Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

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This article is about the book. For information on the character, see Half-Blood Prince (character).

Image:Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.jpg

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth novel in J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, it prepares the reader for his last battles with Lord Voldemort, whose past is examined in much more detail than in any previous book in the series, and it also deals with the emerging romantic relationships of various students. When it was released on July 16, 2005, it was the first book in the United Kingdom to have a simultaneous standard print, large print, and Braille edition release.

In 24 hours, the book sold 6.9 million copies in the United States alone, or 287,500 books per hour, making it the fastest selling book in history. It generated over $100 million in sales out of the gate, outpacing even the combined take of the top movies at the box office. Bookseller Barnes and Noble reported sales averaging 105 copies per second in the first hour of sales.[1]

Contents

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Dedication

Image:Harry Potter lines.jpg

Rowling became pregnant with her third child during the writing of this book, and often joked about them racing each other into the world. For this reason, the book was dedicated to her:

To Mackenzie,
My beautiful daughter,
I dedicate
Her ink-and-paper twin
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Plot overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.


Voldemort and his allies begin to act openly, causing widespread chaos and paranoia in Britain. Rufus Scrimgeour has replaced Cornelius Fudge as Minister of Magic after a public outcry following Fudge's mishandling of the early stages of Voldemort's attack on the wizarding world. Dementors have abandoned Azkaban and started to breed.

Severus Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Draco Malfoy's mother Narcissa that he will protect Draco and aid him in his first mission as a Death Eater.

Security measures have been increased at Hogwarts. Snape is given his coveted Defence Against the Dark Arts post while Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter persuade Horace Slughorn to return from retirement to replace Snape as Potions teacher. Slughorn lends Harry an old textbook marked as the property of the "Half-Blood Prince". Its handwritten notes help Harry to outdo even Hermione in Potions, while Slughorn tells Harry more about his mother.

Using his Pensieve, Dumbledore shows Harry a number of memories throwing light on Voldemort's past. Dumbledore theorises that Voldemort has split his own soul into seven parts, storing six of the pieces in Horcruxes: magical objects which grant immortality as long as they exist. While two of Voldemort's Horcruxes have already been destroyed (Tom Riddle's diary by Harry[HP2] and Marvolo Gaunt's ring by Dumbledore), Dumbledore believes that there are four more that must be destroyed. He and Harry set off to retrieve one (Salazar Slytherin's locket), but Dumbledore is heavily weakened by drinking the potion guarding it.

The two return to find the Dark Mark over Hogwarts and Death Eaters attacking students and staff. As they investigate, they are surprised by Draco. Dumbledore paralyses Harry, who is wearing his invisibility cloak and cannot be seen. Harry witnesses all the events that follow but remains invisible. Draco reveals that he let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts via a magical cabinet. Other Death Eaters soon arrive and urge Draco to fulfil his mission, but he hesitates. Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore with the Avada Kedavra curse, fulfilling his vow to Draco's mother. With Dumbledore's death, the spell is broken, and Harry is again free to move. Harry pursues Snape, who identifies himself as the Half-Blood Prince before fleeing Hogwarts.

Minerva McGonagall becomes the interim headmistress of Hogwarts, but she and the other teachers fear that the school may have to be closed down. Harry discovers that the locket he and Dumbledore recovered is a fake. The actual locket was taken and replaced with a note from a mysterious "R.A.B." expressing hope that Voldemort will soon be mortal again. After Dumbledore's funeral, Harry decides not to return to school so that he can devote his time to destroying the remaining Horcruxes and defeating Voldemort. He tells his friends Hermione and Ron about his decision, and the two insist on coming with him to seek out the Dark Lord. The book ends with Harry's observation that, whatever the future brings, at least he'll get to spend one more summer day with Hermione and Ron.

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Points of Interest

Emotionally, Harry matures greatly in this book, completing his transformation from the angry, petulant teenager of book five, into a strong, proactive young man, aware of his destiny and able to bear its burden. His reaction to the death of Sirius Black is in stark contrast to the death of Cedric Diggory - this time, Harry does not wallow in grief and lash out at those around him, but learns to accept the death and tries to move on, deciding that Sirius would not have wanted him to lock himself away and lose control of his emotions. Harry also shows more willingness to bond with those around him, particularly Dumbledore, who he cements a close mentor-student relationship with. His friendships with Ron and Hermione have also developed - he does not isolate himself as he did in his fifth year. Rowling points out the strength of Harry and Ron's bond of friendship several times, and Harry and Hermione's friendship has also developed to the point where they actually laugh and joke together - a development from Harry's opinion in book four that hanging around with Hermione was "just not the same" as hanging around with Ron. Rowling says that by this point, Harry has adopted Ron and Hermione as his family. Harry shows great emotional development — for example, ending his relationship with Ginny in order to keep her safe. By the end of the book, Harry has matured such that he feels ready to take on his burden of destroying Voldemort. He is now a more active hero, prepared to leave behind his childhood and actively seek out Voldemort and try to kill him, rather than simply trying to survive.

This is the first novel in which we see a Slytherin who is presented in a generally positive light - Horace Slughorn. Though many fans believe Severus Snape is still fighting on the side of the Order of the Phoenix, he has shown a lack of positive qualities in the novels, a sadistic quality towards his students, and racism as a younger man. Slughorn - though he possesses the Slytherin attribute of an attraction to power - is far from a Death Eater. In fact, he seems genuinely appalled and ashamed by the unintentional role he may have played in Voldemort's rise to power, and though he expresses surprise that Muggle-born wizards and witches can be as powerful as "pure-bloods", he does not discriminate against Muggle-borns - Lily Evans being one of his favourite students. Though Slughorn is not always likeable, and tends to have his favourites, he appears to be a generally positive character.

The novel marks the first time that Harry (and Rowling) explicitly acknowledges Ron and Hermione's romantic interest in each other.

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Controversies

In May 2005 bookmakers in the UK suspended bets on which main character would die in the book amid fears of insider knowledge. A number of high value bets were made on the death of Albus Dumbledore, many coming from the town of Bungay where, it was believed, the books were being printed at the time. Betting was later reopened. [2]

Spoilers end here.
[edit]

The Right to Read

In early July, the Real Canadian Superstore, a big-box grocery chain in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fifteen copies of The Half-Blood Prince before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction (PDF copy) from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books before the official release date or from discussing the contents. Purchasers were offered a Harry Potter T-shirt and an autographed copy of the book if they returned their copies before 16 July.

On July 15, less than twelve hours before the book went on sale in the Eastern time zone, Raincoast warned The Globe and Mail newspaper that publishing a review from a Canada-based writer at midnight, as the paper had promised, would be seen as a violation of the trade secret injunction. The injunction sparked a number of news articles alleging that the injunction had restricted fundamental rights. [3] [4] Canadian law professor Michael Geist posted commentary on his weblog;[5] Richard Stallman called for a boycott until the publisher issued an apology.[6] The Globe and Mail published a review from two UK-based writers in its July 16 edition and posted the Canadian writer's review on its website at 9 AM that morning.[7] Commentary was also provided on the Raincoast website.

In the same week, a Chicago Walgreens mistakenly sold a copy of the book. When the purchaser read about the Canadian incident on the Internet she said she would not turn herself in, but that she would not read the novel until the U.S. release date.

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Environmental Concerns

Before and after the release of the book, the environmental organizations Greenpeace and the National Wildlife Federation urged consumers in the United States who planned to buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to do so from the book's Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books [8], which published on 100% recycled, chlorine-free, ancient forest–free paper. The U.S. edition of the book, published by Scholastic Press, was printed with a percentage of recycled paper that Scholastic declined to make public. The Scholastic Hardcover edition of the book claims, on the last page, to be free of fibers from ancient forests.

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Fan Reaction

More so than any of the previous books, fans of the series were polarized by the revelations of the sixth book. Rowling herself expected this when she stated on her website that Book six does what I wanted it to do and even if nobody else likes it (and some won’t), I know it will remain one of my favourites of the series. Ultimately you have to please yourself before you please anyone else! [9]

Fans on one end claimed Harry's supposed 'lack of reaction' was out-of-character while others criticized his 'immediate' acceptance of the event. Supporters argue that the events of Book 5 changed Harry considerably and his reactions are in accordance to the events which transpired. The other and arguably most controversial point of contention was the romantic subplots of the books. Fans who predicted a different outcome viciously attacked the book and have gone far enough to create hate sites denouncing the changes, while others were of the opinion that the romance was rushed.

Despite this, book 6 was critically acclaimed and considered by many to be a fine addition to the series and by few to be the best of the immensely popular books.

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Editions

Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, etc.)
Raincoast (Canada, etc.)
Scholastic (United States, etc.)
US Children's Edition
  • Scholastic
    • US Deluxe Edition
  • Scholastic</center>
    • UK Children's Edition
  • Bloomsbury
  • Raincoast
    • UK Adult Edition
  • Bloomsbury
  • Raincoast
    • [edit]

    Missing text

    Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

    As with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the American version of the book has retained text edited out of the British version. In this case, however, the reason for the edit has not been explained on the author's webpage. The text can be found in chapter 27, "The Lightning-Struck Tower", and the parts missing from the British edition have been highlighted in bold, below:

    "[…] He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice." "He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me — forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother — it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban […]"
    —(US Edition p. 591)[10]
    Spoilers end here.
    [edit]

    Translations

    Various publishers have announced release dates for local translations of the book [11]:

    [edit]

    References

    1. ^  "'Harry Potter' Conjures Up Record Sales" by the Los Angeles Times
    2. ^  "Greenpeace to U.S. Potter fans: Buy Canadian" from the CBC
    3. ^  "Half-Blood Prince International Release Dates" from Veritaserum.com
    4. ^  "Bets reopen on Dumbledore death" from the BBC
    5. ^ "Editorial: Harry's legal wizardry" from the Toronto Star
    6. ^  "Harry Potter the right to read" from Ottawa Citizen
    7. ^  "The Harry Potter Injunction" by Michael Geist
    8. ^  "Don't Buy Harry Potter Books" by Richard Stallman
    9. ^  "Much Ado As Harry Potter Hits the Shelves" by The Globe and Mail
    10. ^  Dumbledore Clues by David Haber
    • [HP2] {{Book reference 
    | Title=Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
| Authorlink=J. K. Rowling
| First=J.K.|Last=Rowling
| Year=1998
| ID=UK ISBN 0747538492/US ISBN 0439064864
}}
    • [HP6] {{Book reference 
    | Title=Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
| Authorlink=J. K. Rowling
| First=J.K. | Last=Rowling
| Year=2005
| ID=UK ISBN 0747581088/US ISBN 0439784549
}}
    J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
    Philosopher's Stone
    (Sorcerer's Stone in USA)     		book film game
    Chamber of Secrets book film game
    Prisoner of Azkaban book film game
    Goblet of Fire book film game
    Order of the Phoenix book (film)  
    Half-Blood Prince book (film)  
    Unnamed Seventh Book (book)    
    Other books Other games
    Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
    Quidditch Through the Ages  
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