“Harry Potter”: Fastest-Selling Book in History

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Why did J. K. Rowling‘s “Harry Potter” win the title of "fastest-selling book in history" for several times? The series of “Harry Potter” was translated into 61 languages and distributed in over 200 countries. What creates the legend of “Harry Potter” series? The success of the novel has to do with its connection between reality and imagine, its wide-range readers, and its realization of dream.

Rowling connected two parallel worlds closely to make people believe that the magical world Rowling created really existed in our real world. There are two worlds in this novel. One is the ordinary world where non-magical Harry Potter lived with his aunt and uncle. This world is like the real world we live in. The other is the magical world where Harry lived after discovering that he is a wizard at the age of eleven. People who have ever read this novel should know if Harry wants to go to Hogwarts School, he has to take Hogwarts Express in platform9 3/4 in King's Cross St. Pancras Station. Many people believe that this platform exists after reading this novel. In order to satisfy those visitors who come to the station one after the other, the station set a board written platform9 3/4 on the wall and half of a cart against the wall. That is really the magic power of this novel. Because the readers can connect the magical world Rowling creates with their real world, they are closely associated with this novel. Therefore, the readers are more interested in “Harry Potter” than other fantastic novels.

Even though this series is primarily considered to be a work of children's literature, adults are crazy about it as well because adults are attracted by the thought-provoking themes. The reason why both children and adults are interested in “Harry Potter” is that the plots of this series cover many kinds of topic. Children are immersed in the interesting plots such as romance, adventure, and fantastical magic. Adults get some new idea from those serious topics such as friendship, betray, and death. For instance, I think people will be more curious about this novel if they know that a major theme in the series is death. Rowling said: "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it." When I was little, I could not figure out this major theme when reading this novel. After I experienced more and more separation by death, I realized this novel wanted to tell us that the death of people we love is not the end, but the start with the new life. With those memories, we will become braver and overcome the challenges fearlessly like Harry.

“Harry Potter” series touch our heart because J. K. Rowling tells a complete story some of us have ever dreamed of having an extraordinary life. Most of us live in the ordinary life; sometimes, we expect that maybe we are a special person but we do not know now, and our specialties will be revealed one day like Harry Potter. Harry is an orphan and suffers domestic violence by his aunt and uncle. He is malnourished, extremely poor, and helpless. One day, Dumbledore, the president of Hogwarts School, finds him and tells him he is not an ordinary muggle (non-wizard) but the most influential wizard, who can overcome Lord Voldemort (the power-obsessed dark wizard). We hope that our life can be more splendid and special than the life we live now. Gradually, we find that we may not become someone after we grow up, but we can experience and satisfy our fantasy by reading “Harry Potter”. This novel is a world where the magic is everywhere, a world where people’s hope really exists but never does in reality, a world where everyone has dreamed of in the real life through their childhood.

I think the series of “Harry Potter” is so popular and attractive that it wins the title of "fastest-selling book in history" for several times because of above reasons. Many novels also have some of those elements such as two parallel worlds and various kinds of topics. However, I think there is no novel like “Harry Potter” including all the elements and creating this fantastic world completely.

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