What do you think?
Rate this book
The Riddles of Harry Potter: Secret Passages and Interpretive Quests
The Riddles of Harry Potter draws readers into the deeper meanings of these phenomenally successful books, arguing that they launch and pursue interpretive quests in an ongoing effort to understand patterns and their attendant meanings, implications, and consequences.
- GenresHarry PotterNonfiction
236 pages, Hardcover
First published December 15, 2010
6 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Read
April 1, 2016It is an academic text, rather than one for the general reader. That said, it was quite interesting and thought provoking.. I suppose the question it left me with was this: did JK Rowling deliberately incorporate the psychological insight and depth that Wolosky argues is ever present throughh the series? Or did it flow from her pen naturally, suggesting that she is a very astute observer of human behaviour? Either way, I agree with Wolosky's assertion that the books deserve much more credit than ey are usually given..
July 10, 2022
ספר מרתק שחוקר נושאים ומוטיבים שונים הבאים לידי ביטוי לאורך סדרת ספרי הארי פוטר. האיר לי המון דברים לגבי הספרים, ועורר בי גם תובנות ומחשבות לגבי החיים. כמובן שעשה חשק לקרוא שוב את כל ספרי הסדרה :-)
May 27, 2022
3: 4 for content (at least Chapter 2+; see below); 2 for sloppiness/poor editing
Ordinarily, I don’t bother with books with such a low rating–but given that this one also had such a low number of overall ratings, and that I was very interested in the topic, I decided to see for myself. That I was able to rent an e-copy from alibris for a month for about $10 clinched the deal. :) Interestingly, my overall rating is about the average before I posted this (2.97).
A couple things to know before you attempt this one.
First, skim Chapter 1. Parts of it are just lists of the meanings of various “nouns” in the Potter books (names, places, spell names, etc.), but presented in paragraph form. For example, most of a paragraph from p. 11, about spell names:
“Expelliarmus,” the Disarming Charm, comes from the word expel; “Protego,” the Shield Charm, comes from protect. “Expecto Patronum” expects the patron-guardian. Hermione casts spells of protection around their tent when they friends are in flight and hiding: “Protego Totalum,” total protection; “Salvia Hexia,” hexing the forest; and “Muffliato,” muffling sounds. “Reparo” repairs; “Confundis” confounds. “Veritaserum” forces its drinker to tell the truth (veritas). “Imperio,” the curse of control, commands imperiously; “Cruciato,” the torture curse, is excruciating. As for the Killing Curse, “Avada Kadavra [sic]” takes the one spell even ignorant Muggles have heard of, Abra Cadabra, and makes it deadly (“kadavra” [sic] suggests cadaver, a corpse).
This rapid-fire name-dropping for pages and pages makes for tedious reading. Presenting such information in the form of a glossary or bulleted list would at least lead the reader to expect that things were going to be listed–and not expect them to be engaging prose.
The several [sics] above hint at the second thing to know: this book should have had a good edit prior to publication. Not only does it get many Potterverse names and terms wrong (and not always consistently, either–e.g, Quirrell is spelled both with one l and two throughout; Rita Skeeter’s writing instrument of choice is referred to as a “Quick-Quill Pen” in one place, and a “Quick-Quotes Quill” [correctly] in another), there are all sorts of weird spacing, quotation mark, etc. issues that must have cropped up in the layout process, since I’ve never seen a writer make those kinds of mistakes in their writing.
That said, though, the remainder of the book (i.e., Chapters 2+) were exactly what I hoped they would be–an interesting scholarly take on the HP canon. Wolosky takes up a theme in each chapter (doubles and double meanings, plots and reversals, time, mirror images, moral fables, rebirth) and explores it thoroughly. All I can say is, she must have had access to the full e-text of the books, because she quotes from them extensively, and it would have been quite a task to take notes on all those themes from all 7 books by hand! Not only does she make insightful connections and draw insightful conclusions, she also isn’t afraid to criticize where she thinks a plot point doesn’t work (e.g., the Patronus Harry casts to protect himself in Prisoner of Azkaban, during the time-travel). She occasionally connects the Potterverse to other literary works (e.g., Milton), but by and large she sticks to the HP novels. Having read this book, I feel like I will see new depths in the HP novels next time I read them, which is what I had hoped for.
Ordinarily, I don’t bother with books with such a low rating–but given that this one also had such a low number of overall ratings, and that I was very interested in the topic, I decided to see for myself. That I was able to rent an e-copy from alibris for a month for about $10 clinched the deal. :) Interestingly, my overall rating is about the average before I posted this (2.97).
A couple things to know before you attempt this one.
First, skim Chapter 1. Parts of it are just lists of the meanings of various “nouns” in the Potter books (names, places, spell names, etc.), but presented in paragraph form. For example, most of a paragraph from p. 11, about spell names:
“Expelliarmus,” the Disarming Charm, comes from the word expel; “Protego,” the Shield Charm, comes from protect. “Expecto Patronum” expects the patron-guardian. Hermione casts spells of protection around their tent when they friends are in flight and hiding: “Protego Totalum,” total protection; “Salvia Hexia,” hexing the forest; and “Muffliato,” muffling sounds. “Reparo” repairs; “Confundis” confounds. “Veritaserum” forces its drinker to tell the truth (veritas). “Imperio,” the curse of control, commands imperiously; “Cruciato,” the torture curse, is excruciating. As for the Killing Curse, “Avada Kadavra [sic]” takes the one spell even ignorant Muggles have heard of, Abra Cadabra, and makes it deadly (“kadavra” [sic] suggests cadaver, a corpse).
This rapid-fire name-dropping for pages and pages makes for tedious reading. Presenting such information in the form of a glossary or bulleted list would at least lead the reader to expect that things were going to be listed–and not expect them to be engaging prose.
The several [sics] above hint at the second thing to know: this book should have had a good edit prior to publication. Not only does it get many Potterverse names and terms wrong (and not always consistently, either–e.g, Quirrell is spelled both with one l and two throughout; Rita Skeeter’s writing instrument of choice is referred to as a “Quick-Quill Pen” in one place, and a “Quick-Quotes Quill” [correctly] in another), there are all sorts of weird spacing, quotation mark, etc. issues that must have cropped up in the layout process, since I’ve never seen a writer make those kinds of mistakes in their writing.
That said, though, the remainder of the book (i.e., Chapters 2+) were exactly what I hoped they would be–an interesting scholarly take on the HP canon. Wolosky takes up a theme in each chapter (doubles and double meanings, plots and reversals, time, mirror images, moral fables, rebirth) and explores it thoroughly. All I can say is, she must have had access to the full e-text of the books, because she quotes from them extensively, and it would have been quite a task to take notes on all those themes from all 7 books by hand! Not only does she make insightful connections and draw insightful conclusions, she also isn’t afraid to criticize where she thinks a plot point doesn’t work (e.g., the Patronus Harry casts to protect himself in Prisoner of Azkaban, during the time-travel). She occasionally connects the Potterverse to other literary works (e.g., Milton), but by and large she sticks to the HP novels. Having read this book, I feel like I will see new depths in the HP novels next time I read them, which is what I had hoped for.
November 18, 2012
I would recommend this to any Harry Potter fan wishing to delve a bit deeper into the meanings behind the storyline and characters. Wolosky has done a fantastic job of disecting the books to show just how clever Rowlings writing is. I'm not sure if Rowling had intended all which Molosky has picked up on, but Molosky certainly had some good points to make.
It was also quite refreshing to see Harry Potter from someone else's viewpoint. We all interpret books in different ways but it was good to know I too had made similar parallels about some parts of the book.
Overall a good read, broken down into easy to follow chapters which discussed:
'The Magic of Harry Potter'
'Double Meanings'
'Well Spotted: Plots and Reversals'
'The turns of Time: Memory, Prediction and Prophecy'
'Mirror Images'
'Moral Fables'
and 'Rebirth'
This book would be especially useful for those studying English
It was also quite refreshing to see Harry Potter from someone else's viewpoint. We all interpret books in different ways but it was good to know I too had made similar parallels about some parts of the book.
Overall a good read, broken down into easy to follow chapters which discussed:
'The Magic of Harry Potter'
'Double Meanings'
'Well Spotted: Plots and Reversals'
'The turns of Time: Memory, Prediction and Prophecy'
'Mirror Images'
'Moral Fables'
and 'Rebirth'
This book would be especially useful for those studying English
February 4, 2013
I honestly can't imagine how this got published. I didn't read too far into it before I realized that I just couldn't read the rest. It would have done me in. There are just too many books out there that I'd rather read .... and enjoy a whole lot more.
No doubt some people will find this interesting - but I would hazard a guess that it's more because of how little they understood of the book in the first place, or they want to know what has made it so popular. Certainly she has pointed out some tidbits of information but it just read as a poorly done high school student's version of it or, for that matter, anyone with access to wikipedia could have ascertained.
Anyways, I just couldn't do it.
I rate this book as 'T' for Troll.
Do yourself a favor and skip this book. Just read the original stories and enjoy them for the magic that they are.
No doubt some people will find this interesting - but I would hazard a guess that it's more because of how little they understood of the book in the first place, or they want to know what has made it so popular. Certainly she has pointed out some tidbits of information but it just read as a poorly done high school student's version of it or, for that matter, anyone with access to wikipedia could have ascertained.
Anyways, I just couldn't do it.
I rate this book as 'T' for Troll.
Do yourself a favor and skip this book. Just read the original stories and enjoy them for the magic that they are.
February 26, 2015
I was looking for a book about symbolism and Harry Potter, and I found it. It's very heavy though, so don't read this looking for fun "secret passages and interpretive quests". There is some repetition with the symbolism, which can be expected, but I wonder if would have worked to have important plot points or scenes be the focus, with an inclusion of all their symbolism at once.
January 27, 2015
This was an interesting read. A lot of really good ideas were discussed but they were often repeated, which paired with the okay editing made it somewhat tedious to read. In saying that, I did like it and would recommend it (though it may not be everybody's cup of tea).
August 30, 2011
The beginning was cool, it analyzed the names & words that JK Rowling used or invented, & looked into their meanings and the languages they derived from. The rest was kind of blah.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews