Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Horcruxes, a Prophecy and the Final Battle
When he turns seventeen, Harry will lose the charm that has protected him and kept him safe until now. With the help of Hagrid and his motorbike and sidecar, he leaves Privet Drive, his aunt and uncle’s house, for the last time. The last volume of J.K. Rowling’s classic series begins in flight and never slows down.
Author: J.K. Rowling (born 1965)
Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)
Format: English paperback (Bloomsbury Children’s Books), 640 pages
Series: Book 7 of 7
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/1408855712 (ASIN 1408855712)
Leaving the Burrow
To stop He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named from harming the people he loves, Harry feels obliged to keep away from them. Leaving the warmth of the Burrow and the Weasley family, he sets out to follow the destiny marked out for him.
The Horcruxes
Harry must inevitably face his greatest enemy, Lord Voldemort, because the prophecy says that neither can live while the other survives. To weaken his enemy, Harry must find and destroy the Horcruxes.
Not a School Story
For the first time, Harry does not return to Hogwarts. With Ron and Hermione he goes into hiding, apparating from one remote place to another, camping in a magical tent and arguing in the cold while the Ministry falls under Voldemort’s control and non-magical-born witches and wizards are persecuted. The long months of searching, with little progress and growing tension, are the most realistic portrait in the series of what resistance in wartime might feel like, and the strain between the three friends is painful to watch.
The Tale of the Three Brothers
The book’s title comes from a wizarding fairy tale, "The Tale of the Three Brothers", which Hermione reads from a book of children’s stories left to her by Dumbledore. Three brothers cheat Death, who rewards each with a gift: an unbeatable wand, a stone that can recall the dead and a cloak of invisibility. Together these are the Deathly Hallows, and Harry must decide whether to seek them or to continue his mission against the Horcruxes. The choice is the book’s moral core.
Set Pieces
Rowling fills the novel with unforgettable scenes: the flight from Privet Drive under attack, a disguised infiltration of the Ministry, Christmas Eve at Godric’s Hollow, where Harry’s parents died, an escape from Gringotts on the back of a blind dragon, and finally the Battle of Hogwarts, in which almost every character from the series has a part to play. Some favourite characters do not survive.
Two Epigraphs
The book opens with two epigraphs, from Aeschylus’s The Libation Bearers and from William Penn’s More Fruits of Solitude, both about death and the bonds between the living and the dead, which tells you what the novel is ultimately about. It was published in July 2007, and David Yates’s film adaptation was split into two parts (2010 and 2011).
The Epilogue
The epilogue, set nineteen years later, divides readers: some find it sweet, others too neat. Either way, it closes a story that began with a boy in a cupboard under the stairs.
Snape
Much of the emotional weight of the final book rests on Severus Snape, the Potions master Harry has hated since his first day. Without giving anything away, the chapter called "The Prince’s Tale" changes the way readers see the whole series, and many of them go straight back to the first book to reread it with new eyes. It is the best proof of how far ahead Rowling had planned.
Why Read It
It is a long, dark and moving ending that ties together threads laid down across all seven books. After years with these characters, the last chapters are hard to read without a lump in the throat.
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