Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) in Easley Library Bookworms

Mar 22, 2008 Werner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: supernatural-fiction

Note, May 4, 2020: Since I read all of the Harry Potter books before joining Goodreads, and since my time limitations are such that it's rare for me to write more than one "retrospective" review of books in the same series, I really wrote the material below as a (relatively short!) review of the entire series. So, I thought it might be constructive to add this note clarifying that fact.

Rowling's Harry Potter series, which begins with this book, is one of the greatest works of modern literature, Note, May 4, 2020: Since I read all of the Harry Potter books before joining Goodreads, and since my time limitations are such that it's rare for me to write more than one "retrospective" review of books in the same series, I really wrote the material below as a (relatively short!) review of the entire series. So, I thought it might be constructive to add this note clarifying that fact.

Rowling's Harry Potter series, which begins with this book, is one of the greatest works of modern literature, in any genre, and one of the best reading experiences I've ever had in any genre! The characterizations, especially of Harry, bring the characters to life and make you care about them; the intricate, carefully-dovetailed plotting (very skillfully incorporating mystery elements; Rowling could have gone to the top of the mystery genre, too!) is worthy of Dickens; and the imaginative details with which the author constructs her wizard's world are breathtaking. Most importantly, the book (and the whole series) has a solid moral grounding, from which it presents a serious tale of the struggle of good and evil. The whole thing is leavened with an adorable sense of humor and fun; and the author deftly weaves in elements drawn from an obviously wide acquaintance with a variety of actual arcane lore. (Of course, the titular "sorcerer's stone" of the American edition is the philosopher's stone of medieval alchemy --which the editors thought American readers would be too ignorant to recognize by its proper name.)

Ironically, Rowling (a practicing member of the Church of Scotland, who lists C. S. Lewis and Tolkien among her major literary influences) was pilloried by many Christians as having written a work that glorifies satanism --with which they equate ANY mention of magic in literature. Invocational magic, which calls on dark powers, or seeks to coerce God, to produce its effects, is certainly condemned in Scripture. But magic of the incantational variety --what early modern scholars called "natural magic"-- which draws on morally neutral, inanimate forces created as part of the universe, analogous to magnetism or electricity (which were both viewed as "natural magic" at one time) presents no theological problem for Christians. All of the "magic" in this series is strictly of the incantational sort. (Of course, that distinction is lost on those who condemn the series without reading any of it!) ...more

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