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In early July 2005, a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fourteen copies of The Half-Blood Prince before the authorised release date.
- J. K Rowling
- 2005
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Media Adaptations
- Themes
- Style
- Topics For Further Study
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
J. K. Rowling continues her enormously popular series about a young, orphaned wizard with her sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005). Once again breaking sales records on both sides of the Atlantic, Rowling's second-to-last Harry Potterbook keeps readers on the edge of their seats by killing a beloved character at the end, as sh...
J. K. Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on July 31, 1965, in Chipping Sodbury, England. After a thorough education in the classics, including a degree from Exeter University, Rowling worked various jobs before becoming a full-time writer. She was married in 1992 and had a daughter in 1993, but she divorced her husband that year. As a single mother, s...
Chapters 1-5
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince begins with the confused muggle, or non-magic, prime minister overseeing various calamities happening throughout England. Cornelius Fudge, the former minister of magic, reveals that Voldemort has regained power and is wreaking havoc on the wizarding and non-wizarding worlds alike. Rufus Scrimgeour, the new minister of magic, visits the muggle prime ministerand informs him he has assigned a wizard guard to protect the office. The scene changes as Draco Ma...
Chapters 6-10
Harry celebrates his sixteenth birthday at the Burrow. As the school year approaches, he and the Weasleys visit Diagon Alley to buy books and, in the process, run into Draco Malfoy. Their suspicions aroused, Harry, Ron, and Hermione follow Draco into a shop known for dealing in objects associated with the dark arts. They overhear a vague conversation in which Draco refers to mending something, and Harry believes he is involved in an evil plot; Ron and Hermione do not agree. Aboard the Hogwart...
Chapters 11-15
The sixth-years find out that their classes will be highly demanding. Harry decides to continue using the suggestions in his borrowed potions book because they seem to produce positive results; Hermione voices her disapproval of this decision. Romantic relationships begin to form as Ron and Hermione flirt with each other. Hermione even helps Ron win his Quidditch tryout by magically sabotaging his competition. Both friends still maintain that Harry overreacts in his concerns about Draco, and...
Fleur Delacour
Part Veela, Fleur is a beautiful woman who visited Hogwarts during the Tri-Wizard tournament in Harry's fourth year. Her engagement to Bill Weasley is not initially welcomed by the Weasley family because they find her haughty and somewhat shallow.
Dobby
The house-elf Harry freed in his second year, Dobby now works in the kitchens at Hogwarts. He appears whenever Harry needs him, this year helping him investigate an evil plot in the castle by following Draco Malfoy and keeping watch on Kreacher.
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore is a most powerful wizard and remains the only wizard Voldemort has ever feared. Dumbledore advises the Ministry of Magic and holds the loyalty of many wizarding families. He also gains Harry's confidence and esteem with his kindness, becoming a father figure to the orphaned boy. In Harry's sixth year, Dumbledore investigates Voldemort's past and helps Harry realize that he must eventually defeat the evil wizard. He generally attempts a peaceful solution bef...
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princewas released in an unabridged version on audio CD by Listening Library in 2005. Jim Dale narrates. This CD is widely available through bookstores and online merchants. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stonewas adapted as a film in 2001, starring Daniel Radcliffe and directed by Chris Columbus. Running 152 minute...
Good versus Evil
The main conflict in Rowling's seven-book series seems to be a clear-cut battle between the evil Lord Voldemort and the good Harry Potter. But each successive novel complicates this simple equation, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princeis no exception. Between her depiction of the Ministry of Magic as inept and her vague characterizations of Professor Snape's loyalties, Rowling leaves the reader to question uncontextualized notions of good and evil. Harry Potter clearly represents good i...
Individual Responsibility
Harry approaches manhood this year, and he begins to realize the responsibilities he will face as an adult. For such a young man, he has faced much loss in his life. First, Voldemort killed his parents in an attempt to kill Harry as a baby. Then, he spent eleven years with his aunt and uncle, who neglected him. Soon after finding some respite from his loneliness with his godfather Sirius Black, Harry loses Sirius, who was killed fighting Voldemort. Finally, Dumbledore protects Harry during th...
Series
From the beginning, Rowling envisioned the Harry Potter series as consisting of seven books, one for each year of Harry's schooling at Hogwarts. The series follows the lives of the same main characters—Harry, Ron, and Hermione—through each novel and continues the narrative from one book to the next. Although each of the Harry Potterbooks can stand independently, there are several plotlines and thematic threads that link the series together, and each successive novel moves the characters and t...
Of Rowling's main characters, who can be considered "good" and who can be considered "evil"? What defines a character as good or evil? Does Rowling rely mainly on actions to determine a character's...Albus Dumbledore lives by the philosophy that love is stronger than evil and more powerful than magic. What kind of love does Dumbledore mean? For what purpose? Cite examples from the novel where n...Research the role of the sidekick in literature. How do Ron and Hermione play the role of sidekick? How have their roles changed or stayed the same by Harry's sixth year? Are they truly sidekicks,...Watch the Harry Potter movie adaptations. Which characters in the books are represented as the books present them, and which characters seem different? Cite examples from the texts to show discrepa...Literary Sensation
Published as the sixth of a seven-book series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princewas greatly anticipated by readers worldwide. Rowling's novels continue to attract vast numbers of fans, young and old alike, and thus each text's publication is a cultural event in itself. Midnight book launches as well as enormous speculation regarding plot turns accompanied this book's debut. Criminal allegations were even made in cases of content leaks and premature book distributions. The frenzy over Har...
The War on Terror
Politically, the sixth book in the series takes place in a divisive and chaotic fictional environment. The Ministry of Magic tries to protect the muggle community because Voldemort expands his cruelty to include devastation outside of the magical world. Rowling presents a world with many similarities to the political environment of the early twenty-first century. In Great Britain and America especially, involvement in the Iraq War and the War on Terrorism continue to dominate the political la...
Rowling's writing has garnered so much praise from adoring fans that most early negative criticism has dissipated. Whereas some critics of the series cite Rowling's childlike approach in her early novels, the later novels' growing complexity in character development and plot seem to impress most readers. Further, the novels' continuing entertainmen...
In early July 2005, a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fourteen copies of Half-Blood Prince before the authorized release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books before the ...
Jul 22, 2007 · The sales figure exceeded the 850,000 copies of “Half-Blood Prince” that Borders sold on the first day of sales two years ago.
- The Other Minister. "The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister." — Rufus Scrimgeour, to the Muggle Prime Minister. The Muggle Prime Minister receives a notice that Cornelius Fudge is to meet him.
- Spinner's End. "Do you really think that the Dark Lord has not asked me each and every one of those questions? And do you really think that, had I not been able to give satisfactory answers, I would be sitting here talking to you?
- Will and Won't. ""It is a long time since my last visit... I must say, your agapanthus are flourishing. " — Dumbledore, to the Dursleys. Albus Dumbledore comes to visit Harry Potter at 4 Privet Drive to take him to The Burrow, where he would spend the rest of his summer holidays.
- Horace Slughorn. "He seemed remarkably unabashed for a man who had just been discovered pretending to be an armchair." — Description of Horace Slughorn.
In a Nutshell. Within 24 hours of its publication on July 16, 2005, nine million copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had been sold in the United States and in Britain alone. It became the fastest selling book in history at that time.
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In June 2005, Aaron Lambert, a security guard at a book distribution centre in Corby, Northamptonshire, England, stole a number of pages from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince six weeks before its intended publication date. He was arrested a day later after negotiations to sell them to John Askill, a journalist from The Sun, turned violent.
