Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The novel begins with the attempts of Dobby the house elf to stop Harry from attending the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Harry finally arrives at school, several sinister events occur, such as the attacks upon, and subsequent petrification of, Muggle born students and ghosts. Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione are quickly exposed to a 50-year-old mystery that appears tied to the attacks. The novel delves into the history of Hogwarts and a legend revolving around the "Chamber of Secrets", the underground lair of an ancient evil. For the first time, Harry realises that racial prejudice exists in the wizarding world, and he learns that Voldemort's reign of terror was often directed at wizards who were descended from Muggles.

Harry is also shocked to learn that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes; this rare ability is often equated with the dark arts. Because of this ability, and the fact that Harry is often seen at the scenes of the attacks, many of the students at Hogwarts believe that Harry is a dark or evil wizard. Harry deals with the prejudices of his peers throughout the novel as he investigates the cause of the attacks. The novel ends after Harry saves the life of Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, by defeating an attempt by Voldemort to reincarnate himself through the memories he stored within a diary

J.K.Rowling

J.K (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling is a British author best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series including Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the idea for which was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990.

Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling (née Volant), on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles  northeast of Bristol. She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded almost 200 years ago by famed abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More. Her elderly headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, was claimed as the inspiration for the Harry Potter character Albus Dumbledore.

As a child, Rowling enjoyed writing fantasy stories, which she often read to her sister. "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it," she recalls, "Certainly the first story 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."

In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry "came fully formed" into her mind. "I really don't know where the idea came from", she told The Boston Globe, "It started with Harry, then all these characters and situations came flooding into my head." When she had reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write immediately.

However, in December of that year, Rowling’s mother died, after her ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis.Rowling commented, "I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter."Rowling said this death heavily affected her writing and that she introduced much more detail about Harry's loss in the first book, because she knew about how it felt.

Rowling then moved to Porto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. While there, on 16 October 1992, she married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes. Their one child, Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica Mitford), was born on 27 July 1993 in Portugal.They separated in November 1993 In December 1994, Rowling and her daughter moved to be near her sister in Edinburgh, Scotland.During this period Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression, and contemplated suicide.It was the feeling of her illness which brought her the idea of Dementors, soulless creatures featured in Harry Potter.

After Jessica's birth and the separation from her husband, Rowling had left her teaching job in Portugal. In order to teach in Scotland she would need a postgraduate certificate of education, requiring a full-time, year-long course of study. She began this course in August 1995,after completing her first novel while having survived on welfare. She wrote in many cafés, especially Nicolson's Café, whenever she could get Jessica to fall asleep.In a 2001 BBC interview, Rowling denied the rumour that she wrote in local cafés to escape from her unheated flat, remarking, "I am not stupid enough to rent an unheated flat in Edinburgh in midwinter. It had heating." Instead, as she stated on the American TV program A&E Biography, one of the reasons she wrote in cafés was because taking her baby out for a walk was the best way to make her fall asleep.

J.K.Rowling's sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone carries on where the original left off. Harry is returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after the summer holidays and, right from the start, things are not straightforward.

Unable to board the Hogwarts express, Harry and his friends break all the rules and make their way to the school in a magical flying car. From this point on, incredible events happen to Harry and his friends--Harry hears evil voices and someone, or something is attacking the pupils. Can Harry get to the bottom of the mystery before it's too late?

As with its predecessor Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a highly readable and imaginative adventure story with real, fallible, characters, plenty of humour and, of course, loads of magic and spells. There is no need to have read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to enjoy this book. However, if you have read it, this is the book you have been waiting for...    　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　                                                               －－  Philippa Reece

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is as good as its predecessor. Hogwarts is a creation of genius.
　　　　　　                                                    －－The Times Literary Supplement

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