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).

Cover of the UK Children's edition by Bloomsbury
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Cover of the UK Children's edition by Bloomsbury

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 previous books in the series, and it 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, roughly about 250,000 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

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.
Wikibooks


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.

Severus Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Draco Malfoy's mother Narcissa that he will protect Draco and aid him in his first, unspecified, 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, 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 by a mysterious "R.A.B.". 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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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.

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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Editions

Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, etc.)
Raincoast (Canada, etc.)
Scholastic (United States, etc.)
US Children's Edition
  • Scholastic
US Deluxe Edition
  • Scholastic
UK Children's Edition
  • Bloomsbury
  • Raincoast
UK Adult Edition
  • Bloomsbury
  • Raincoast
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Translations

Various publishers have announced release dates for local translations of the book [9]:

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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


J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
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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)    
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