萬眾矚目的《哈利波特》大結局——《哈利波特與死亡聖器》終於在7月21日揭開瞭她神秘的麵紗。不論是該書的哈迷，還是該書的作者J.K.羅琳，都感覺非常失落,因為陪伴大傢多年的哈利波特至此完成瞭他的使命。在大結局問世後首次現身倫敦簽售並接受采訪的她錶示：“在寫完《哈7》之後，自己感覺就像失去親人一樣的難受。”談及未來，她錶示，“我再也寫不齣這麼受歡迎的書瞭……我會做些跟寫《哈利波特》時相同的事——寫些自己真的想寫的東西，如果那跟《哈》相似，那沒問題，如果很不相同，那也沒問題。”

如今靠《哈利波特》小說名成利就的羅琳完成結局篇後可說是一身輕，不必再承受齣版社催稿的壓力，也可拋開書迷的殷切期望，目前她與丈夫和3名子女居於蘇格蘭愛丁堡，過著平靜的生活。

據國外媒體23日報道，全球最大在綫銷售網站“亞馬遜”和美國最大連鎖書店巴諾(Barnes＆Noble)均宣布，《哈利·波特與死聖》的預訂量超過 100萬冊。在一個披頭士樂隊式的瘋狂時刻，亞馬遜網站22日當天暢銷商品排行榜前七位均是與“哈利·波特”有關的産品，如《哈利·波特與死聖》CD。

《哈利·波特與死聖》在全美引發的狂潮讓負責齣品哈利·波特係列影片的美國華納兄弟影業公司有點兒坐不住瞭。該公司承認，“哈利·波特”係列電影之五《哈利· 波特與鳳凰社》的票房受到一些影響，因為“哈迷”已經忙地不可開交，哪有時間到電影院看電影。華納兄弟影業公司發行部主任丹·菲爾曼錶示：“他們希望在周六就買到那本書，然後將自己關在房間內，沉迷於哈利·波特的魔幻世界。他們可不希望自己的朋友捷足先登，在周一比自己先知道故事內容。”

如失去親人般痛苦

“哈迷”對《哈利·波特與死亡聖器》這本書的評價幾乎是異口同聲的溢美之詞，盡管一些“搗蛋者”在網上提前泄密瞭大結局，但仍無法阻擋讀者對它的熱情，一如既往對哈利·波特充滿期待。“哈迷”網站的版主梅利莎·安妮爾說：“這本書情節引人入勝，我想在搞明白《哈利·波特7》全部內容之前，起碼先大緻瀏覽一遍。我認為書中充滿瞭最令人激動、最令人驚喜的時刻。”

安妮爾說，她在周六一天一口氣兒就讀完瞭759頁的《哈利·波特與死亡聖器》。她說：“閤上書，我既狂喜又失落，故事情節和故事展開的方式不禁令人摺服，失落之處在於這個童話就此結束瞭。感覺就像失去親人般難受，感覺就像同多年至交說再見。”

20 歲的紐約州立大學電影係學生安娜·托德也是一名忠實的“哈迷”，為瞭早一點看到“哈利·波特”，她周六午夜就到巴諾連鎖書店在曼哈頓的聯閤廣場排隊取書。她在晚上時斷時續小睡瞭幾覺，並最終得償所願，拿到瞭哈利·波特與死亡聖器》。托德說：“J.K.羅琳確實沒有令讀者失望。我想她真是太棒瞭。有時，我害怕一直讀下去，因為讀完就隻能永遠地同‘哈利·波特’告彆瞭，這種感覺真是難受。”

她不禁哀嘆，“我永遠不會再徹夜看新的《哈利·波特》書瞭，也永遠不會再體驗半夜排隊購書的經曆瞭，永遠不會再編造有關哈利的各種荒誕說法瞭。一切都就此結束瞭。感覺就好像是與最好、最親的一個朋友永彆。我能做就是一遍遍地閱讀，將來我有孩子的時候，我會同他們一起分享這些書。我期待那一天早日到來。”

亞馬遜網同時為您奉上：

《哈利波特與死聖》（美國版）

《哈利波特與死聖》（美國豪華版）

《哈利波特與死聖》（英國特彆版）

《哈利波特與死聖》（英國成人版）

Amazon.co.uk Review

The Final Chapter

The pubdate of the seventh and final Harry Potter book has been announced, and the rumours are already circulating - what are the Deathly Hallows? Who will make it through to the end? This special edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is for any major fan of the series, offering a luxury jacket and binding, this is set to make the perfect present for any muggle!

From Publishers Weekly

Potter fans, relax—this review packs no spoilers. Instead, we’re taking advantage of our public platform to praise Rowling for the excellence of her plotting. We can’t think of anyone else who has sustained such an intricate, endlessly inventive plot over seven thick volumes and so constantly surprised us with twists, well-laid traps and Purloined Letter-style tricks. Hallows continues the tradition, both with sly feats of legerdemain and with several altogether new, unexpected elements. Perhaps some of the surprises in Hallows don’t have quite the punch as those of earlier books, but that may be because of the thoroughness and consistency with which Rowling has created her magical universe, and because we’ve so raptly absorbed its rules.

We’re also seizing the occasion to wish out loud that her editors had done their jobs more actively. It’s hard to escape the notion that the first three volumes were more carefully edited than the last four. Hallows doesn’t contain the extraneous scenes found in, say, Goblet of Fire, but the momentum is uneven. Rowling is much better at comedy than at fight scenes, and no reader of the sixth book will be startled to hear that Hallows has little humor or that its characters engage in more than a few fights. Surely her editors could have helped her find other methods of building suspense besides the use of ellipses and dashes? And craft fight dialogue that sounds a bit less like it belongs in a comic book? Okay, we’re quibbling. We know these minor nuisances won’t dent readers’ enjoyment, at least not this generation of readers; we couldn’t put Hallows down ourselves. But we believe Rowling, and future readers, deserved even better. Ages 9-12. (July)

Synopsis

'His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.' With these words "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" draws to a close. And here, in this seventh and final book, Harry discovers what fate truly has in store for him as he inexorably makes his way to that final meeting with Voldemort. In this thrilling climax to the phenomenally bestselling series, J.K. Rowling will reveal all to her eagerly waiting readers.

More Information about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. On 21 July 2007, all editions but the American were released at a minute past midnight (00:01) BST; the American and Canadian editions was released at a minute past midnight (00:01), local time. It was released globally in 93 countries.The book reached the top spot on both the Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble best-seller lists just a few hours after the date of publication was announced on 1 February 2007.

Why We Love Harry

Favorite Moments from the Series

There are plenty of reasons to love Rowling's wildly popular series--no doubt you have several dozen of your own. Our list features favorite moments, characters, and artifacts from the first five books. Keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive (what we love about Harry could fill ten books!) and does not include any of the spectacular revelatory moments that would spoil the books for those (few) who have not read them. Enjoy.

The Series of Harry Potter

The Harry Potter series was originally published as a children's book by British publisher Bloomsbury, and American publisher Scholastic Press. However, it rapidly became a phenomenal success amongst children and adults alike. The books each chronicle one year at school for the characters concerned and follows a long tradition of children's series about life in schools. Perhaps unlike some of the traditional series of this format, each book has matured and expanded in complexity and scope compared to the last, approximately developing with the age of the principal characters (later books are also significantly darker in tone than earlier ones). Although the author has said that she comprehensively plotted the entire series of books before the first was published, and that this plot remains unchanged, she has also stated that it has undergone a number of revisions as it has progressed. The books started as relatively slim volumes (223 pages Philosopher's Stone UK ed.), but have grown as the series progressed (766 pages Order of the Phoenix UK ed.).

The books contain a significant element of fantasy and magic, but this is combined with a detective-novel approach to the story. Each volume contains a complete problem and task for the heroes to complete, but each has also added to the background information about the wizarding world in general and contains many pieces of information whose importance only becomes apparent in later volumes (known as foreshadowing). Thus a considerable fan following has developed of people wanting to discover how the many loose ends and unfinished adventures in the book will finally be completed. The author has stated that, more than with any other book in the series, the final volume continues the unfinished story in book six. She has also stated that she doesn't have plans for any other novels concerning Harry Potter.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

* Harry's first trip to the zoo with the Dursleys, when a boa constrictor winks at him.

* When the Dursleys' house is suddenly besieged by letters for Harry from Hogwarts. Readers learn how much the Dursleys have been keeping from Harry. Rowling does a wonderful job in displaying the lengths to which Uncle Vernon will go to deny that magic exists.

* Harry's first visit to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. Full of curiosities and rich with magic and marvel, Harry's first trip includes a trip to Gringotts and Ollivanders, where Harry gets his wand (holly and phoenix feather) and discovers yet another connection to He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named. This moment is the reader's first full introduction to Rowling's world of witchcraft and wizards.

* Harry's experience with the Sorting Hat.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

* The de-gnoming of the Weasleys' garden. Harry discovers that even wizards have chores--gnomes must be grabbed (ignoring angry protests "Gerroff me! Gerroff me!"), swung about (to make them too dizzy to come back), and tossed out of the garden--this delightful scene highlights Rowling's clever and witty genius.

* Harry's first experience with a Howler, sent to Ron by his mother.

* The Dueling Club battle between Harry and Malfoy. Gilderoy Lockhart starts the Dueling Club to help students practice spells on each other, but he is not prepared for the intensity of the animosity between Harry and Draco. Since they are still young, their minibattle is innocent enough, including tickling and dancing charms.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

* Ron's attempt to use a telephone to call Harry at the Dursleys'.

* Harry's first encounter with a Dementor on the train (and just about any other encounter with Dementors). Harry's brush with the Dementors is terrifying and prepares Potter fans for a darker, scarier book.

* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's behavior in Professor Trelawney's Divination class. Some of the best moments in Rowling's books occur when she reminds us that the wizards-in-training at Hogwarts are, after all, just children. Clearly, even at a school of witchcraft and wizardry, classes can be boring and seem pointless to children.

* The Boggart lesson in Professor Lupin's classroom.

* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's knock-down confrontation with Snape.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

* Hermione's disgust at the reception for the veela (Bulgarian National Team Mascots) at the Quidditch World Cup. Rowling's fourth book addresses issues about growing up--the dynamic between the boys and girls at Hogwarts starts to change. Nowhere is this more plain than the hilarious scene in which magical cheerleaders nearly convince Harry and Ron to jump from the stands to impress them.

* Viktor Krum's crush on Hermione--and Ron's objection to it.

* Malfoy's "Potter Stinks" badge.

* Hermione's creation of S.P.E.W., the intolerant bigotry of the Death Eaters, and the danger of the Triwizard Tournament. Add in the changing dynamics between girls and boys at Hogwarts, and suddenly Rowling's fourth book has a weight and seriousness not as present in early books in the series. Candy and tickle spells are left behind as the students tackle darker, more serious issues and take on larger responsibilities, including the knowledge of illegal curses.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

* Harry's outburst to his friends at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. A combination of frustration over being kept in the dark and fear that he will be expelled fuels much of Harry's anger, and it all comes out at once, directly aimed at Ron and Hermione. Rowling perfectly portrays Harry's frustration at being too old to shirk responsibility, but too young to be accepted as part of the fight that he knows is coming.

* Harry's detention with Professor Umbridge. Rowling shows her darker side, leading readers to believe that Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven for young wizards. Dolores represents a bureaucratic tyrant capable of real evil, and Harry is forced to endure their private battle of wills alone.

* Harry and Cho's painfully awkward interactions. Rowling clearly remembers what it was like to be a teenager.

* Harry's Occlumency lessons with Snape.

* Dumbledore's confession to Harry.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

* The introduction of the Horcrux.

* Molly Weasley asking Arthur Weasley about his "dearest ambition." Rowling has always been great at revealing little intriguing bits about her characters at a time, and Arthur’s answer "to find out how airplanes stay up" reminds us about his obsession with Muggles.

* Harry's private lessons with Dumbledore, and more time spent with the fascinating and dangerous pensieve, arguably one of Rowling’s most ingenious inventions.

* Fred and George Weasley’s Joke Shop, and the slogan: "Why Are You Worrying About You-Know-Who? You Should Be Worrying About U-NO-POO--the Constipation Sensation That's Gripping the Nation!"

* Luna's Quidditch commentary. Rowling created scores of Luna Lovegood fans with hilarious and bizarre commentary from the most unlikely Quidditch commentator.

* The effects of Felix Felicis.

More About Author

J. K. (Jo) Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury in the UK in 1965. Such a funny-sounding name for a birthplace may have contributed to her talent for collecting odd names.

Jo moved house twice when she was growing up. The first move was from Yate (just outside Bristol in the south west of England) to Winterbourne. Jo, her sister and friends used to play together in her street in Winterbourne. Two of her friends were a brother and sister whose surname just happened to be Potter! The second move was when Jo was nine and she moved to Tutshill near Chepstow in the Forest of Dean. Jo loved living in the countryside and spent most of her time wandering across fields and along the river Wye with her sister. For Jo, the worst thing about her new home was her new school.

Tutshill Primary School was a very small and very old-fashioned place. The roll-top desks in the classrooms still had the old ink wells. Jo's teacher, Mrs Morgan, terrified her. On the first day of school, she gave Jo an arithmetic test, which she failed, scoring zero out of ten. It wasn't that Jo was stupid - she had never done fractions before. So Jo was seated in the row of desks far to the right of Mrs Morgan. Jo soon realised that Mrs Morgan seated her pupils according to how clever she thought they were: the brightest sat to her left, and those she thought were dim were seated to her right. Jo was in the 'stupid' row, 'as far right as you could possibly get without sitting in the playground'.

From Tutshill Primary, Jo went to Wyedean Comprehensive. She was quiet, freckly, short-sighted and not very good at sports. She even broke her arm playing netball. Her favourite subject by far was English, but she also liked languages.

Jo always loved writing more than anything. 'The first story that I ever wrote down, when I was five or six, was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee. And ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have wanted to be a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid they'd tell me I didn't have a hope.'

At school, Jo would entertain her friends at lunchtime with stories. 'I used to tell my equally quiet and studious friends long serial stories at lunchtimes.' In these stories, Jo and her friends would be heroic and daring.

As she got older, Jo kept writing but she never showed what she had written to anyone, except for some of her funny stories that featured her friends as heroines.

After school, Jo attended the University of Exeter in Devon where she studied French. Her parents hoped that by studying languages, she would enjoy a great career as a bilingual secretary. But as Jo recalls, 'I am one of the most disorganised people in the world and, as I later proved, the worst secretary ever.' She claims that she never paid much attention in meetings because she was too busy scribbling down ideas. 'This is a problem when you are supposed to be taking the minutes of the meeting,' she says.

When she was 25, Jo started writing a third novel ('I abandoned the first two when I realised how bad they were'). A year later, she went to Portugal to teach English, which she really enjoyed. Working afternoons and evenings, she had mornings free to write. The new novel was about a boy who was a wizard.

When she returned to the UK, Jo had a suitcase full of stories about Harry Potter. She moved to Edinburgh with her young daughter and worked as a French teacher. She also set herself a target: she would finish the 'Harry' novel and get it published. In 1996, one year after finishing the book, Bloomsbury bought Jo's first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

'The moment I found out that Harry would be published was one of the best of my life,’ says Jo. A few months after 'Harry' was accepted for publication in Britain, an American publisher bought the rights for enough money to enable Jo to give up teaching and write full time - her life's ambition!

Book Dimension

length: (cm)24.1 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)15.5