Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published on June 26, 1997, by J. K.
Rowling
Joanne Rowling was born on 31st July 1965 at Yate General Hospital near Bristol and grew up
in Gloucestershire in England and in Chepstow, Gwent, in south-east Wales.
Her father, Peter, was an aircraft engineer at the Rolls Royce factory in Bristol and her mother,
Anne, was a science technician in the Chemistry department at Wyedean Comprehensive,
where Jo herself went to school. Anne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Jo was a
teenager and died in 1990, before the Harry Potter books were published. Jo also has a
younger sister, Di.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is JK Rowling’s first novel about Harry Potter and is
magical adventures. Just as in the other novels, the book takes place in England in the 1990s.
The book opens at 4 Privet Drive in Surrey: the home of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, Harry’s
Aunt and Uncle. There, Harry learns that not only are their witches and wizards but that his
parents were famous ones, and he has been accepted to their alma mater: Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before going to school, Harry stops at Diagon Alley, where all the
young witches and wizards pick up their school supplies. One of the most important stops is at
Ollivanders, where Harry picks up his first wand. To get to his new boarding school, Harry must
take the train. He goes to King’s Cross Station (an actual train station in London). He goes to
the magical platform numbered 9¾. The rest of the novel takes place at Harry's new school,
Hogwarts.
Harry Potter is an orphan whom Rowling imagined as a "scrawny, black-haired,
green eyed and bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard. Harry has
a natural talent for Quidditch and became the first person in a century to get on
their team in their first year.
Ronald Weasley is Harry's age and Rowling describes him as the ultimate best
friend, "always there when you need him."[6] He is freckled, red-haired and quite
tall.
Hermione Granger, the daughter of an all-Muggle family, is a bossy girl who
has apparently memorised most of the textbooks before the start of term.
Rowling described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character
Professor Albus Dumbledore, a tall, thin man who wears half-moon spectacles
and has silver hair and a beard that tucks into his belt, is the headmaster of
Hogwarts, and thought to be the only wizard Voldemort fears.
Professor Minerva McGonagall, a tall, severe-looking woman with black hair
tied in a tight bun, teaches Transfiguration, and is able to transform herself into
a cat.
Draco Malfoy is a slim, pale boy who speaks in a bored drawl. He is arrogant
about his skill in Quidditch, and despises anyone who is not a pure-blood
wizard – and wizards who do not share his views.
Professor Quirrell is a twitching, stammering and nervous man who
teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts. Reputedly he was a brilliant scholar,
but his nerve was shattered by an encounter with vampires. Quirrell wears a
turban to conceal the fact that he is voluntarily possessed by Voldemort, whose
face appears on the back of Quirrell's head.
Professor Severus Snape, who has a hooked nose, sallow complexion and
greasy black hair, teaches Potions, but would prefer to teach Defence Against
the Dark Arts. Snape favours pupils in Slytherin, his own House, and seizes
every opportunity to humiliate others, especially Harry.
Harry Potter is not a normal boy. Raised by his cruel Aunt and Uncle, and tormented by his
bully of a cousin, Dudley, he has resigned to a life of neglect. On his eleventh birthday,
however, a half-giant called Hagrid comes crashing-–quite literally-–into his life, and
announces that Harry is a wizard. Together they journey to London to get school supplies for
Harry’s first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
After accidentally stumbling into a forbidden corridor and finding a three-headed dog guarding
a mysterious trapdoor, the trio attempt to find out what’s concealed within. Some useful slip-
ups from Hagrid lead them to research a man called Nicholas Flamel. When Harry uses his
father’s Invisibility Cloak to search at night, he happens upon a curious mirror which shows
him his dead parents and family. Headmaster Albus Dumbledore reveals to him that this
Mirror of Erised shows the beholder their deepest desires, and that what Harry wants most in
the world is a family.
The four are given detentions, which they carry out with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest. Harry
and Draco come across a slain Unicorn, and crouching over it is the dark wizard, Lord
Voldemort, the man who killed Harry’s parents and who Harry supposedly defeated as a baby.
Hermione realises that what is hidden behind the trapdoor is the Philosopher’s Stone, which
makes the person who possesses it immortal. The three guess that Voldemort wants the
Stone, and that the suspicious Professor Snape is helping him. They journey through the many
obstacles that lie behind the trapdoor to get to the Stone, but Harry finds that it is Professor
Quirrell who was helping Voldemort all along. He manages to defeat Voldemort and save the
Stone, but not Quirrell’s life. After Dumbledore explains all to him, Harry leaves Hogwarts at
the end of the year, returning to his Aunt and Uncle.
The main themes in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone include friendship, privilege, nature
versus nurture, discovery, and the power of love.
