Chuckles Retro Review: Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling (Harry Potter #1)

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

My Review:
Finally it is time for another re-read of this book and a more in depth review of it.

Harry has spent his entire childhood living with his mean Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and bullying cousin Dudley. He has to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs with the spiders and wear Dudley's hand-me-down clothes. His fellow school pupils are too afraid of Dudley's gang to be his friend, he never gets a proper birthday or day out...and strange things seem to happen around him without him understanding why. Life changes forever when a mysterious letter addressed to Harry's cupboard arrives at the house and sends his aunt and uncle into fits of terror.

Harry discovers on his eleventh birthday that he is a wizard. His parents did not die in a car crash as he has been told, but were murdered by the evil wizard Voldemort, who vanished when he also failed to kill Harry. Harry is famous in the wizarding world that he knows nothing about but he has been offered a place at Hogwart's School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he can learn magic with others of his kind, and escape the Dursley's for a while. He is plunged into a new world on a visit to Diagon Alley to buy his school supplies, accompanied by school gamekeeper Hagrid. Now he has spellbooks, a wand and a new life ahead of him, but the spectre of Voldemort is not far away.

A work colleague tried to get me to read this series back in 2001 but it was two years later that I picked it up on a whim. Uncle Vernon's bad day and the owl invasion of his home had me laughing from the very start and I got into the book straight away. It was impossible not to feel for Harry, finding out his whole life is a lie, living with relatives who hate him, and then introduced to a new world that he knows nothing about. His instant friendship with Ron lets the reader learn from Ron about the wizarding world along with Harry, with added information from Hagrid about Voldemort. The other kids like Seamus, Dean, Neville and the mildly annoying know-it-all antics of Hermione are all interesting, along with the nasty Draco Malfoy and his goon friends Crabbe and Goyle, add an interesting mix of characters to enjoy.

There is plenty humour in the form of Ron's brothers-the stuck up prefect Percy, and the daft antics of twins Fred and George, with their friend Lee. We also get a brief look at Ron's long suffering mother Molly, who must be driven mad by Fred and George! Hagrid is hilarious at failing to keep the secrets he has been entrusted with, sneaking about with his wand disguised inside a pink umbrella, and his decision to illegally rear a baby dragon in his wooden house was the funniest bit in the book for me. He is a really great character. There is also poor Neville who always seems to be picked on by the Slytherins, the teachers and his scary grandmother, and can never seem to do anything right in his classes.

There is also danger in the form of the sinister Professor Snape who seems to detest Harry for no reason, a Halloween troll in the school, evil things lurking in the dark forest beside the school and a plot to steal something of great value from the school itself. Harry and his new friends find themselves up to their neck in trouble as the term continues, and they are the only thing preventing the return of Voldemort himself. Can they thwart the evil servant of Voldemort who has found a way to bring him back to power? Can they beat the spells and enchantments to get to the object of power first?

I can fully understand why kids fell in love with Harry and his friends. The world-building is excellent and I loved the visit to Diagon Alley and having Harry visit the shops and slowly learn about his new world. The invention of Quidditch was a masterstroke and the match added a whole new interest to the plot. The various classes and teachers were interesting, especially Snape, though we don't find out until later why he hates Harry. I enjoyed the endgame where the kids have to try to save the stone from Voldemort. It is a fun adventure with action and humour that all ages can enjoy.

When I first read it, I marvelled at how Dumbledore would allow his young students into such danger, but of course, we understand that as we get to the later books in the series. I do think that Dumbledore should have clamped down on the way that Snape bullied pupils like Harry and Neville, because his behaviour was terrible. Teachers should never be allowed to get away with what Snape was doing.

I last re-read the book about four years ago and I enjoyed it just as much this time round.

Read March 2020
5 star.