Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The fastest-selling book in history at release (roughly fifteen million copies in twenty-four hours) and the conclusion that secured the series' canonical arc; filmed as the franchise's two-part finale.
Book Entry · Fantasy
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by J. K. Rowling · 1997 · Harry Potter, book 1
What is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone about?
Harry Potter, eleven, sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs of the worst relatives in children's fiction until the letters arrive — thousands of them, increasingly insistent — and Hagrid kicks the door down with the news: he's a wizard, he's famous, and the scar on his forehead is a souvenir from the dark lord who killed his parents and could not kill him. Hogwarts follows: Diagon Alley, the Sorting Hat, Quidditch, a troll in the dungeon, and three first-years unravelling the mystery of what Fluffy guards. The architecture — school year as plot engine, mystery per volume, war beneath the whimsy — was in place from page one.
Why it matters
The bestselling opening volume in publishing history and the recruitment event for a global reading generation: whatever else is said (and everything has been), the modern mass audience for fantasy walks through this book.
Where does it sit in the series?
Seven school years, one prophecy and the bestselling book series ever printed: the boarding-school fantasy that built modern publishing's mass readership.
In the Guide from Harry Potter:
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