urely, somewhere in a galaxy far, far away, someone has not heard of Harry Potter. I wouldn't bet the ranch on it, though. The little rascal has become the most famous wizard in the world.
Harry, as we all know, is the creation of J. K. Rowling, a Scot who is credited with liberating children from television and computer games. The fictional exploits of her teenage wizard at the mysterious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have captured the imagination of millions of children.
Children are reading again and the sales of her books have been phenomenal. The New York Times called the release of her latest book "the literary equivalent of the Beatles at Shea Stadium," as kids queued up at bookstores from coast to coast.
In London, UK, they swamped Waterstone's Book Store in Piccadilly Circus screaming "HARRY POT-TAH!" Here at home, they lined up at midnight at Chapters on Pinecrest Road, resplendent in wizard regalia or had the book delivered by a special Saturday Potter Post.
The print run of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has been set at an unprecedented 5.3 million copies. Amazon.com. Inc. said the book is the biggest pre-sale ever and bookstores broke records for first-dayand first-week sales.
The New York Times Review of Books plans to introduce a separate best-seller list for children, fuelled by the popularity of the Harry Potter series. The first three books have dominated its influential fiction list for the last two years. J. K. Rowling, a former welfare mom, is now worth an estimated $270 million.
This intrepid reviewer, after standing in line to pick up a copy of the book with hordes of wand-waving kids at Mrs. Tiggywinkle on Bank Street, spent the next few days browsing through the first three Potter books in order to make these comments on the fourth. Put off by the overwhelming hype, I confess that I went in looking for things to dislike. I came out delighted.
Certainly, better children's books have been written, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, C. S.Lewis's Narnia stories, Alice in Wonderland' and Charlotte's Web come to mind and the England Rowling describes has not existed since Tom Brown's Schooldays, if indeed it ever did.
Sometimes cliched and loosely structured, the books are not profound. They are, however, great fun. The Goblet of Fire, at a hefty 636 pages, is essentially about the triumph of goodness over evil and offerschildren the moral clarity they yearn for.
Harry is every-kid, alone and afraid in a world he never made. A fourteen year-old, bespectacled adolescent, his parents have been killed by the evil Lord Voldemart who is also responsible for the thunderbolt scar on his forehead.
Forced to live among the Muggles - those who consistently fail to see or understand the magic around them - he is very badly treated by his aunt, uncle and cousin, and longs to escape. Informed that he is a wizard by a friend of his parents, he is whisked off to Hogwarts, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Hogwarts is a gothic, fantastic place peopled with characters like Severus Shape, teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts, Cho Chang the star Quidditch player, Mad-Eye Moody, the gossip monger, Rita Skeeter, the Death-Eaters, Gindylows, Blast-and-end Skrewts and House-elves. In all its improbable glory, it is the place where Harry has always been happiest.
The plot, such as it is, revolves around a tournament which will pitthe finest athlete from each of the three largest schools of wizardry, Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Hogwarts, against each other for the Triwizard Cup, an event that has not been held for more than a century.
Hogwart's motto is Maco Dormiens Nunquam Titilland or "Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon" Suffice it to say, in the final scenes. Harry must face the "Sleeping Dragon" alone.
The literary critic Harold Bloom has written that Harry appeals to millions of readers because they sense his wistful sincerity and wish to join his world, imaginary or not. He feeds a vast hunger for unreality or at least an alternative world to that of his wretched relatives, the Dursleys. of No.4 Privet Drive, London.
Bloom recommends that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire be read very quickly as it does little to enrich the spirit or personality. It is part, he says, "of a vast concourse of inadequate works for adults and for children which cram the dustbins of the ages."
Ignore him, kids, he's a Muggle.