Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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First Published: June 21st, 2003.
Text Completed: Late 2002 (J.K. Started writing Book 6 just before Christmas)
Published By: Bloomsbury Press in the U.K., Scholastic, Arthur A. Levine books, USA; Raincoast Books, Canada illustrations by Mary GrandPré (US version)
Audio versions: Listening Library (Random House) in US, performed by Jim Dale, British version with Stephen Fry.
Pages: 870 (From Beginning of the story to the last word)
Chapters: 38
DADA Teacher: Professor Umbridge
Dedication:
To Neil, Jessica, and David
who make my world magical
ooc:Neil is her husband, Jessica and David are her children.
See each chapter perfect shortened here.
Covers from all over the world
Chapters’ pictures
“I say to you all, once again—in the light of Lord Voldemort’s return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.”
So spoke Albus Dumbledore at the end of Harry Potter’s fourth year at Hogwarts. But as Harry enters his fifth year at wizard school, it seems those bonds have never been more sorely tested. Lord Voldemort’s rise has opened a rift in the wizarding world between those who believe the truth about his return, and those who prefer to believe it’s all madness and lies—just more trouble from Harry Potter.
Add to this a host of other worries for Harry…
• A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey
• A venomous, disgruntled house-elf
• Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
• And of course, what every student dreads: end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams
…and you’d know what Harry faces during the day. But at night it’s even worse, because then he dreams of a single door in a silent corridor. And this door is somehow more terrifying than every other nightmare combined.
In the richest installment yet of J. K. Rowling’s seven-part story, Harry Potter confronts the unreliability of the very government of the magical world, and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts.
Despite this (or perhaps because of it) Harry finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty and unbearable sacrifice.
Though thick runs the plot (as well as the spine), readers will race through these pages, and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next train back.
Notes
- This is the fifth book of the novel series, the seventh Harry Potter book released (counting the two “school books”)
- Notes about the covers, from CBBC Newsround:
—- “The contents of the book are so secret that even the artist, illustrator Jason Cockcroft, wasn’t allowed to read it before drawing the cover. Instead J K Rowling and her editor at Bloomsbury, Emma Matthewson, came up with the idea and then told the artist the kind of image they wanted them to create. The adult cover, designed by Bloomsbury’s Design director William Webb, is from a photograph by Michael Wildsmith and again shows a phoenix.”
—- Mary GrandPré once again did the illustrations for the book. She was given the book to read in advance, a necessity since she drew chapter art as well as the cover.
- This is the title that JKR gave for the fifth book in the series. She revealed this during the taping of the Today Show and verified it in an interview with Newsround
- This book is longer than GF, at 220,000 words.
- Order of the Phoenix sold, uh, rather well. This is from The Scotsman, 7 January 2004: Potter’s magical effect on UK book sales
- The title refers to a group who band together to fight Voldemort, the “Old Crowd” Dumbledore sent Sirius to call together at the end of Goblet of Fire. This group originally fought Voldemort during the 1970s and included James and Lily Potter, Frank and Alice Longbottom, and others. Many in this group were killed or, in the case of the Longbottoms, tortured.
- The phoenix in this title may be a reference to Fawkes, Dumbledore’s pet phoenix, whose tail feathers are imbedded in the wands of both Harry and Voldemort. Fawkes seems to be playing a more and more important role in the mythos; perhaps this ancient bird is really connected directly to Godric Gryffindor himself…
- Harry is in his fifth year at Hogwarts in this book, the events of which take place between July 31, 1995 and the end of June, 1996.
- Interesting things to watch out for, if the usual progression of school life continues: Several of Harry’s classmates are made Prefects
DAVID ROBINSON BOOKS EDITOR
LOOK at a graph of sales of all British books last year, and you notice a strange thing. In late June, there is a sudden blip. In fact, it’s more of a Matterhorn.
A single book caused that. On 21 June alone, 1,679,753 copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were sold. One copy for every 35 people in these islands. Nothing remotely comparable has ever happened in British publishing – where the average novel sells a mere 2,000 copies – and perhaps nothing remotely comparable ever will. Until JK Rowling writes another, that is.
Now that Oliver Wood has left school, the Gryffindor Quidditch team undergoes some rearranging. Angelina Johnson takes over as Captain. Ron Weasley becomes the new Keeper.
Harry and his classmates will be taking their first set of tests, their O.W.L.s, and the teachers really load them up with work in preparation.
- From
RAH :
I had to put in some things because of what’s to come in Books Six and Seven, and I didn’t want anyone to say to me, “What a cheat. You never gave us clues.” Because if I didn’t mention certain things in Order of the Phoenix, you could have said: “Well, you sprang that on us.” Whereas I want you to be able to guess, if you’ve got your wits about you. There are a few surprises coming. - From
RAH :I think what I was trying to do with the death in this book was show how very arbitrary and sudden death is. This is a death where you didn’t have a big death bed scene. It happened almost accidentally, and that is one of the very cruel things about death, and they’re now in a war situation where that really does happen, where one minute you’re talking to your friend and the next minute he’s gone. It’s so shocking and so inexplicable… “Where did they go?” I found it upsetting to write, because I knew what it would mean to Harry. - From
WBD :Q: Regarding Harry’s subconscious feelings, how [have they] changed from book 1 to book 5? - From
RAH :Q: What do you think Harry would find more difficult to do: to fight Voldemort or to kiss Cho?
A: Well, he’s obviously been through a lot since book one, and book five was the book when he cracked up a little.
A: People who have read Order of the Phoenix will have a fairly shrewd idea what the answer might be.