful framework for exploring and appreciating literature.

Fantasy books, like the Harry Potter series, create a fascinating magical world for readers of all ages. In this world, there’s a key idea called the “Magical Core.” It’s a really important theme that runs through the whole story and makes the series a classic in the fantasy genre.

In the Harry Potter series, the Magical Core is like the heart and soul of the story. It’s what makes the world of Harry Potter so unique and special. This magical core is like a web of magic woven into everything in the story – the people, the places, and the events. It’s almost like a character on its own.

In the wizarding world created by J.K. Rowling, magic is not just a tool or a thing to move the story along. It’s alive and real. It affects everything in the lives of the characters. The magic in this world is so appealing because it takes readers to a place far from the everyday. It’s a world where things that seem impossible are normal.

There are many cool things in the magical core – like spells, potions, and all kinds of amazing creatures and hidden places. Each of these things is like a thread in the rich tapestry of the Harry Potter world. They make the story feel magical and enchanting, making fantasy stories great.

In the magical world of Harry Potter, there’s more to the story than just spells and enchantments. It’s also a tale of growing up, a big part of fantasy literature. The characters in the series change and develop as they get older, making the story more interesting and relatable.

Harry Potter and his close friends undergo significant changes at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They deal with all the ups and downs of growing up, and the series explores their challenges, relationships, and self-discovery.

As we read the books, we see Harry, Ron, and Hermione go from curious kids new to the magical world to brave and strong young adults ready to face the darkest forces. This growing-up theme isn’t just for one age group; it speaks to people of all ages because we all know what it’s like to grow up, face tough times, and figure out who we are.

The series is not just about magic and fantastical creatures. It’s a dramatic story with a lot of challenges for the characters. Harry’s struggle to deal with his sad past, Hermione’s commitment to learning and doing what’s right, and Ron’s unwavering loyalty to his friends all add emotional depth that readers can connect with. 

The series also explores the characters’ tough choices, like deciding between right and wrong, staying loyal or betraying, and having the courage to face fear. These struggles, inside and outside the characters, make the story gripping and relatable.

Family and friendship are core themes in the Harry Potter series. The enduring bond between Harry, Ron, and Hermione is at the heart of the narrative. Their unwavering support for one another through the ups and downs of their journey is evidence of the power of friendship. 

Moreover, the complex dynamics within the Weasley family and the conflicted relationship between Snape and Harry exemplify how familial connections and friendships are central to the character’s growth and the story’s emotional depth.

In the series, the magical world’s history is like a form of historical fiction. It takes readers into a world with past conflicts and changes similar to real historical events and societal shifts. If you enjoy exploring historical context, you might find fantastic fiction: discovering the best fantasy and sci-fi books intriguing.

It takes readers into a world with past conflicts and changes similar to real historical events and societal shifts. The way Voldemort gains power and the battles that follow are like what happened in history with tyrants coming to rule. 

The stories about the Deathly Hallows are like ancient legends. This historical context makes the magical world more interesting and complex. It also connects the story to bigger themes in our history.

The detailed exploration of magical history within the series is a testament to J.K. Rowling’s world-building. Readers are taken on a journey through the creation of magical objects like the Marauder’s Map and the tales of the founding wizards and witches. The historical artifacts, spells, and creatures contribute to the enchanting atmosphere of the series, making the magical history an integral part of the narrative’s allure.

As the characters grow up, they start having romantic relationships, which adds a romantic touch to the story. If you appreciate the romantic elements in the Harry Potter series, you might enjoy exploring more about the best mystery audiobooks: must-listen titles for thriller fans .

Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and other couples make the story even more relatable and lovable.

 The way they deal with the ups and downs of young love, the challenges of being in a relationship during tough times, and the feeling of being open and vulnerable in love are all shown genuinely and deeply. These romantic parts of the story give readers another reason to care about the characters and their journeys.

The Harry Potter series has seven books. If you’re interested in understanding more about reading speed, you might want to explore how long does it take to read 100 pages? A guide to reading speed .

Here’s an explanation of each one:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone)

This is where we meet Harry, a young wizard, and he goes to a special school for wizards called Hogwarts. He learns about his magical abilities and the mystery of his parents’ deaths.

 In this book, Harry returns to Hogwarts for his second year and tries to solve the mystery of a dangerous hidden chamber causing trouble.

 Harry learns that a bad guy named Sirius Black has escaped prison and is after Harry. Harry also learns more about his family.

Harry gets into a dangerous competition meant for older students. This book gets more serious as the villain, Voldemort, comes back.

 Harry and his friends start to train and prepare for a fight against Voldemort. They also learn about a special prophecy.

Harry discovers information about Horcruxes, objects holding parts of Voldemort’s power. The battle between good and evil gets more intense.

This is the final book where Harry, Ron, and Hermione go on a mission to destroy the Horcruxes and face Voldemort in a big battle at Hogwarts.

If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter series and want to read something similar, here are some book recommendations that match the Harry Potter novel genre :

This series takes you to a magical world filled with talking animals, mythical creatures, and epic adventures. It’s a fantastic journey for readers of all ages.

Join Percy Jackson as he discovers he’s a demigod and embarks on quests to prevent disasters in Greek mythology. It’s full of humor, action, and mythology.

This series offers an enchanting blend of fantasy and science fiction. Follow young Lyra on a journey to parallel universes and uncover hidden truths.

You can also explore more magical worlds at the American Author House to discover additional books that capture the enchantment and wonder found in the Harry Potter series.

The Harry Potter novel genre doesn’t fit neatly into just one. It’s a captivating mix of fantasy, mystery, adventure, coming-of-age, drama, historical fiction, and romance. J.K. Rowling’s magical world creates its unique genre that enchants readers of all ages.

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Harry Potter book display from 1999

Almost exactly 20 years ago, on September 1, 1998, Scholastic published Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone , the first US edition of the UK’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone .

Harry Potter has since became such an all-encompassing phenomenon that from this vantage point, it’s hard to see the full scope what it accomplished: It feels as though publishing and fandom and children’s literature and all of pop culture have always been the way we know them today. But Harry Potter changed the world.

Author J.K. Rowling was an unknown single mom when she first got the idea for her story while stuck on a train ; the small UK children’s press that ultimately took a chance on it undoubtedly couldn’t have predicted that it would have a measurable effect on everything it touched. Harry Potter made YA book-to-movie franchises into one of the biggest forces in pop culture. It changed the business model for publishing books for kids. And it introduced an entire generation to the idea that it’s possible to interact with the pop culture you love — to write about it and with it, to make music and art about it, and to build a business around it.

Here’s a look back at the way Harry Potter changed and influenced online fandom, millennial culture, and the publishing industry.

Harry Potter ’s US publication made it a bonafide phenomenon

Harry Potter did fine when it first emerged in the UK 20 years ago, winning a Smarties Award and garnering respectable sales for its publisher, Bloomsbury. But it only started to approach phenomenon levels when Scholastic bought the US publication rights for an astonishing $105,000, about 10 times more than the average foreign rights sale at the time.

Arthur Levine, the Scholastic editor who acquired the books, had an excellent eye for British books that would work in the US, having already acquired the US rights to Redwall and His Dark Materials . But even he didn’t know that Harry Potter would grow as big as it did. He just knew that he loved it and wanted to publish it. Scholastic President Barbara Marcus Barbara Marcus “kept saying ‘do you love it?’ and Arthur said yes, so we went for it,” a Scholastic spokesperson recalled in 2002 . “I would have been willing to go further than that if I had to," Levine said in 2007 .

The $105,000 sale granted Harry Potter two things: a built-in publicity hook, and a big budget.

The hook came from the press: Newspapers featured articles about the little English book that had garnered such a huge sale. Reviewers wanted to know what kind of book would justify that kind of money. It was a curiosity, and as such, it was a story.

The budget came from Scholastic itself. Whenever a publisher acquires a book, it creates a budget for that book. That budget is structured so that elevating the numbers in one category means elevating the numbers in the next category: If you’re going to invest $105,000 just in acquiring a book, you’re also going to pour extra money into marketing, publicity, and production, so that you have a reasonable chance of making that money back.

So Scholastic invested in a lovely hardcover design for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone , with a soon-to-be iconic cover, even though conventional wisdom of the time held that children’s books only made money in paperback. It arranged for Harry Potter to be displayed on the front tables at bookstores, and for ads to appear in the right newspapers and magazines. In short, it gave the book many more resources than are typically afforded to the average debut novel from an unknown author, and that decision paid off.

But none of Scholastic’s efforts would have mattered in the end if the people who picked up the book hadn’t loved it. That’s what pulled Harry Potter out of flash-in-the-pan territory and elevated it into a phenomenon that defined childhood for an entire generation.

Why adults got so obsessed with the Harry Potter books

A 2012 study found that 55 percent of YA novels are bought by adults. In large part, that boom is courtesy of Harry Potter , which became a surprise crossover hit adored by both children and adults, and which made it acceptable for adults to read books that are ostensibly for children.

For some critics , that’s a worrisome development, suggesting that adults are too dull and stupid to appreciate books actually written for adults. But there are plenty of reasons for a grown person to enjoy Harry Potter .

The Harry Potter books combine the intricate plotting of a mystery with the sweep and scope of epic fantasy and the intimacy and character development of a classic boarding school narrative. The result is purely pleasurable to read at any age: The puzzlebox mystery plotting keeps the pages turning propulsively forward, the fantastic mythology gives the world scope and magic and joy, and the boarding school structure makes the characters warm and familiar and charming. It also makes their eventual death (for some) and trauma (for all) deeply affecting.

It’s true that Rowling’s prose is best described as workmanlike and competent; if the reason you read is solely to enjoy perfectly balanced and polished sentences, you may be best served elsewhere. But if you are an adult who can imagine reading for more than one reason (the pleasures of story, the joy of immersing yourself in another world), the Harry Potter books become enormously appealing.

Early on, the books were extremely controversial — and in many ways, they still are

Part of what made Harry Potter such a literary phenomenon is that so many kids were reading the books despite an unprecedented number of attempts to get them to stop reading the books.

The Harry Potter series, like many works of fantasy, involves wizardry and witchcraft. The feeling that the books thus promoted the occult proved to be the basis for constant challenges to the series’ presence in school libraries and bookstores by concerned conservative parents. The books first topped the American Library Association’s list of the most banned books of the year in 1999, and remained in the top spot for most of the next decade.

In some regions, pressure to censor the series was so high it led to lawsuits: In 2003, a judge ordered an Arkansas school district that had removed the books from schools due to promotion of “the religion of witchcraft” to return them. Similar formal attempts at removal persisted into the latter half of the decade, and the books continue to rile up conservative religious leaders who warn of its “demonic” influence.

But witchcraft wasn’t the only evil the books were accused of peddling. In 2007, after the series’ end, J.K. Rowling retroactively outed the powerful wizard Dumbledore as gay. The news prompted Christian scholars to declare the move “ nonsense ,” while queer fans were in turn angry that Rowling had done so little to make the queer subtext of Dumbledore’s character overt during the time he was actually being written (and alive). In recent years, Rowling has provoked controversy for her series’ lack of diversity , for denying queer sexuality of characters, and many, many more kerfuffles .

All of this controversy speaks not only to concerns that Rowling’s work would negatively influence children, but to the reality that many of those children grew up to be arguably even more progressive than the books they grew up reading — which is, in a way, a confirmation of conservatives’ worst fears about the series.

Harry Potter ’s popularity completely changed the publishing industry — and the effect spilled over to Hollywood

Here are just two of the ways Harr y Potter changed publishing, and how those changes affected the rest of pop culture:

1) The books made it possible to publish long works aimed at children. Prior to Harry Potter , the accepted wisdom was that kids didn’t have the attention span to read long books. And anyway, the thinking went, kids weren’t buying their own books. Their parents were paying for everything, and they would never be willing to pay an extra dollar or two for a longer book, with its extra printing and binding.

But after Harry Potter became an unstoppable cultural force, and it was clear that fans would keep buying the books no matter what, it started to expand. The last four volumes of the series are all doorstoppers that clock in at well over 700 pages each.

Publishers and children’s writers took notice. Booklist found that middle-grade novels expanded 115.5 percent between 2006 and 2016, the decade in which the Potter novels were at their longest. (They rose only 37.37 percent between 1996 and 2006.)

2) Harry Potter made children’s literature an unstoppable force. Before Harry Potter , children’s literature was often considered an afterthought. Sales were falling . Children, analysts would say wistfully, just weren’t reading anymore.

After Harry Potter , children’s literature became a category full of mega-sellers. In 2004, in the midst of the Harry Potter phenomenon, sales of non-Potter kid lit were increasing by 2 percent a year . Since then, the children’s market as a whole has seen its sales increase by a total of 52 percent (4 percent a year). For comparison, the overall book market has gone up a mere 33 percent since 2004.

The Harry Potter generation likes to read, for sure — millennials read more than any other generation — and it also created a cultural landscape in which books for children are major cultural forces, and a go-to well of ideas for Hollywood. Movie studios scour the children’s bestseller lists for properties they can turn into the next Harry Potter : hence Twilight and The Hunger Games and Divergent and all the rest. Before Harry Potter , the YA book-to-movie franchise was not a cliché. It is now, and that’s because the boy wizard and his friends transformed an entire industry.

Harry Potter fandom also paved the way for the mainstreaming of fandom and geek culture

Harry Potter has a tremendously outsized cultural reach: One 2011 survey suggested that a third of all American adults ages 18 to 34 at the time had read at least one of the books. But what really makes Harry Potter stand out is the way people loved (and continue to love) Harry Potter.

First and foremost, the series helped make it cool to be a geek. People generally didn’t read the Harry Potter books in isolation; they wanted to talk about it with their friends, and then find more friends who loved the books as much as they did. This pattern coincided with the rise of “Web 2.0” — that is, an increasingly interactive and social internet. As more Harry Potter fans became more active online, they made discussion of YA fiction, fantasy, and science fiction seem commonplace.

This was still a pretty bold concept in the early 2000s; geek culture was largely still underground, and fantasy was seen mainly as an immature hobby — for instance, in 2003, critic A.S. Byatt’s excoriation of “ Harry Potter and the childish adult ” claimed that adults “like to regress” when they read children’s literature. But between Harry Potter , the Lord of the Rings film adaptations, and the emerging visibility of online Harry Potter fandom, it was increasingly difficult to ignore fantasy and science fiction as a driving force of culture, and to write off fans of these genres as niche. By the time Twilight took over from Harry Potter as the reigning young adult phenomenon in 2005, the idea of a modern, mainstream fandom coalescing around a major sci-fi/fantasy series was well-established and generally accepted.

And Harry Potter fans’ creativity is still being felt in and outside of the fandom. In the early 2000s, Harry Potter fan forums, fanfiction and fan art archives, and email discussion groups exploded across the internet. Harry Potter conventions drew thousands of fans, and Harry Potter cosplay became a well-known sight at larger geek and comic cons.

Around the same time, the “Wizard Rock” trend (shorthanded Wrock) gained momentum as Harry Potter fans on YouTube formed a litany of music groups — the first one being Harry and the Potters — devoted to personifying and singing about various characters from the books. It was later joined by another totally unique-to-Harry-Potter fan pursuit: Quidditch. In 2005, students at Vermont’s Middlebury college created the first real-life Quidditch game, which went on to spawn an international real-world college sport .

A number of Harry Potter fans also went on to make significant marks on mainstream culture. As a member of the University of Michigan theater troupe Starkid , a young Darren Criss starred as Harry Potter in the viral YouTube video A Very Potter Musical , and his popularity catapulted him into the role of Blaine on Glee and a career on Broadway.

Two longtime members of Harry Potter fandom , siblings John and Hank Green — now known more widely as the Vlogbrothers — got their start on YouTube during the site’s relative infancy, but it wasn’t until Hank Green’s 2007 song “ Accio Deathly Hallows ” went viral on the eve of the final Harry Potter book’s release that they became the true YouTube stars and industry success models they are today.

And the list goes on: The author of the bestselling Mortal Instruments series, Cassandra Clare first gained fame online as Cassandra Claire, author of the incredibly popular Harry Potter fanfic The Draco Trilogy . Other Harry Potter fans, like fan convention organizer Melissa Anelli and social activist Andrew Slack launched careers directly out of Harry Potter fandom. In general, the Harry Potter fandom was among the first to see a number of people actively leveraging their success through fandom toward their professional careers. Just as Harry Potter made it easier for fans to own their geeky habits, the Harry Potter fandom made it easier for fans to market those geeky habits as professional assets.

What made all of this possible — the industries transformed, the careers built — are the books themselves, and the expansive, wondrous world they created. The Harry Potter series is a phenomenon not just because it had a good publicity and marketing budget (although that helped) and not just because the curiosity and controversy surrounding it made it appealing to the press (although that helped). The Harry Potter series is a phenomenon because it tells a story that millions of people loved, and it introduced the world to an enormous and magical world that millions of people have dreamed of escaping into.

That’s why we’re still talking about these books 20 years later, and that’s why all of this matters.

Watch: Harry Potter and the translator's nightmare

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what kind of literature is harry potter

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About the Book

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.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first installment of the popular Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling. It follows the events of Harry Potter’s first year at Hogwarts.

Mohandas Alva

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 is loaded with an immersive array of events waiting for the reader to discover them. J.K. Rowling does a great job as a “show, don’t tell” writer in that most events unravel the character’s emotions without having to explicitly narrate it.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Review ⭐

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is one of the most popular children’s books ever written. It is a story about the triumph of love and bravery over evil.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Character List 🧙‍♂️

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is rich in character development and has a wide variety of characters. Most of the characters in this book are from the world of magic. Here is a complete list of the 96 characters from the novel.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Themes and Analysis 🪄

J.K. Rowling explores some essential themes within Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. An analysis of this book sheds light on how well structured and carefully planned most of the plot points of this book are.

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.

It'll change your perspective on books forever.

Discover 5 Secrets to the Greatest Literature

what kind of literature is harry potter

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

J. k. rowling, everything you need for every book you read..

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Introduction

Harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: plot summary, harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: detailed summary & analysis, harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: themes, harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: quotes, harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: characters, harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: symbols, harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone: theme wheel, brief biography of j. k. rowling.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone PDF

Historical Context of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

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  • Full Title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
  • When Written: 1990-1995
  • Where Written: Manchester, England; Porto, Portugal; Edinburgh, Scotland
  • When Published: 1995
  • Literary Period: Contemporary
  • Genre: Children’s fantasy, children’s fiction
  • Setting: England; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
  • Climax: Harry finds the Sorcerer’s Stone and prevents Voldemort’s return to power.
  • Antagonist: Voldemort, Professor Quirrell, and Draco Malfoy
  • Point of View: Third person

Extra Credit for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Beginning with the End. Rowling has stated that within the first year of writing the Harry Potter series, she wrote a sketch of what one of the final chapters of the seventh book might be.

Harry Potter and the Dead Languages. As of 2018, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has been published in 75 other languages, including Latin and Ancient Greek.

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what kind of literature is harry potter

Harry Potter and the surprisingly poignant literary theme

what kind of literature is harry potter

Professor, University of Waterloo

Disclosure statement

J. Andrew Deman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Waterloo provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

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Harry Potter is the literary phenomenon of the past century, and while our society has had no difficulty celebrating J.K. Rowling’s work, the literary community has been somewhat slower in figuring out exactly what the series has to say.

We tend to think of Harry Potter as an escapist delight, but Rowling’s work also expertly constructs a poignant extended theme that has more in common with King Lear than most English professors might care to admit. This theme at the core of Rowling’s wizarding world speaks directly to a universal human reality: The struggle to come to terms with our mortality.

Death is obviously big in Harry Potter. Death initiates the core conflict of the series; death escalates in each text; death creates the tool by which Harry can defeat Voldemort; and death resolves the conflict in the end, since Voldemort’s death is the end of the war itself. Death recurs throughout the series, but recurrence is not enough to constitute a theme.

Literary theorist Roger Fowler notes that: “A theme is always a subject, but a subject is not always a theme: a theme is not usually thought of as the occasion of a work of art, but rather a branch of the subject which is indirectly expressed through the recurrence of certain events, images or symbols. We apprehend the theme by inference – it is the rationale of the images and symbols, not their quantity.”

Thus, a theme is a comprehensible viewpoint that emerges from a pattern of recurrence — a statement, if you will, that we perceive through progressive repetition and associated symbolism. Without that statement, a pattern is just a motif. If the author is using that pattern to say something, however, the pattern becomes a theme.

So what role does all this death play in the Harry Potter franchise?

Death in Potter

In his first adventure, Harry is tempted by the life-prolonging “philosopher’s stone” of legend.

At the end of that story, Harry is only able to obtain the stone from the Mirror of Erised because he does not want to use it. In this, he immediately establishes his contrast to Voldemort, who desperately seeks the stone in order to extend what the centaur Firenze calls “but a half life, a cursed life.”

what kind of literature is harry potter

Upon hearing this, Harry wonders “If you’re going to be cursed forever, death’s better, isn’t it?” thus showing us Harry’s internal perspective on Voldemort’s choice.

Dumbledore himself confirms Harry’s viewpoint at the end of the novel by telling Harry that “to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” If we put these pieces together, the death theme Rowling uses is all laid out within the very first book.

As the series progresses, it is death that defines Harry’s character development. Cedric’s death leaves Harry traumatized. Sirius’s death shows Harry the high cost of Harry’s mistakes and the extent to which death can alter his future. Dumbledore’s death, of course, leaves Harry rudderless and vulnerable, forcing him to mature to a new level of personal responsibility.

By Book Seven, Harry’s own death represents the ultimate boon that bestows upon him the power to at last defeat Voldemort, whose vulnerability is created by horcruxes, dark magic used to protect him at the expense of his living soul.

As Harry marches to his death, “Every second he breathed, the smell of the grass, the cool air on his face, was so precious.” In this moment, as Harry accepts death, life itself becomes sweet, even beautiful — a sharp contrast to the cursed life that Voldemort cannot escape from.

This contrast is again the pivot-point of the mortality theme that Rowling develops. Voldemort looks like death, he brings death wherever he goes, his army are the “Death-Eaters,” and several aspects of his iconography associate him with the Grim Reaper of legend.

what kind of literature is harry potter

It would be easy to conclude that Harry is simply fighting death in the series, but that role is actually reserved for Voldemort himself, whose name can be translated from the French to mean “flight from death,” not death itself.

The entire series is then the story of an antagonist struggling to deny death, matched against a protagonist who is maturing toward accepting it. If this sounds cynical, Severus Snap agrees with you when he laments that Dumbledore has “been raising him like a pig for slaughter.”

In spite of this objection, Snape is willing to die for the cause of righteousness, just as James and Lilly were, just as Sirius was, just as Dumbledore was, and just as all the casualties of the Battle of Hogwarts were. Even Harry’s poor owl, Hedwig, chooses to die to protect something she loves.

When perceived as a pattern, heroism in Harry Potter means accepting death. In contrast, fighting against death is analogous to raging against the storm for Shakespeare’s King Lear, who, like Voldemort, is reduced to a cursed existence in consequence.

Esteemed precedent

The notion of death in fantasy literature might seem counter-intuitive for a genre that’s commonly associated with escapism. The reality, however, runs contrary, and Rowling’s theme is well within the norms of the genre.

J.R.R. Tolkien, for example, once wrote an essay called “On Faerie Stories,” in which he describes the prominent role of death within the fantasy genre. Tolkien writes that:

“Few lessons are taught more clearly in [fantasy] than the burden of that kind of immortality, or rather endless serial living, to which the ‘fugitive’ would fly. For the fairy-story is specially apt to teach such things, of old and still today.”

For Tolkien, fantasy is a genre that frequently engages with themes of mortality and provides us with “consolation” for our universal fear of death. He refers to his own example, the elves of Middle Earth, to show how he portrays immortality as undesirable.

Tolkien’s elves don’t ever have to die — and their lives are miserable as a result. Though less evil than Voldemort, the nature of their immortal existence is actually quite similar to that of Rowling’s villain — again, a cursed existence.

The Tale of the Three Brothers

The strongest encapsulation of the mortality theme in Harry Potter is the story within the story, “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” which is told in the final Harry Potter book. Three brothers face death and respond in three different ways. Only the one who ultimately accepts death is spared a brutal and humiliating end. “And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.”

That “the boy who lived” is also the boy who died is not a paradox. Indeed, Rowling’s argument is that only by accepting our inevitable passing can we truly live a life of meaning and purpose.

To fly from death is to relinquish all the things that make life worth living. This is more than just a clever little message buried in a whimsical boy wizard story —indeed the resonance of this theme within all human beings may in fact be a huge part of the novel’s ubiquitous appeal. Harry Potter, you see, has something to say.

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All the Harry Potter Books in Order: Your J.K. Rowling Reading List

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Blog – Posted on Tuesday, May 28

All the harry potter books in order: your j.k. rowling reading list.

All the Harry Potter Books in Order: Your J.K. Rowling Reading List

Of all the zeitgeist-defining fiction to come out of the past twenty years, perhaps none has been more universally beloved than the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. An incredibly imagined fantasy bildungsroman , it follows the eponymous boy wizard as he attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and contends with his destiny to fight the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Fortunately, he always has clever, loyal friends Ron and Hermione by his side — plus the invaluable mentorship of eccentric but wise Hogwarts headmaster, Dumbledore.

As fellow Potterheads will know, it’s virtually impossible to rank these books from best to worst, since each one is brilliant in its own way. That’s why we’ve decided to simply present all the Harry Potter books in order of chronology/publication, hitting the highlights for longtime fans to happily reminisce… and to help budding fans get a taste of the series’ genuine magic .

Here’s a quick catalog of the series, so that you know what you’re in for:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1997)

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)

8. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016)

And then the accompanying “Hogwarts library” texts:

  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
  • Quidditch Through the Ages (2016)
  • The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2016)

As well as Rowling's "Pottermore Presents" series and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplays:

  • Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (2016)
  • Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists (2016)
  • Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroisim, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies (2016)
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: the Original Screenplay (2016)
  • Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — The Original Screenplay (2018)

Without further ado, let's dive in!

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The main Harry Potter books in order

1. harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone.

what kind of literature is harry potter

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , the book that started it all (understatement of the century), Harry Potter discovers his true identity in the wee hours of his eleventh birthday: he is a wizard, famous in the magical world for having vanquished the evil Lord Voldemort when he was only a baby. This revelation, delivered by a gruff, hairy giant named Hagrid, sets Harry on a fantastical (if also often frightening) journey of a lifetime.

He meets bosom buddies Ron and Hermione aboard the Hogwarts Express, and is soon sorted with them into Gryffindor: the house of the intrepid and brave. However, Harry also makes plenty of enemies at Hogwarts, most notably the arrogant Draco Malfoy and the nasty potions master, Snape (both affiliated with Slytherin house). And from battling a troll on Halloween to his first exhilarating Quidditch match — not to mention the novel’s climax , in which Harry goes up against Voldemort for the second time in his young life — there’s never a dull moment in the first year of his new adventure.

Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone , as it’s titled outside of the US) also perfectly balances exciting action with touching emotion, as Harry finds a true family in Ron and Hermione after years of misery with the Dursleys. Indeed, the book’s small, moving moments — such as Harry being floored by a gift from Ron’s mother, or Hermione’s tearful declaration at the end about “books and cleverness” — are just as magical as the spells themselves.

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

what kind of literature is harry potter

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , Harry and friends return to Hogwarts with a bang — the bang of a flying Ford Anglia as it crashes into the Whomping Willow, that is. After being spotted by Muggles and narrowly avoiding expulsion, you’d think that the rest of Harry’s second year would be smooth sailing in comparison… right?

Wrong. When the school caretaker’s cat is found petrified (essentially paralyzed and comatose, but technically still alive) along with a bone-chilling message that “the Chamber of Secrets has been opened,” fear and suspicions start to arise — and of course, only worsen when students start getting petrified too. Nobody can figure out who the culprit is, only that he refers to himself as “the Heir” and seems to be on the warpath.

But as our young heroes know well by now, if you want a mystery solved right, you have to do it yourself. Which they do — through a combination of Polyjuice potion brewing, mysterious flashbacks provided by a sentient journal, and a truly horrific excursion to see a giant spider called Aragog. The book culminates in a visit to the titular chamber, which lies underneath Hogwarts and contains yet another deadly threat that Harry must face.

But of course, this being an early Potter book, it’s not all din and danger. Comic relief comes in the form of moronic, egocentric professor Gilderoy Lockhart, and toilet ghost Moaning Myrtle — who, in true Rowling fashion, ends up being key to the central plot twist of the story.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

what kind of literature is harry potter

The third book in the series introduces Sirius Black, a deranged mass murderer who’s just escaped from the wizard prison of Azkaban. As a result, swarms of Dementors — dark, faceless beings that “suck the soul” out of their victims and serve as the guards of Azkaban — infiltrate Hogwarts to patrol for Black, who’s supposedly after Harry next. To make matters worse, our normally steadfast hero has a bad reaction to the Dementors, which cause him to faint on a train and even lose a critical Quidditch match.

Again, though, it’s not all doom and gloom. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban also features Professor Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and a school friend of Harry’s late father. Lupin and Harry quickly forge a father-son-like relationship themselves, and Lupin teaches Harry the Patronus Charm (powered by one’s happiest memories) to protect himself from Dementors.

Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione are squabbling even more than usual over their respective pets, Crookshanks the cat and Scabbers the rat. But what seems like a lighthearted subplot turns out to be a major factor in one of the biggest twists of the series , revealed in the last few chapters… and which naturally involves Black and Lupin as well. Oh, and hippogriffs and time traveling, in case that wasn’t enough to sell you on it.

Besides the sheer brilliance of plotting in this book, Rowling also presents some interesting commentary with the Dementors, which symbolize depression and force Harry to grapple with his past trauma. Indeed, though Goblet of Fire is widely identified as the “transition point” into the darker themes of the series’ latter half, Prisoner of Azkaban is definitely where those themes begin to take root.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

what kind of literature is harry potter

There’s quite a bit to unpack in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , so we’ll dive right in: after attending an eventful Quidditch World Cup with Hermione and the Weasley family, Harry returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year of school. It’s bound to be an exciting one, as Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, in which students from three major wizarding academies will compete. However, only students aged seventeen or older are eligible for the competition, which means Harry is safe for once… or so he thinks, until the ceremonial Goblet of Fire selects him as the fourth Triwizard Champion for no discernible reason.

What follows is a nonstop sequence of thrills, landmarked by the challenges of the tournament — in which the contestants must tackle menacing dragons, malevolent mermaids , and a maze full of potentially fatal tricks and traps. But even between the challenges themselves is plenty of riveting drama, especially with Rita Skeeter (a slimy reporter trying defame Harry and friends), Mad-Eye Moody (the kids’ new D.A.D.A. teacher), and Hermione’s most recent social justice cause (rights for house elves, naturally). And as anyone who’s read it will know, the GoF finale is unprecedented in terms of dark, difficult material, signaling a definitive shift for the series in a more mature direction.

Indeed, for all those wondering whether Rowling could change gears from the relatively lighthearted adventures of the previous three books into a darker and even more elaborate fantasy-thriller, this book proved her undeniably capable. But once again, GoF is not devoid of laughs and simple charm. The Yule Ball is a hilarious glimpse into the all-too-familiar teenage angst of dating and school dances, and the subplot with Ron being jealous of Harry’s constant spotlight is particularly well done. Yes, even in all the grandeur, Rowling never loses sight of what’s true to life — Goblet of Fire demonstrates this most aptly.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

what kind of literature is harry potter

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix gets political in big way: despite Voldemort’s revival at the end of GoF , the Ministry of Magic continues to deny all rumors and refuse to take action, worried that they’ll upset the public. This means the real adults have to take a leaf out of Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s book and start fighting him themselves, through an underground vigilante group called the Order of the Phoenix.

But the Order can’t do much about Dolores Umbridge, the newly instated and highly sadistic Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, who perpetuates the Ministry’s lies about Voldemort. When Harry openly defies her in class, she retaliates by giving him chronic detention — during which he must write lines with a “blood quill” that carves the words into the back of his hand. Despite this torment, he and the rest of the class do not acquiesce to Umbridge, and establish a secret defense organization for themselves called “Dumbledore’s Army.”

On top of all that, Harry keeps having frequent, harrowing visions of Voldemort when he’s asleep, and must take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape to prevent them. This is a different kind of torture, with Snape forcing entry into Harry’s private memories at every lesson and relishing the opportunity to cause him pain. Of course, Snape’s own twisted motivations are revealed when Harry gains access to his memories — one of which is a bitter altercation with Harry’s father.

Even the most diehard HP fan will admit that Order of the Phoenix is a hard one to get through. From watching Harry suffer in such a myriad of ways, to that devastating climax in which he loses one of the few people he’s come to love and trust, OotP is no walk in the park. Yet it’s this strife and despair that makes it such an authentic, powerful narrative — and, trite as it sounds, Harry’s pain ultimately makes him stronger and more determined to defeat Voldemort than ever.

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

what kind of literature is harry potter

Things take a turn for the expository in this penultimate installment, which sees Harry learn all about Voldemort’s family and “origin story,” so to speak. Dumbledore gives Harry these lessons to prepare him for a grand future battle with Voldemort, presumably in the vein of keeping his enemies closer. What Harry doesn’t know is that Dumbledore is planning something even bigger — a plan that he, Harry, becomes more inexorably entangled in with each passing day.

At the same time, Harry suspects Malfoy (always a nefarious character) to be colluding with Voldemort, and begins obsessively tracking him on the Marauder’s Map. But each new lead just seems to be a wrong turn, and Harry grows increasingly frustrated with the lack of evidence when he knows that Malfoy is guilty. His only good luck, funnily enough, is in potions class. After receiving a secondhand textbook filled with tips and tricks from the mysterious “Half-Blood Prince,” Harry shines under the tutelage of their new potions professor Slughorn. Hermione, meanwhile, is jealous of Harry’s newfound academic success, and attempts to uncover the Prince’s identity to prove he’s crooked.

Speaking of petty drama, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince also gives the fun, silly sixteen-year-old stuff its due. Ron and Hermione’s chemistry amps up to eleven, with constant bickering over their respective romances. (Ron memorably snogs Lavender Brown with such gusto that it “looks like he’s eating her face.”) Meanwhile Harry’s falling for Ginny, Ron’s sister, and battling his inner demons about whether to ask her out. All this falls to the wayside after yet another epic finale, but it’s another nice reminder of how human and relatable the characters are .

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

what kind of literature is harry potter

To be fair, the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows aren’t as quotidianly miserable as the events of OotP — at least we know the characters are suffering for a greater purpose. But that doesn’t stop this from being, as you might expect, the darkest book in the series. From the corrupting influence of a locket that causes Ron to abandon his friends, to the tragic prophecy that Harry uncovers through more of Snape’s past memories, this book truly tests the reader’s tolerance for beloved characters in distress. (Don’t even get us started on the Battle of Hogwarts bloodbath .)

But Deathly Hallows is also a masterpiece, wrapping up thousands of pages’ worth of deeply intricate story plotting, character development, and booming thematic resonance in a satisfying manner. Indeed, J.K. Rowling has said she wrote the last pages of Deathly Hallows before Sorcerer’s Stone was even completed — evidence of just how carefully the series was planned.

8. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

what kind of literature is harry potter

While not part of the original seven-book series, Cursed Child and the accompanying stage play have become a generally accepted addition to the Harry Potter canon. This 336-page text picks up where the Deathly Hallows epilogue left off, with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy sending their unfortunately named kids off to Hogwarts — Harry’s son Albus and Malfoy’s son Scorpius serve as our protagonists this time around. Upon arrival at Hogwarts, the boys are both sorted into Slytherin and forge an unlikely friendship, which naturally causes tension between Albus and Harry over the next few years.

After a fight with his father, Albus overhears Cedric Diggory’s father Amos asking Harry to use a more powerful version of a Time Turner (which features prominently in PoA ) to go back in time and rescue his son. When Harry refuses, Albus enlists Scorpius to help him save Cedric, with the aid of Diggory’s niece Delphi. However, as anyone who’s seen Back to the Future can attest, messing with timelines is never a good idea… especially in the wizarding world. Things are further complicated by the fact that Delphi is not who she says she is, and may have sinister ulterior motives when it comes to rewriting history.

Between the multiple timelines and various versions of the same characters, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child can definitely be a bit confusing at times — and its somewhat far-fetched plot twists and questionable consistency with Rowling’s established world have led some Potter fans to decry it. But at the end of the day, it’s still another piece of the magical puzzle that we’ve all enjoyed putting together so much: this once-in-a-lifetime literary experience that transcends culture and generations.

The “Hogwarts library” texts

Fantastic beasts and where to find them.

Can't get enough of the fantastical creatures that fill Harry Potter 's pages? You're in luck. As detailed by J.K. Rowling (who writes as famed Magizoologist Newt Scamander), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the definitive compendium to the magical beasts that roam the wizarding world. You'll find some familiar companions — such as the Hippogriff, the Basilisk, the Hungarian Horntail — but you'll also discover many, many new creatures to befriend. This is the text that inspired the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie trilogy, so if you're looking to catch up on the source, this is where to start!

Quidditch Through the Ages

Or maybe it's J.K. Rowling's smash-hit sport, Quidditch, that tickles your fancy. Today, Quidditch is an actual sport played at over 100 colleges in the United States — such is the strength of the grip that it's exerted on our public imagination. But if you're interested in the academic side of Quidditch, Rowling's got you covered with Quidditch Through the Ages , which will tell you all that you ever wanted to know about the history and rules behind Quidditch.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of five fairy wizarding tales, told by, well, Beedle the Bard! Professor Dumbledore bequeathed these age-old tales to Hermione Granger, and they (particularly "The Tale of Three Brothers") turned out to be instrumental in helping Harry Potter crack the clues given to him in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now it's your chance to read them for yourself. Though the stories in this book all have a magical twist, the themes at their cores still resonate with what we associate with fairy tales: friendship, the everlasting strength of love, and the magic that each one of us possesses.

Even more Wizarding World extras 🎁

Hogwarts: an incomplete and unreliable guide.

Sourced from the short reads on Pottermore.com and gathered into one book for easy reading, Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide gives you all of the background information that you might want to know about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly. Ever been curious about what the Hufflepuff common room looks like (it was never described in the books themselves)? Did you ever wonder about the origins of Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters? Here's the book that will provide all of the answers.

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists

Not everything about Hogwarts and the Wizarding World is bright and shiny — indeed, the series has birthed some of most memorable villains in literature, from Dolores Umbridge to Lord Voldemort himself. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Potergeists (also collected from JK Rowling's writings on Pottermore.com) delves deeper into this darker side of Harry's universe: in particular, it'll walk you through the politics of wizards and the backstories of Hogwart's villains, like Profess Umbridge.

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies

Now let's go to the flip side and read about some of the most heroic figures who stand tall in the Wizarding World! In Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroisim, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies , we get the pleasure of revisiting our favorite professors (especially Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin) and discovering their backstories.

The Fantastic Beasts screenplays

Unless you've been living under a rock this entire time, you've probably heard of the two new Wizarding World movies that have hit Hollywood in the past few years. Led by actor Eddie Redmayne and an all-star ensemble cast, the Fantastic Beasts films tell the story of Newt Scamander, Albus Dumbledore, and the dark battle against Gellert Grindelward in the blackened days before Lord Voldemort entered the scene.

Of course, you can choose to simply watch the continuation of the Wizarding World on-screen — but reading the screenplays of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: the Original Screenplay and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — The Original Screenplay  will undoubtedly give you that extra level of depth and insight into the characters.

So what's the recommended reading order (versus the chronological reading order)?

Fortunately, Harry Potter isn't one of those series like Star Wars has a sprawling number of canon novels, film novelizations, reference books, and comics to read. Instead, it's a finite universe — which makes catching up on it much easier. We recommend reading the main series chronologically so that you can see Harry and his friends grow up. Then — if you're still thirsting for more of the Wizarding World — you can see where your interests most strongly lie (whether it's in magizoology or Quidditch, for instance), and start again there.

If you still haven’t read Harry Potter , just know that it’s never too late to start — and even for those who have, you’re never too old to go back and relive the magic. ⚡

Can't get enough? Check out our list of the 20 best books like Harry Potter , or 60 best fantasy books for kids ! (Naturally, HP makes the list.)

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Why Harry Potter Is Great Literature

Why Harry Potter is great literature

I enjoy spending time with people who appreciate great literature. The number of my friends who are intimate with Dante or Tolkien or Austen is, as Oscar Wilde would say with a wink, “considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down for our guidance.” My book-loving church regularly ships in world-class English professors to give lectures and field the usual round of questions about Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Aragorn and Faramir.

And I’ve noticed that in these circles, it’s often a faux pas to admit that I, like nearly every other Millennial in America, own extremely well-loved copies of all seven Harry Potter books. And I would lose all credibility with many of these people if I suggested offhand that I think the Potter books are in the tradition of the great English novels, deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence, and are easily the most morally and socially insightful works of fantasy published in this generation.

But I do think that. And I think I’m justified. So I’ve decided to step forward and offer a defense, on behalf of everyone who instinctively agrees with me and has better things to do than figure out why.

Any book worth reading can’t have its value fully explained in a bullet point or two. After I wrote my “ Why Men Like Jane Austen ” post a couple years ago, I proceeded to spend several months researching and outlining an entire book by the same title (currently gathering digital dust; apparently in real life you have to feed your family, not just “follow your dreams”). J.K. Rowling’s work is no different, and in the interest of staying on point I’ll gloss over many praiseworthy elements of her books like intricate plots, rich imaginary worlds, clever social satire, superb characters, and a roll-on-the-floor sense of humor.

Instead, I’ll focus on two things: how Rowling engages the larger tradition of English literature and specifically fantasy; and how she brings that tradition to bear in a way that sheds light on our time and human nature. Or, in the language of the normal people for whom she writes: I’ll focus on why I, and millions like me, will be giving these books to my children and grandchildren.

Rowling and the Fantasy Tradition

Fantasy appeals to us, to put it crudely, because of the relationship between magic and morality. An alternate world filled with strange and wonderful things, a world defined by imagination, gives us a setting in which to (consciously or not) engage with moral questions free from the complications and biases with which we engage our own setting. This can be blindingly obvious, as with Lewis’s explicitly allegorical Narnia, or more subtle, as with Tolkien’s stubbornly not allegorical Middle Earth. Fantasy, mythology, and fairy tales allow an author to shape our unconscious ideas about what our own world should be like—without beating us over the head with them or even stating them outright. Fantasy stories can tell you a lot about what a civilization values, and the best fantasy stories help a civilization value the right things.

Rowling does both.

The Millennial generation (born 1982-2003ish) is dealing with a real world increasingly bereft of the healthy families, relationships, and institutions that gave previous generations a framework for considering moral questions. It’s also increasingly bereft of the framework people used to have for knowing who they were. Today’s kids are told that all the answers can be found within; that they can achieve anything they want if they just follow their passions. It’s been called the litany of expressive individualism. The further past college they get, the less true they suspect it is. But they’ve been shown no alternative.

Very few things allow a teenage reader to grapple with growing up in precisely this situation. Rowling was a single mom when she started writing. And in Harry Potter, a modern teenager can watch a boy struggle with the same things he does, and see precisely what ultimately distinguishes the boy from the man he becomes–namely, things that would terrify the benevolent technocrats and progressive-minded individuals who shaped the second half of the 20th century.

Norman Lebrecht thinks Potter is about a subtle form of teenage rebellion against the adult world, and in a way this is true—but not the adult world as such ; rather, the specific adult world Harry’s generation will inherit. Rowling offers the rare fantasy that gives a young reader a vastly different look at the well-lived life than he is getting from his high school, college, and too often, parents. Yet she doesn’t tell the reader to question everything; far from it. In the true fantasy tradition, she helps him build a picture of the things that are worth clinging to when everything else is being questioned.

As a result, the most powerful themes of the Harry Potter books are about identity—and they are profoundly countercultural.

The Ones that Really Matter

In The Lord of the Rings , Sam Gamgee speaks nostalgically about the great stories, “the ones that really mattered.” More than anything else, Rowling’s idea of what really matters is what made millions of children (and adults) who weren’t readers blaze through her books in a single sitting. It wasn’t just that her idea of what really matters felt right; it was that it was in such stark contrast to so many things about our world that felt wrong. Like starving people, we couldn’t get enough of it.

There’s an obvious theme of unconditional love that runs throughout the Potter books that is beautiful and comforting amidst divorces and frequent relocations. But beyond the obvious, whether they can articulate it or not, Potter fans know that there are things much more important than their “passions” in shaping identity. A few of the more central:

Our choices . It is these, mentor Dumbledore tells an insecure Harry, that show who we truly are. No Aladdin-style “his worth lies far within” nonsense here. Over and over in Harry Potter , good triumphs when somebody who has no business being a hero–dim-witted Neville Longbottom, dumpy mother of seven Mrs. Weasley, most of all Harry–makes a choice to be stupid, to “fight the unbeatable foe,” just because it’s the right thing to do.

Our loyalties . Harry’s fierce loyalty to his friends leads him to make a good many of these “stupid” decisions, standing by those who need him even when it costs him dearly; because few advantages are worth gaining at the price of a strong relationship. And he learns quickly to distinguish between power (represented by the evil Voldemort and even the wizards’ “good” bureaucratic administrative state) and authority (represented by wise men and women, and most of all by Hogwarts—a place that remembers its roots, lets the little platoons work, and is defined by traditions that are never more respected than when they seem silly and quaint).

Place . And more specifically, to use James Howard Kunstler’s phrase, “places worth caring about.” Harry grows up in a cookie-cutter suburb with a cookie-cutter Millennial cousin; no sense of place, no beauty, no community. From there, he is transported to Hogwarts, a beautiful castle that represents a golden past that he has never known; a world that existed before him and will, if he can help it, survive him. Harry grows up in part through a process of developing a home and responsibilities to it. Most Millennials I’ve talked to agree that they feel more homesick for Hogwarts than any real place they’ve lived in their lives, and “It’s like Hogwarts!” is a universal point of reference when they encounter a place with beauty and history and identity.

Prudence . It has been said that politics is the art of the possible. But in 21st century American political culture, compromise and winnable victories are seen as a kind of treason; a sacrifice of purity. We may criticize elected officials for threatening to blow up the world (so to speak) in the vain hope of winning a total victory, but many would deride them as unprincipled if they didn’t. Harry, on the other hand, is taught that “The world isn’t divided into good people and Death Eaters (the bad guys);” and that maturity means learning to work with people you don’t like, bite your tongue when no good can come of speaking, and discern the difference between unpleasantness and true evil. One of Harry’s finest moments comes in the last book, when he nearly dies in order to rescue a schoolfellow he loathes.

Family . If Harry were a Disney character, he would either abandon his family to chase his dream, or the fact that he’s mysteriously missing at least one parent would be irrelevant to him. But in Rowling’s world, orphan Harry wants nothing more than a family—in fact, in a reversal of the Millennial moral imagination, when he’s unofficially adopted by one, he’s willing to sacrifice everything else to protect it. Over and over, it’s shown how much of Harry’s character came from the influence of his real parents. And on top of it all, Rowling’s idea of a happy ending is to show us that, 19 years later, the heroes are all married with a bucketload of kids, nothing more.

In short, Rowling (who must clearly be seen as a danger to modern society) seems to think that children find— make , really—their place in the adult world by the strength of their character, by the structures of their connections with the past and with loved ones, and not by “finding themselves.”

Tellingly, Harry never finds a passion in life, nor does he ever have much of an idea of what he wants to do with his life. The very thing most kids today are told to seek—Harry never finds it or even seriously looks for it. He doesn’t need to. Best of all, in almost Austenian fashion, Rowling sets these stories in a school, where parallels with Harry’s day-to-day battles with classmates and teachers make clear that all the virtues that make good triumph over evil are the same virtues that make the difference in real life.

Harry Potter’s is a reactionary world, a real step back in the march of progress. Families and traditional institutions are central, government experts are viewed with distrust, and the celebrity hero doesn’t want to be a celebrity. And likewise unfashionable is the path by which Harry and his friends seek adulthood. They find meaning in responsibility, learn respect for rightful authority, and sacrifice their individuality and even their lives to preserve a very messy world that seems beyond saving.

Yet Rowling, it seems, was right to think that this was precisely the message that would appeal to today’s rudderless youth. They loved the story of an angst-filled boy who found meaning in all the right places, and triumphed. Whether they realized it or not while they were reading, Rowling was helping them understand their own world better; not just as it is, but as it ought to be.

This is what great fantasy does. It speaks to a time and place with truths that are timeless. And I’m pretty sure nobody living has done this more effectively than J.K. Rowling.

Originally published by Humane Pursuits on November 18th, 2013.

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what kind of literature is harry potter

What Genre is Harry Potter?

The question 'what genre is harry potter' can't be answered with one word, as the harry potter series belongs to different literary genres at the same time.

And to make things even more complicated, as the series developed it changed, to a certain extend, genres. Here an overview of the ones that can be applied to the books and a, rough, categorization of the books in genres. Have fun and, if you are of a different opinion, feel free to voice this in a comment ;-)

Novel and Prose

That one is clearly defined by the length of the books and the kind of language used in them. Whilst there are some songs and poems throughout the books, they are predominantly written in prose and of truly epic length ;-)

Fiction, Sub-Genre Fantasy

That one is a no-brainer, as much as we might wish sometimes that the wonderful world of Harry Potter exists, it doesn't, making it 'Fiction'. And 'Fantasy' is also clear, indicated by magic, fantastic beasts, paranormal events and so on. Other books of this genre are, for example, 'The Lord of the Rings' by Tolkien, C.S. Lewis' 'Narnia Chronicles' or the 'Discworld Series' by Terry Pratchett.

More Fantasy Fiction Books

Children's literature and young-adult fiction.

Despite the fact that the series is read by children and adults alike, yes, at least the first books are clearly in the genre 'Children's Literature' whilst the later ones are more 'Young-Adult Fiction', aiming more at teenagers than at children. Apparently it came as a total surprise to J.K. Rowlings, the author, that the books were also such a hit with older readers.

School Story

The whole series, less the last book, centers around a school year at Harry's boarding school and is mostly taking place there. Typical topics are exams, bullying, the development of friendships – and enemy-ships, school houses and competitions and so on. The 'School Story' aspect is a very important one and has contributed hugely to the success of the series, as it allows children and adults alike to identify with the characters. In the end, most of us have gone to some sort of school - and some of us even to boarding schools.

Coming of Age

The books might start with Harry being a bit older then one year in the first chapter, but the main story starts when he is approaching his 11 th birthday and goes until he is 17. There is also a concluding last chapter that tells us a bit of Harry's life as an adult, such as the > names of his kids < that he had married Ginny Weasley and a few more details. But the main plot is really about Harry growing up from a child with a complicated past into a young man that has to face his fate.

Harry Potter doesn't belong to these genres

Some of you may differ here, but in my opinion, Harry Potter doesn't belong in any of the following genres:

Yes, there are some romantic aspects in the series, such as the relationship between Harry and Ginny that develops over the course of the series, but this is not the main aspect of the series, merely a byline. For being truly 'Romance', a book has to have the relationship as the main focus and the main focus in Harry Potter is not his romantic relationship with Ginny Weasley, it is his rather unromantic relationship with Lord Voldemort and the resulting, epic battle between good and evil.

The genre 'Adventure' is defined as having events that take the protagonist out of his normal life and put him in a different context, where he has to live through one or more adventures and then returns home.

At first look that seems to apply to Harry Potter, as he hears on his 11 th birthday that he is a wizard and will start soon a different life at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But this 'new life' becomes soon the main focus, the normality, for the protagonist and different to other novels in the 'Adventure' genre, the protagonist doesn't return at the end to his old life, but remains in this new reality which now has become 'his world'.

You can see this difference if you compare Harry Potter to Peter Pan. At the end of that story Wendy, and her brothers John and Michael, go back to their home in London, after the many adventures they have lived through in Neverland. They don't stay forever in Neverland. On the other hand, Harry Potter most definitively stays forever in the hidden wizarding world and doesn't return to the Muggle World for good.

Thriller, Mystery or Horror

Yes, there are some dark elements in the series, especially towards the end, but that doesn't make it automatically part of these genres. For this, these elements would have to be far stronger and the story lines would have to center around them. Harry Potter centers around growing up, learning to distinguish between good and evil and fighting the good fight. The elements of thriller, mystery and horror found in this series are only supporting this, but are not the main story. If you want to read true horror, I recommend Stephen King, but only if you want to have nightmares for a week ;-) ... at least!

Real Horror!

Switch of genre in the harry potter books.

Children's Literature > Young Adult Fiction

If you see the cut-off point between children and young adults at around thirteen, I would say that the series changes genre with the 5 th book, 'Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix'. From then on the books become darker in tone and more adult in their story lines.

School Story > Coming of Age Only

The last book, 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows', is the only one that doesn't take place during a school year. It ends the 'School Story' genre and concentrates on the final 'Coming of Age' of the main protagonists, Harry, Hermione and Ron.

Harry Potter is a series of novels whose books belong to one or more of the following literature genres: Fiction (Fantasy), Coming of Age, School Story, Children's Literature and Young-Adult Fiction. And yes, I am certain that it will be soon counted also as 'Classical Literature'!

What do you think the main genre of Harry Potter is?

Here you can find out more about harry potter ;-).

what kind of literature is harry potter

I would say this series is for all age groups ;-) The first two books might be more children books, also I know many, many adults that enjoy them, but the later ones can be really read and enjoyed by everybody. If parents are concerned that the later ones are too violent, really, compared to zombie up blowing computer games in 3D they are pretty tame ;-) Apart of that the books tackle a variety of issues like bullying, making the right decision or how to react when authority does get it wrong that are important for everybody to think through.

what kind of literature is harry potter

I enjoyed reading this :-) So the series is not for one age group. What do you do with that? Kids will start with volume 1 and will want to read the rest :-). I only read part of a Harry Potter book (can't remember which one).

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  • Owl Post / The Quibbler

“Harry Potter” and Genre

by MuggleNet · Published May 22, 2019 · Updated December 5, 2020

by Katherine Zito

When J.K. Rowling spoke to Lev Grossman in 2005, admitting that she “doesn’t even especially like fantasy novels” and that “it wasn’t until after Sorcerer’s Stone was published that it even occurred to her that she had written one,”  Terry Pratchett was bemused .

I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?

Considering the unfortunately oft-derided status of fantasy fiction, I understand why Pratchett would have been irritated by Rowling’s seeming disavowal of the genre. Plenty of writers would probably be inclined to distance their work from fantasy based on snooty notions about speculative fiction. However, is Harry Potter best understood as a fantasy series? Trolls and flying broomsticks, yes, but there is another set of ingredients from which Rowling draws: the school story.

To begin with, where within the context of the fantasy genre would Harry Potter lie? Before the fantasy genre, as it is currently understood, existed, humans have told stories involving fantastical elements, and cultures the world over have incorporated what is now widely accepted as supernatural in their myths, legends, epics, dramas, and poems. The fantasy genre as we now know it was born out of the Romantic re-affection for the mystical after the Enlightenment. The difference was that, post-Enlightenment, these supernatural elements were not taken for fact, as was the case with supernatural stories before the Enlightenment – Shakespeare probably believed in fairies, unlike the writers of the first fantasy novels for adults written in the late 19th century. In Riveting Reads Plus Fantasy Fiction , Frances Sinclair explains that many popular fantasy subgenres fall under the umbrella of medievalist fantasy : fantasy drawing on medieval European motifs or set in an (often fictionalized) medieval Europe. This is consistent with my understanding that out of the Romantic period emerged our more romantic ideas about the European Middle Ages, which was a reversal of the Renaissance and Enlightenment conceptions of the period as a dark age.

When it comes to Harry Potter , many of the standard medievalist tropes make it recognizable as a fantasy series. In their 2003 paper , “The Harry Potter Stories and French Arthurian Romance,” academics Heather Arden and Kathryn Lorenz claim that Harry Potter specifically draws from the French Arthurian medieval tradition. That is, out of the broad umbrella of medievalism, Harry Potter ’s world-building borrows most heavily from the French versions of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. From this source, we get bearded wizard mentors, enchanted forests and protected castles, and creatures including werewolves, dragons, and unicorns, as well as deer imagery. Arden and Lorenz draw compelling connections to Arthurian romance, but a striking difference is that in their schema, Harry best fits the trope of the knight (a mortal human, to my knowledge), whereas of course Harry and his friends are practitioners of magic too. Harry is a wizard in canon, but he does not fit the “wizard” trope – that role belongs to Dumbledore. I would argue that certain developments in 20th-century fantasy paved the way for the wizard and the knight/prince/king to find themselves wed within such an iconic character, but that may require its own post.

In John Sutherland’s How Literature Works: 50 Key Concepts (2003), he provides a broad overview of the fantasy genre and explains that it is common for fantasy, as a genre, to overlap with other genres. He uses Harry Potter to exemplify the crossover between the fantasy and the school story. The school story genre from which Rowling draws is based on the British boarding school system. Thus, she is not simply drawing on stories about school but specifically stories about upper-class Brits in gender-segregated settings. Classics of the genre include Tom Brown’s School Days , another story about a young boy with a common English name getting into mischief at school. The school story is not simply a story that is set at school but one in which the school itself is a key player in the story.

The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature  claims that a characteristic difference of early and more recent school stories is the change in the role of the school as an institution that can and will put characters on the right moral track to an institution that may as well be just as corrupt as any other character, an institution against which the characters may have to rightfully rebel as part of their coming of age. The Harry Potter series illustrates a similar shift within its own plotline. As the series progresses, Hogwarts becomes to Harry less and less of a safe haven (especially when compared with his abusive household with the Dursleys) as exemplified best by Dolores Umbridge’s role as Headmistress in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix . While not a British school story, the comparison that comes most readily to mind to me is Revolutionary Girl Utena , where the institution of Ohtori Academy is just as important as any character. This is opposed to, say, Twilight , a modern fantasy about kids in school where the school serves more as a normal backdrop for supernatural goings-on (more analogous to the Dursley household in Harry Potter than to Hogwarts Castle) than a figure embroiled in supernatural goings-on.

It’s these school story elements that give the Harry Potter series a premise beyond generic medievalist children’s fantasy: if you were to describe the Harry Potter series to an alien, there’s a good chance you would say that it is about a boy who goes to a magical school. Harry Potter is, therefore, not only a descendant of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia but also a descendant of Tom Brown’s School Days and cousin of Revolutionary Girl Utena . With a fuller understanding of Harry Potter ‘s literary heritage, it can be better understood since attention can be paid to Rowling’s use of themes and motifs associated not only with fantasies but also with school stories.

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What Genre is Harry Potter: The Magical Classification

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  • August 15, 2023

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Table of Contents:

Introduction, the magic of genre harry potter: a brief overview, defining genre in literature, understanding fantasy as a literary genre, different types of fantasy, high fantasy, urban fantasy, magical realism, paranormal romance, the classification of genre harry potter, exploring the magical universe of harry potter.

  • The Debate Surrounding Harry Potter's Genre

Perplexity and Burstiness in Harry Potter

Engaging the readers: the impact of the series, key characteristics and profound details.

What Genre is Harry Potter: The Magical Classification

Since it first came out, J.K. Rowling’s magical world of Harry Potter has won the hearts of readers of all ages. The series takes us on a magical trip full of spells, potions, mythical creatures, and the eternal battle between good and evil, much like the captivating worlds explored in Best Non-Fiction Adventure Books . Even though Genre Harry Potter is very famous, there has been a lot of talk about what kind of book it is. In this content piece, we’ll talk about how the Harry Potter books fit into the magical genre and how their complexity and busyness make them interesting to read.

J.K. Rowling showed readers a world where magic wasn’t just a plot device but a real, live thing. The magical world she made, from the busy streets of Diagon Alley to the beautiful Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was both fascinating and real, reminiscent of the detailed settings described in Exploring the Depths of Literary Fiction . With figures like Harry, Hermione, and Ron, who are easy to remember, the readers are drawn right into their world of friendship, loyalty, and bravery.

Literature includes various written works, each with its style and attraction. These works are often put into genres, which help us understand and classify them based on the themes, styles, and populations they are meant for. By looking at literary styles, readers can learn much about what kind of experience they can expect from a piece of writing.

Fantasy stands out as a fascinating world of thought and wonder among the many types of writing. It takes readers to fantastic worlds that aren’t part of real life. It does this by including magic, mythical animals, and supernatural forces. In fantasy, writers can create new worlds with different cultures, societies, and rules from our own.

Several subgenres of fantasy cater to the different tastes and interests of different readers. Here are some of the most popular subgenres:

High fantasy is a type of fantasy that often has epic quests, big fights between good and evil, and huge, complicated worlds. Works like “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien show how grand and wide-ranging high fiction can be.

Urban fantasy is a type of fantasy that mixes magic with current settings, a theme also explored in Best Horror Books of All Time . In this subgenre, authors like Neil Gaiman and Patricia Briggs have done a great job of mixing the supernatural with urban settings.

Magical realism is a type of writing that mixes magic with a realistic story, making it hard to tell the difference between the everyday and the extraordinary. Writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Haruki Murakami have used this style to make interesting stories and make you think.

Paranormal romance combines fantasy elements with love themes and often focuses on relationships between humans and beings from other worlds. Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series is a good example of how this genre appeals to people who want to read about love and strange things from other worlds.

At its heart, Harry Potter is a fantasy book. The story is based on magic, prophecies, and the never-ending fight against dark forces. The books in this genre have a lot of different themes, like how good always wins over evil, how important friendship is, and how important it is to give, themes that are also central in Best Book Club Books for 2023 . Many nonfiction writing services will help you if you desire to write in this genre.

As the story continues, readers meet many magical beings and animals. From the regal hippogriffs to the playful house elves, every creature in the magical world adds depth and mystery. The series has an unbelievable feel because there are mythical animals in it.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling has become a symbol of the fantasy field. Set in a magical world, the story follows the adventures of a young wizard named Harry Potter and his friends as they deal with the dark forces of Lord Voldemort at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rowling tells stories about magic, friendship, heroism, and the endless battle between good and evil. Her stories are interesting to people of all ages.

The Debate Surrounding Harry Potter’s Genre

Some people say that Genre Harry Potter also fits into the coming-of-age genre, even though fiction is the main type of story in the series. Throughout the books, the characters grow as people and face problems typical of the change from being a teenager to an adult. Readers can relate to Harry, Hermione, and Ron’s problems as they try to figure out how to grow up in the middle of strange situations.

Critics and literature experts have also talked about how well-written the series is. People have liked its creativity and how it tells a story, but some have said they don’t like how it’s written or how some plot parts are repeated.

The genre Harry Potter is so popular because the story is confusing and full of twists and turns. Rowling puts in surprising turns and twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats throughout the series. Every book has surprises that interest readers, from the shocking reveal of a character’s real identity to the unlikely friendships that form.

Harry Potter’s popularity comes from the fact that it makes readers of all ages feel things. The stories are more than just fiction because they touch on common themes like love, loss, and being strong. Rowling’s skill as a storyteller is shown by how much the viewers care about the characters.

Rowling’s chatty style is one reason why Harry Potter is loved worldwide, a style that can be enhanced with Content Development Services . She uses personal names and an active voice in a natural way, which makes the reader feel like they are on a magical journey with her. The odd use of rhetorical questions makes the story more interactive and makes readers think about what the story’s events mean on a deeper level. Ghostwriting Founder can help writers with a shortage of time writing nonfiction.

Harry Potter is mostly a dream with a natural coming-of-age theme. The series is confusing and fast-paced, telling a story about magic, friendship, and courage. J.K. Rowling’s ability to write in a way that is easy to understand and keeps readers interested has left an indelible mark on the world of writing.

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Why Harry Potter is Great Literature

what kind of literature is harry potter

In which I risk all my friendships with people who read.

I enjoy spending time with people who appreciate great literature. The number of my friends who are intimate with Dante or Tolkien or Austen is, as Oscar Wilde would say with a wink, “considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down for our guidance.” My book-loving church regularly ships in world-class English professors to give lectures and field the usual round of questions about Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Aragorn and Faramir.

And I’ve noticed that in these circles, it’s often a faux pas to admit that I, like nearly every other Millennial in America, own extremely well-loved copies of all seven Harry Potter books. And I would lose all credibility with many of these people if I suggested offhand that I think the Potter books are in the tradition of the great English novels, deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence, and are easily the most morally and socially insightful works of fantasy published in this generation.

But I do think that. And I think I’m justified. So I’ve decided to step forward and offer a defense, on behalf of everyone who instinctively agrees with me and has better things to do than figure out why. So here are a few thoughts on why Harry Potter is great literature.

Any book worth reading can’t have its value fully explained in a bullet point or two. After I wrote my “ Why Men Like Jane Austen ” post a couple years ago, I proceeded to spend several months researching and outlining an entire book by the same title (currently gathering digital dust; apparently in real life you have to feed your family, not just “follow your dreams”). J.K. Rowling’s work is no different, and in the interest of staying on point I’ll gloss over many praiseworthy elements of her books like intricate plots, rich imaginary worlds, clever social satire, superb characters, and a roll-on-the-floor sense of humor.

Instead, I’ll focus on two things: how Rowling engages the larger tradition of English literature and specifically fantasy; and how she brings that tradition to bear in a way that sheds light on our time and human nature. Or, in the language of the normal people for whom she writes: I’ll focus on why I, and millions like me, will be giving these books to my children and grandchildren.

Rowling and the Fantasy Tradition

Fantasy appeals to us, to put it crudely, because of the relationship between magic and morality. An alternate world filled with strange and wonderful things, a world defined by imagination, gives us a setting in which to (consciously or not) engage with moral questions free from the complications and biases with which we engage our own setting. This can be blindingly obvious, as with Lewis’s explicitly allegorical Narnia, or more subtle, as with Tolkien’s stubbornly not allegorical Middle Earth. Fantasy, mythology, and fairy tales allow an author to shape our unconscious ideas about what our own world should be like—without beating us over the head with them or even stating them outright. Fantasy stories can tell you a lot about what a civilization values, and the best fantasy stories help a civilization value the right things.

Rowling does both.

The Millennial generation (born 1982-2003ish) is dealing with a real world increasingly bereft of the healthy families, relationships, and institutions that gave previous generations a framework for considering moral questions. It’s also increasingly bereft of the framework people used to have for knowing who they were. Today’s kids are told that all the answers can be found within; that they can achieve anything they want if they just follow their passions. It’s been called the litany of expressive individualism. The further past college they get, the less true they suspect it is. But they’ve been shown no alternative.

Very few things allow a teenage reader to grapple with growing up in precisely this situation. Rowling was a single mom when she started writing. And in Harry Potter, a modern teenager can watch a boy struggle with the same things he does, and see precisely what ultimately distinguishes the boy from the man he becomes–namely, things that would terrify the benevolent technocrats and progressive-minded individuals who shaped the second half of the 20th century.

Norman Lebrecht  thinks Potter is about a subtle form of teenage rebellion against the adult world, and in a way this is true—but not the adult world  as such ; rather, the specific adult world Harry’s generation will inherit. Rowling offers the rare fantasy that gives a young reader a vastly different look at the well-lived life than he is getting from his high school, college, and too often, parents. Yet she doesn’t tell the reader to question everything; far from it. In the true fantasy tradition, she helps him build a picture of the things that are worth clinging to when everything else is being questioned.

As a result, the most powerful themes of the Harry Potter books are about identity—and they are profoundly countercultural.

The Ones That Really Matter

harrypottersuburb

In The Lord of the Rings , Sam Gamgee speaks nostalgically about the great stories, “the ones that really mattered.” More than anything else, Rowling’s idea of what really matters is what made millions of children (and adults) who weren’t readers blaze through her books in a single sitting. It wasn’t just that her idea of what really matters felt right; it was that it was in such stark contrast to so many things about our world that felt wrong. Like starving people, we couldn’t get enough of it.

There’s an obvious theme of unconditional love that runs throughout the Potter books that is beautiful and comforting amidst divorces and frequent relocations. But beyond the obvious, whether they can articulate it or not, Potter fans know that there are things much more important than their “passions” in shaping identity. A few of the more central:

Our choices. It is these, mentor Dumbledore tells an insecure Harry, that show who we truly are. No Aladdin-style “his worth lies far within” nonsense here. Over and over in Harry Potter , good triumphs when somebody who has no business being a hero–dim-witted Neville Longbottom, dumpy mother of seven Mrs. Weasley, most of all Harry–makes a choice to be stupid, to “fight the unbeatable foe,” just because it’s the right thing to do.

Our loyalties. Harry’s fierce loyalty to his friends leads him to make a good many of these “stupid” decisions, standing by those who need him even when it costs him dearly; because few advantages are worth gaining at the price of a strong relationship. And he learns quickly to distinguish between power (represented by the evil Voldemort and even the wizards’ “good” bureaucratic administrative state) and authority (represented by wise men and women, and most of all by Hogwarts—a place that remembers its roots, lets the little platoons work, and is defined by traditions that are never more respected than when they seem silly and quaint).

Place. And more specifically, to use James Howard Kunstler’s phrase, “places worth caring about.” Harry grows up in a cookie-cutter suburb with a cookie-cutter Millennial cousin; no sense of place, no beauty, no community. From there, he is transported to Hogwarts, a beautiful castle that represents a golden past that he has never known; a world that existed before him and will, if he can help it, survive him. Harry grows up in part through a process of developing a  home  and responsibilities to it. Most Millennials I’ve talked to agree that they feel more homesick for Hogwarts than any real place they’ve lived in their lives, and “It’s like Hogwarts!” is a universal point of reference when they encounter a place with beauty and history and identity.

Prudence. It has been said that politics is the art of the possible. But in 21st century American political culture, compromise and winnable victories are seen as a kind of treason; a sacrifice of purity. We may criticize elected officials for threatening to blow up the world (so to speak) in the vain hope of winning a total victory, but many would deride them as unprincipled if they didn’t. Harry, on the other hand, is taught that “The world isn’t divided into good people and Death Eaters (the bad guys);” and that maturity means learning to work with people you don’t like, bite your tongue when no good can come of speaking, and discern the difference between unpleasantness and true evil. One of Harry’s finest moments comes in the last book, when he nearly dies in order to rescue a schoolfellow he loathes.

Family. If Harry were a Disney character, he would either abandon his family to chase his dream, or the fact that he’s mysteriously missing at least one parent would be irrelevant to him. But in Rowling’s world, orphan Harry wants nothing more than a family—in fact, in a reversal of the Millennial moral imagination, when he’s unofficially adopted by one, he’s willing to sacrifice everything else to protect it. Over and over, it’s shown how much of Harry’s character came from the influence of his real parents. And on top of it all, Rowling’s idea of a happy ending is to show us that, 19 years later, the heroes are all married with a bucketload of kids, nothing more.

In short, Rowling (who must clearly be seen as a danger to modern society) seems to think that children find— make , really—their place in the adult world by the strength of their character, by the structures of their connections with the past and with loved ones, and not by “finding themselves.”

Tellingly, Harry never finds a passion in life, nor does he ever have much of an idea of what he wants to do with his life. The very thing most kids today are told to seek—Harry never finds it or even seriously looks for it. He doesn’t need to. Best of all, in almost Austenian fashion, Rowling sets these stories in a school, where parallels with Harry’s day-to-day battles with classmates and teachers make clear that all the virtues that make good triumph over evil are the same virtues that make the difference in real life.

Harry Potter’s is a reactionary world, a real step back in the march of progress. Families and traditional institutions are central, government experts are viewed with distrust, and the celebrity hero doesn’t want to be a celebrity. And likewise unfashionable is the path by which Harry and his friends seek adulthood. They find meaning in responsibility, learn respect for rightful authority, and sacrifice their individuality and even their lives to preserve a very messy world that seems beyond saving.

Yet Rowling, it seems, was right to think that this was precisely the message that would appeal to today’s rudderless youth. They loved the story of an angst-filled boy who found meaning in all the right places, and triumphed. Whether they realized it or not while they were reading, Rowling was helping them understand their own world better; not just as it is, but as it ought to be.

This is what great fantasy does. It speaks to a time and place with truths that are timeless. And I’m pretty sure nobody living has done this more effectively than J.K. Rowling.

Brian Brown

Brian Brown loves building the environments, habits, and networks that make people thrive. He is the founder of Humane Pursuits, where he writes a featured column and edits the Give channel. He started his consulting company, Narrator, to help great mission-driven organizations modernize and grow. He lives with his wife Christina and son Edmund in Colorado Springs, where they mix cocktails, hunt for historic architecture, and see how many people they can squeeze into their house for happy hour.

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C. N. Melotti

Well done! Excellent article.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

By j.k. rowling, harry potter and the chamber of secrets literary elements.

Fantasy, Mystery, Gothic, Horror, Adventure, Heroic journey, Coming-of-Age

Setting and Context

Number Four, Privet Drive; The Burrow; London (Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley, Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley, King’s Cross Station); Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (The Forbidden Forest, The Chamber of Secrets)

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person omniscient narrator, from Harry's point-of-view

Tone and Mood

Farcical, Wistful, Suspenseful, Despairing, Elated, Fun, Foreboding, Fanciful, Comical, Suspicious, Dark, Dramatic, Silly, Satirical, Scary, Witty, Terrifying, Puzzling, Triumphant, Adventurous, Heroic

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist: Harry Potter. Antagonist: Voldemort

Major Conflict

1) Conflict between Lucius Malfoy's pure-blood ideology and Mr. Weasley's Muggle Protection Act. 2) Conflict between Salazar Slytherin's desire to limit admission to Hogwarts to pure-blood wizards and the other three founders' desire to admit Muggles and half-bloods. 3) Conflict between Lord Voldemort's desire to destroy Harry Potter and Harry's desire to stay alive.

Harry (with the help of Fawkes, Dumbledore’s pet Phoenix) battles Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort (and his enchanted basilisk) in the Chamber of Secrets.

Foreshadowing

“Get the snitch or die trying” p. 170 “The family is careful not to pass Dobby even a sock.” P. 177 “They can carry immensely heavy loads” P. 207 “Riddle was a friend he’d had when he was small” P. 234

Understatement

According to "Literary Allusion in Harry Potter" by Beatrice Groves, the series contains literary allusions to Greek myth, Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, Ovid, Chaucer, Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, Arthurian legend, and the Christian Bible.

A few examples:

A phoenix is a bird from Greek mythology. Fawkes the phoenix refers to Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the British Parliament, and is commemorated with bonfires and burnt effigies on Guy Fawkes day in Great Britain.

Percy's owl Hermes is named after Hermes, the messenger of the Gods in Greek mythology.

Minerva McGonagall is named for the Roman goddess of wisdom and war.

Parallelism

Harry Potter & Tom Riddle:

"There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike..." p. 317

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Hagrid's dog's name "Fang" is an example of a synecdoche, or a part standing for a whole.

Voldemort's name is a metonymy, because it is a word associated with what is being named: "Voldemort" means roughly, in French, "running from death."

Personification

The Whomping Willow: Ch. 5 The Car: Chs. 5 & 15 The mirror over the mantlepiece: p. 42 The Howler: p. 87 The basilisk: pp.120,137, 138, 290 The spiders: Ch. 15 The diary: pp. 240, 322, 329 The Mandrakes: p. 93 Hedwig: p. 104 The rogue Bludger: Ch. 10 The Sorting Hat: p. 315 Fawkes: Ch. 17

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is impression Lockhart has of Harry?

Lockhart likes Harry because he believes that Harry's fame will open doors for him.

What age did Harry Potter end?

Do you mean how old Harry Potter was when the series ended?

Why Harry Potter series is a great fantasy novels? Can you give one sentences to explain that?

The series uses different myth-based genre to provide engaging and accessible stories for a wide audience.

Study Guide for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets study guide contains a biography of J.K. Rowling, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  • About Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Summary
  • Character List

Essays for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.

  • ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ Upside Down in Harry Potter Series
  • Mythical Norms in Kindred and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • Segregation and Prejudice in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • Harry Potter and the End of Perfect Tales: Building up to 'Goblet of Fire'
  • Harry Potter and the Human Behind “Lord Voldemort”

what kind of literature is harry potter

5 Metaphors in Harry Potter

What is a metaphor.

Metaphors make a comparison between two things, objects , people, or even feelings. This comparison is often hidden, but can sometimes be quite obvious, depending on the intent of the author.

If you compare or portray a person, thing, action, feeling, or place as actually being something else, you are speaking with metaphors .

Harry Potter

The author of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, is the master of comparing one thing to another. The book series, which has been read by (according to some estimates) 65% of children in developed countries, is a treasure trove of figurative language that reveals even deeper histories to the characters and the Wizarding World. These comparisons often have hidden meanings that are later revealed in the series. Here are just a few of her best metaphors:

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences , spying on the neighbors.

In this metaphor , Rowling compares Petunia Dursley to a crane, a bird that is graceful but also very powerful. For longtime readers of the series, they will see this image again when her story with Harry comes to an end: she is strong and fierce, but there is also a grace to her.

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

“For him?” shouted Snape. “Expecto Patronum!” From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe . She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears. “After all this time?” “Always,” said Snape.”

The silver doe is a particularly powerful metaphor in the Harry Potter world. Snape has always loved Harry’s mother, Lily, even though she married someone else.  The doe represents all that Snape saw in her: the grace, strength, and beauty as well as the fact that she never stayed.

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

“ Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. […] Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself — soul-less and evil.”

This metaphor is complicated, because it is not explicitly stated and the reader has to look deeper. Here, J.K. uses Dementors as a metaphor for depression. While the magical community knows that it is Dementors, non-magical people only feel the effects and have given it the name of depression.

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

“I don’t think you should be an Auror, Harry,” said Luna unexpectedly. Everybody looked at her. “The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They’re working to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a mixture of dark magic and gum disease.”

Luna Lovegood is one of the most beloved characters in the Harry Potter series, however she is also a metaphor for the moon. “Luna” literally means “moon,” and the moon is a mythological sign of madness.  Luna has also been described as “glowing” and “pale,” in many books.  Luna is quite quirky and some even call her “mad” because of the conspiracy theories she subscribes to.

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets / Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

“Well, first the committee took turns in talking about ‘why we were there’. Then I stood up and said my bit, how Buckbeak was a good hippogriff, always cleaned his feathers. And then Lucius Malfoy got up…”

Rowling likes to make one character a metaphor for another character, and Buckbeak is the most prominent example of such. Buckbeak, a mythological creature that is put to death after “attacking” a privileged student, is a metaphor for Harry’s godfather, Sirius. Both were persecuted for crimes that they did not commit because they were not able to fight against the government.

Metaphors are sometimes difficult to spot, because they require quite a bit of thinking. Some metaphors, like Dementors as a metaphor for depression, actually need to be explicitly stated by the author. Look through the Harry Potter books (and films!) and see what metaphors you can find!

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Is Harry Potter an example of literature?

what kind of literature is harry potter

Table of Contents

  • 1 Is Harry Potter an example of literature?
  • 2 What type of hero is Harry Potter?
  • 3 Are the Harry Potter books classics?
  • 4 Is Harry Potter an epic hero?
  • 5 Is Narnia high fantasy?
  • 6 Is Harry Potter fantasy or magical realism?
  • 7 Is the Harry Potter series an epic fantasy?
  • 8 What makes a high fantasy an epic fantasy?

Harry Potter is considered a “good” literary work, and it can be assumed that it was written with good intentions.

What type of hero is Harry Potter?

Harry belongs in the category of underdog, an important hero-type in Franco, Blau, & Zimbardo’s (2011) taxonomy of heroism. He is in a world where everyone exceeds him in knowledge and experience. At Hogwarts, almost all the students grew up with wizards, and have had exposure to magic.

What defines a book as an epic?

Epic, long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds, although the term has also been loosely used to describe novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and motion pictures, such as Sergey Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible. In literary usage, the term encompasses both oral and written compositions.

Why is Harry Potter considered fantasy?

Harry Potter can even be considered a classic fantasy hero: the apparently ordinary and even oppressed child who turns out to be special. Some say that science fiction is not really a genre but is actually a type of modern fantasy. The magic of science fiction comes from the exploration of scientific fact.

Are the Harry Potter books classics?

The Harry Potter novels have been called “instant classics.” While it has already been over 4 years since the last book in the series was released only now are many marking the end of the Harry Potter saga with the release of the last film.

Is Harry Potter an epic hero?

The Harry Potter series contains a multitude of evidence that supports each aspect of epic literature, and therefore it is easy to see how it should be viewed as such. Harry’s unswerving bravery makes him a true hero, and the repeated themes of life – love and death – echo those of epic literature.

Which Weasley brother died in real life?

Knox died at the age of 18 after he was stabbed outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup, South East London, on 24 May 2008. He had intervened in a fight to protect his 17-year-old brother Jamie, who was being threatened by two men, one of whom was armed with two knives. Warner Bros.

What are the types of epic?

Types of Epic. There are two main types of epic: folk and literary. Folk epic is an old form of epic poem that was originally told in oral form. Over time authors tried to preserve them by writing them down in hard copies.

Is Narnia high fantasy?

Lewis’ Narnia, which means that both series are in the high fantasy subgenre. Since it often has a real-world setting, there is an overlap with low fantasy.

Is Harry Potter fantasy or magical realism?

the Harry Potter novels comprise elements of magic realism although it is not commonly called as a creation of the magic realism genre. It is an amalgamation of reality and fantasy, writing that works both inside and against the aesthetics of realism.

What makes Harry Potter such an epic hero?

Which is an example of an epic story?

Is the Harry Potter series an epic fantasy?

What makes a high fantasy an epic fantasy.

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What kind of literature is Harry Potter?

fantasy literature Structure and genre. The novels fall into the genre of fantasy literature, and qualify as a type of fantasy called “urban fantasy”, “contemporary fantasy”, or “low fantasy”.

Why is Harry Potter not considered literature?

The reason why it isn’t included right now is because it’s too soon. It’s still considered a children’s book by many and they haven’t delved into the series because if their opinion that it’s juvenile. It’s the same reason comic books are becoming scholarly acceptable forms of media for literature.

Is Harry Potter the 21st century’s most important literary work?

In this sense, Harry Potter is the 21st century’s most important literary work. A whole generation that forsook reading and adopted Facebook nevertheless read the series. In many senses, Harry Potter was the last book this generation read.

Why is Harry Potter considered a classic?

Why Harry Potter Is A Classic. Harry Potter is a character that most people have either read the books, seen the movies or have at least heard of. Harry, Ron, Hermione, as well as all characters J.K. Rowling creates, are detailed and realistic, that it’s hard to remember that these characters are only fictional……

What is the most expensive Harry Potter book ever sold?

Currently the most expensive copy of a Harry Potter book to have ever been sold, this copy of Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone makes all the other books in this list pale in comparison to its staggering price of $192,507.

What literary devices are used in the Harry Potter series?

The Harry Potter series, while certainly entertaining and geared toward young readers, actually has a lot to offer for readers of all ages and has many examples of these highly esteemed literary devices. Irony: Irony is one of the biggest literary devices out there, with three types being situational irony, verbal irony, and dramatic irony.

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What Kind of Owl Is Hedwig From the Harry Potter Series?

H arry Potter is one of the most popular books and movie series in the world. It’s so popular that the books have received films, spin-off series, and amusement park areas and rides. Within this magical world are many animals, including owls . Harry Potter even has his own, gifted to him on his 11th birthday, Hedwig. But who is Hedwig? What kind of owl is Hedwig? Follow along to find out.

What Kind of Owl is Hedwig?

In the Harry Potter series, Hedwig is a female snowy owl . Interestingly though, although Hedwig is portrayed as a female, the character was played by seven male snowy owls. The names of the owls that played Hedwig are Gizmo, Kasper, Swoops, Oh Oh, Elmo, Ook, and Sprout.

About Snowy Owls

Now that we know what kind of owl is Hedwig, let’s learn more about snowy owls. Snowy owls are members of the  Strigidae  family. They are also known as polar owls, Arctic owls, and white owls. These owls are native to Arctic regions in North America and Eurasia.

Snowy owls are easy to identify. They are best known for their brilliant white plumage that helps them blend into snow. Snowy owls either look like lumps of snow or pale rocks when on the ground. Although mostly white, they also have dark spots or bars. The ‘bars’ are easier to see in female snowy owls.

So, how big can these majestic animals get? Snowy owls are about 20 to 26 inches long and can weigh as much as 6.5 pounds. The  wingspan  of a snowy owl ranges from 4 to 5 feet. Females are larger than males. Snowy owls aren’t just beautiful though, they are also excellent hunters. These fierce birds eat  seabirds ,  deer mice ,  lemmings , ducks, and voles.

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    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 ...

  9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Study Guide

    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the first in a series of seven books centering on protagonist Harry Potter. Rowling also wrote a few companion books to the series, including The Tales of Beadle the Bard and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (the latter of which has also been turned into a movie). Rowling draws from a long tradition of British children's fantasies that have ...

  10. Harry Potter and the surprisingly poignant literary theme

    Harry Potter is the literary phenomenon of the past century, and while our society has had no difficulty celebrating J.K. Rowling's work, the literary community has been somewhat slower in...

  11. Harry Potter Books in Order: Your J.K. Rowling Reading List

    All the Harry Potter Books in Order: Your J.K. Rowling Reading List Of all the zeitgeist-defining fiction to come out of the past twenty years, perhaps none has been more universally beloved than the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

  12. Why Harry Potter Is Great Literature

    They loved the story of an angst-filled boy who found meaning in all the right places, and triumphed. Whether they realized it or not while they were reading, Rowling was helping them understand ...

  13. What Genre is Harry Potter?

    Children's Literature and Young-Adult Fiction Despite the fact that the series is read by children and adults alike, yes, at least the first books are clearly in the genre 'Children's Literature' whilst the later ones are more 'Young-Adult Fiction', aiming more at teenagers than at children.

  14. "Harry Potter" and Genre

    In John Sutherland's How Literature Works: 50 Key Concepts (2003), he provides a broad overview of the fantasy genre and explains that it is common for fantasy, as a genre, to overlap with other genres. He uses Harry Potter to exemplify the crossover between the fantasy and the school story.

  15. What Genre is Harry Potter: The Magical Classification

    Writing. Introduction. Since it first came out, J.K. Rowling's magical world of Harry Potter has won the hearts of readers of all ages. The series takes us on a magical trip full of spells, potions, mythical creatures, and the eternal battle between good and evil, much like the captivating worlds explored in Best Non-Fiction Adventure Books.Even though Genre Harry Potter is very famous ...

  16. What is the narrative type used in "Harry Potter" called?

    1 Answer Sorted by: 7 When a story is told from a single character's point of view, this type of narrative is known as third-person-limited narration (see Terms Used by Narratology and Film Theory by Dino Franco Felluga, Pudue University).

  17. Magical World of Harry Potter

    The true magic found in this children's fantasy series lies not only in its appeal to people of all ages but in its connection to the greater world of classic literature. Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventuresexplores the literary landscape of themes and genres J.K. Rowling artfully wove throughout her novels ...

  18. Why Harry Potter is Great Literature

    Why Harry Potter is Great Literature Home About Contact Support Blog In which I risk my friendship with people who read great books, by suggesting why Harry Potter is great literature.

  19. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Literary Elements

    1) Conflict between Lucius Malfoy's pure-blood ideology and Mr. Weasley's Muggle Protection Act. 2) Conflict between Salazar Slytherin's desire to limit admission to Hogwarts to pure-blood wizards and the other three founders' desire to admit Muggles and half-bloods. 3) Conflict between Lord Voldemort's desire to destroy Harry Potter and Harry ...

  20. 5 Metaphors in Harry Potter

    The author of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, is the master of comparing one thing to another. The book series, which has been read by (according to some estimates) 65% of children in developed countries, is a treasure trove of figurative language that reveals even deeper histories to the characters and the Wizarding World.

  21. Is Harry Potter an example of literature?

    Epic, long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds, although the term has also been loosely used to describe novels, such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, and motion pictures, such as Sergey Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible. In literary usage, the term encompasses both oral and written compositions. Why is Harry Potter considered fantasy?

  22. Harry Potter, literature or not? : r/books

    My university teacher said literature must be "deeper" and developed an intense debate about it. He doesn't consider literature Harry Potter, After and those "commercial books" (named this way by him). The RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) considers literature the art of verbal expression, including written or oral texts, but I think there can be ...

  23. What kind of literature is Harry Potter?

    The Harry Potter series, while certainly entertaining and geared toward young readers, actually has a lot to offer for readers of all ages and has many examples of these highly esteemed literary devices. Irony: Irony is one of the biggest literary devices out there, with three types being situational irony, verbal irony, and dramatic irony.

  24. The Potter Family Tree From 'Harry Potter' Explained

    The most famous of the Potters - Harry Potter - was born to Lily and James Potter on July 31st, 1980. Like his mother, father, and grandfather, Harry was sorted into Gryffindor at Hogwarts.

  25. Harry Potter: What Is the Difference Between Legilimency and ...

    RELATED: Harry Potter: The 7 Types of Spells, Explained What Is Legilimency? Legilimency is the ability to navigate through the "complex" and "many-layered" mind of a person to extract ...

  26. Harry Potter: Types of Wizarding Powers, Explained

    The worldbuilding of the Harry Potter universe is expansive, and there are so many aspects of the wizarding world that are only briefly touched on in the story. Harry meets a wide variety of ...

  27. What Kind of Owl Is Hedwig From the Harry Potter Series?

    Harry Potter is one of the most popular books and movie series in the world. It's so popular that the books have received films, spin-off series, and amusement park areas and rides. Within this ...

  28. WYC English Ambassadors on Instagram: "Book series: Harry Potter Author

    45 likes, 5 comments - wyc_eleu on October 25, 2022: "Book series: Harry Potter Author: J. K. Rowling As a Harry Potter fan, I want to share why you m..." WYC English Ambassadors on Instagram: "Book series: Harry Potter Author: J. K. Rowling As a Harry Potter fan, I want to share why you might want to read it if you have not, and if you have ...