| Harry Potter books Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
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|---|---|
| Author | J. K. Rowling |
| Illustrators | Giles Greenfield (UK) Mary GrandPré (US) |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publishers | Bloomsbury (UK) Arthur A. Levine/ Scholastic (US) Raincoast (Canada) |
| Released | 8 July 2000 |
| Book no. | Four |
| Sales | ≈66 million (worldwide).[1] |
| Story timeline | Summer 1942 4 August 1994 – 25 June 1995 |
| Chapters | 37 |
| Pages | 636 (UK) 734 (US) |
| ISBN | 074754624X |
| Preceded by | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
| Followed by | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series written by British author J. K. Rowling. Set during the protagonist Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it follows the mystery surrounding the entry of Harry's name into the Triwizard Tournament, which he is forced to compete in.
The book was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury and in the United States by Scholastic on 8 July 2000, the first time a book in the series was published in both countries at the same time. The novel won a Hugo Award in 2001, the only Harry Potter novel to do so. The book was made into a film, which was released worldwide on 18 November 2005.
Contents |
Throughout the three previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties that come with growing up and the added challenge of being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after unsuccessfully trying to kill Harry, which left a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his muggle, or non-magical, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, who have a son named Dudley Dursley.
Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of 11, enrolling in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power. In Harry's first year he has to protect the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort and one of his faithful followers at Hogwarts. After returning to the school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling, and Harry learns that Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. He also learned that it was Sirius's, Lupin's and James Potter's friend Peter Pettigrew who actually betrayed his parents.
The story begins in the 1940s, describing how Riddle family was mysteriously killed at supper, and how their groundsman, Frank Bryce, was suspected of the crime, then declared innocent due to lack of evidence. In 1994, Frank Bryce, now an elderly man, wakes in the night to see a light in the window of the abandoned Riddle House. He investigates and overhears Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew (also known as Wormtail) plotting to kill a boy named Harry Potter. Voldemort's snake Nagini, notices Bryce and informs Voldemort; Voldemort invites Bryce inside and, after revealing he knows everything about Bryce, kills him on the spot. Harry Potter wakes up in the night with a throbbing pain in his scar. The next morning, Harry's Uncle Vernon receives a letter from the Weasleys asking Harry to join them at the Quidditch World Cup, and reluctantly agrees to let Harry go. Harry arrives at the Weasley's household The Burrow the next day. Early the next morning, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione head off to the Quidditch World Cup. They travel by Portkey, an object which wizards use to teleport quickly to relative destinations it is linked with. There they meet Cedric Diggory, another Hogwarts student. At their seat, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Winky, a house-elf who says she is saving a seat for her master, Bartemius Crouch.
The night after the game, a crowd of Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort who escaped Azkaban, torture Muggles and burn tents. Harry, Hermione and Ron escape by fleeing into the woods, where Harry discovers that his wand is missing. Moments later, someone fires Voldemort's symbol the Dark Mark using Harry's wand. Winky is found holding Harry's wand at the scene of the crime; Mr Crouch fires her as punishment for associating his name with the Dark Mark. Later at the Burrow, Cedric's father brings news that a man named Mad-Eye Moody attacked an intruder at his house. Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Dumbledore announces that a Triwizard Tournament between schools will take place at Hogwarts, and also that Mad-Eye Moody will to fill the vacancy of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Moody teaches the Hogwarts students about the Unforgivable Curses, including "Avada Kedavra", the Killing Curse.
In late October, the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive; Viktor Krum, a Bulgarian Quidditch player, has come with Durmstrang. On Halloween, out of the names submitted, the Goblet of Fire regurgitates out the names of those who will compete in the Triwizard Tournament; along with Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, Harry is selected. Confusion ensues, as Harry is too young, and traditionally only three champions are selected: one per school. Though he did not enter himself, Harry is forced to compete as the fourth champion as he is magically bound. Ron is sullen and envious and refuses to speak to Harry. After interviewing Harry, a reporter named Rita Skeeter publishes a sappy, exaggerated article about Harry's tragic past. A few nights before the task, Hagrid invites Harry for a late night walk, which ultimately turns into a glimpse of the first task: dragons. Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry's finds Sirius Black's head is in the fireplace; he informs Harry that Karkaroff was a Death Eater. The next day, Harry warns Cedric about the first task; Moody overhears, and hints to Harry that he should use his broomstick to get past the dragon. Harry and Hermione spend hours practising summoning charms, and during the task Harry summons his broomstick and flies past the dragon, capturing the golden egg and receiving high marks. Ron and Harry reconcile shortly afterward.
Professor McGonagall announces that the Christmas Yule Ball is approaching and that the champions must find partners as they will open the ball. Harry gathers his courage to ask his crush Cho Chang, but finds out that she is already going with Cedric. Harry and Ron eventually ask Parvati and Padma Patil. At the ball, Ron becomes jealous of Viktor Krum, who has brought Hermione as his date. Harry and Ron leave the ball and overhear Hagrid telling Madame Maxime, the half-giant headmistress of Beauxbatons, that he is half-giant. Cedric also tells Harry to take a bath with the golden egg. The next day Hagrid is discovered to not be teaching class. Rita Skeeter has written an article saying that his giant heritage gives him a violent and dangerous nature. He is embarrassed, refusing to emerge from his cabin. During a trip to Hogsmeade, Ludo Bagman mentions to Harry that Mr Crouch has stopped coming to work. When the trio return to Hogwarts, they visit Hagrid and persuade him to return.
Harry takes the egg into the bathtub. The egg sings that he will have an hour to reclaim something valuable that has been taken into the lake. The night before the second task, Harry still has not figured out how to breathe underwater. He falls asleep in the library and is awakened in the morning by the house-elf Dobby, who now works at Hogwarts, who gives him a ball of gillyweed. The gillyweed gives Harry gills and he swims easily through the lake, finding Hermione, Ron, Cho, and Fleur's sister Gabrielle asleep and tied together in a merpeople village. Harry waits to make sure all of the champions rescue their hostages before returning to the surface. When Fleur does not come, he returns with Gabrielle and Ron and comes up last, but gains high marks for his moral fibre in his completion of the task.
Harry overhears Karkaroff confiding fearfully to Potions master Snape that the Dark Mark on his arm has become more prominent. The following day in Hogsmeade, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Sirius Black, disguised as his animagus, a dog. He informs them that Crouch's son was convicted as a Death Eater, and finds the news that Crouch is not coming to work peculiar. Later, the champions are taken to see the grounds to see a maze, the third task. On the way back, when Krum pulls Harry into the forest to ask if Harry is romantically interested in Hermione based on suspicion stirred up from one of Skeeter's recent articles, they find a dishevelled Mr Crouch, who is speaking to trees and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs to get Dumbledore while Krum waits with Crouch; when Harry returns, Krum has been stunned and Mr Crouch gone. In Divination class, Harry falls asleep and dreams about Voldemort, waking up screaming. Harry leaves class to discuss this with Dumbledore; as he waits for Dumbledore to return to his office, he peers into a Pensieve and enters Dumbledore's memories of various Death Eater trials, including that of Ludo Bagman, Karkaroff, and Mr Crouch's son. Dumbledore returns, pulls Harry from the memories and listens to his story, saying that he suspects that Voldemort is growing stronger. On the evening of the task, the four champions enter the maze, and Harry finds his path relatively manageable. Soon both Fleur and Krum are out of the running, and Harry and Cedric arrive at the trophy at the same time, agreeing to touch it together.
The trophy turns out to be a Portkey, taking both to a far away graveyard, where a man in a hood quickly kills Cedric. Harry realises the man is Wormtail, whom ties Harry to a gravestone. Wormtail drops the bundle he is carrying (Voldemort's current form) into a cauldron, as well as a bone from Voldemort's father, Wormtail's own right hand, and blood from Harry's arm. Voldemort resumes his body and rises from the cauldron. Voldemort presses a tattoo of the Dark Mark on Wormtail's arm, and suddenly Death Eaters begin appearing in a circle around them. Voldemort creates a silver hand for Wormtail and then challenges Harry to a duel. Harry tries to use the disarming spell on Voldemort just as Voldemort uses the Killing Curse. The light from the two wands meets in midair and remains connected. Voldemort's past victims emerge from his wand and protect Harry once the wand connection is broken, giving him time to grab Cedric's body and touch the trophy, thus returning to Hogwarts.
Once Harry returns, Moody carries him into the castle, where he reveals that he is a Death Eater, and that he was responsible for placing Harry's name in the Goblet and for turning the trophy into a portkey. Moody also informs Harry that Karkaroff has fled the castle. Soon after, Dumbledore and other teachers burst into the room, stunning Moody and saving Harry. Under the influence of a truth potion, Moody confessed that he was young Barty Crouch Jr. He has made the switch by using Moody's hair and drinking Polyjuice potion every hour. His father smuggled him out of prison and allowed him to live under an invisibility cloak, guarded by Winky, and how Ministry of Magic worker Bertha Jorkins discovered him and ultimately was relieved of her information by Voldemort, who then returned to find Crouch Jr in his father's house. He also says that he killed his father in the Forest the day he stumbled upon Harry and Krum, and that he was hoping to bring Voldemort back to power by bringing Harry to him.
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, refuses to believe that Voldemort is back. He gives Harry the tournament prize money and leaves quickly. After the term ends, Harry, Ron and Hermione return home on the Hogwarts Express. Hermione shows Harry and Ron a beetle in a jar — Rita Skeeter's animagus form, which she has been using to spy on people and acquire news about them — that she caught and warned not to write untrue things. Harry gives the gold he won in the Triwizard Tournament to the Weasley twins to help start their practical joke company. Harry then returns to the Dursleys for the summer.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series. The first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published by Bloomsbury on 26 June 1997; the second, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published on 2 July 1998; and the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, followed on 8 July 1999.[2] Goblet of Fire is considerably longer than the first three; almost twice the size. Rowling stated that she "knew from the beginning it would be the biggest of the first four". She said there needed to be a "proper run-up" for the conclusion and rushing the "complex plot" could confuse readers. She also stated that "everything is on a bigger scale" which was symbolic, as Harry's horizons widened both literally and metaphorically as he grew up. She also wanted to explore more of the magical world.[3]
Until the official title's announcement on 27 June 2000, the book was called by its working title, Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament.[4] J. K. Rowling expressed her indecision about the title in an Entertainment Weekly interview. "I changed my mind twice on what [the title] was. The working title had got out — Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament. Then I changed Doomspell to Triwizard Tournament. Then I was teetering between Goblet of Fire and Triwizard Tournament. In the end, I preferred Goblet of Fire because it's got that kind of cup of destiny feel about it, which is the theme of the book."[3]
Rowling mentioned that she originally had a Weasley relative named Malfalda, who, according to Rowling, "was the daughter of the 'second cousin who's a stockbroker' mentioned in Philosopher's Stone. This stockbroker had been very rude to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the past, but now he and his (Muggle) wife had inconveniently produced a witch, they came back to the Weasleys asking for their help in introducing her to wizarding society before she starts at Hogwarts".[5] Malfalda was supposed to be a Slytherin and who was to fill in the Rita Skeeter subplot, but eventually was removed as "there were obvious limitations to what an eleven year old closeted at school could discover". Rowling considered Rita Skeeter to be "much more flexible".[5] Rowling also admitted that the fourth book was the most difficult to write at the time, because she noticed a giant plot hole halfway through writing.[3] In particular, Rowling had trouble with the ninth chapter, "The Dark Mark", which she rewrote 13 times.[6]
Jeff Jensen, who interviewed Rowling for Entertainment Weekly in 2000, pointed out that bigotry is a big theme in the Harry Potter novels and Goblet of Fire in particular. He mentioned how Voldemort and his followers are predjudiced towards Muggles and how in Goblet of Fire Hermione forms a group to liberate Hogwarts' house-elves who have "been indentured servants so long they lack desire for anything else".[3] When asked why she explored this theme, Rowling replied,
Because bigotry is probably the thing I detest most. All forms of intolerance, the whole idea of that which is different from me is necessary evil. I really like to explore the idea that difference is equal and good. But there's another idea that I like to explore, too. Oppressed groups are not, generally speaking, people who stand firmly together — no, sadly, they kind of subdivide among themselves and fight like hell. That's human nature, so that's what you see here. This world of wizards and witches, they're already ostracized, and then within themselves, they've formed a loathsome pecking order.[3]
She also commented that she did not feel this was too "heavy" for children, as it was one of those things that "huge number of children at that age start to think about".[3]
Goblet of Fire was the first book in the Harry Potter series to be released in the United States on the same date as the United Kingdom, on 8 July 2000, strategically on a Saturday so children did not have to worry about school conflicting with buying the book. The three previous books had been released in the United Kingdom several months before the U.S. edition. It had a combined first-printing of over five million copies.[2] It was given a record-breaking print run of 3.9 million. Three million copies of the book were sold over the first weekend in the US alone.[7] The pressure in editing caused a mistake which shows Harry's father emerging first from Voldemort's wand; however, as confirmed in Prisoner of Azkaban, James died first, so then Harry's mother ought to have come out first.[8] This was corrected in later editions.[9]
To publicise the book, a special train named Hogwarts Express was organised by Bloomsbury, and run from King's Cross to Perth, carrying J.K. Rowling, a consignment of books for her to sign and sell, also representatives of Bloomsbury and the press. The book was launched on 8 July 2000, on platform 1 at King's Cross – which had been given "Platform 9 3⁄4" signs for the occasion – following which the train departed. En route it called at Didcot Railway Centre, Kidderminster, the Severn Valley Railway, Crewe (overnight stop), Manchester, Bradford, York, the National Railway Museum (overnight stop), Newcastle, Edinburgh, arriving at Perth on 11 July. The locomotive was West Country class steam locomotive no. 34027 Taw Valley, which was specially repainted red for the tour; it later returned to its normal green livery (the repaints were requested and paid for by Bloomsbury). The coaches of the train included a sleeping car. A Diesel locomotive was coupled at the other end, for use when reversals were necessary, such as the first stage of the journey as far as Ferme Park, just south of Hornsey. The tour generated considerably more press interest than the launch of the film Thomas and the Magic Railroad which was premièred in London the same weekend.[10][11][12]
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has received mainly positive reviews. In the New York Times Book Review, author Stephen King stated the Goblet of Fire was "every bit as good as Potters 1 through 3" and praised the humour and subplots, although he commented that "there's also a moderately tiresome amount of adolescent squabbling...it's a teenage thing".[13] Kirkus Reviews called it "another grand tale of magic and mystery...and clicking along so smoothly that it seems shorter than it is". However, they commented that it did tend to lag, especially at the end where two "bad guys" stopped the action to give extended explanations, and that the issues to be resolved in sequels would leave "many readers, particularly American ones, uncomfortable".[14]
Kristin Lemmerman of CNN pointed out that "it is not great literature...her prose has more in common with your typical beach-blanket fare" and the beginning contained too much recap to introduce characters to new readers, although "Rowling quickly gets back on track, introducing readers to a host of well-drawn new characters".[15] Writing for Salon.com, Charles Taylor was generally positive about the change of mood and development of characters.[16] Entertainment Weekly's reviewer Kristen Baldwin gave Goblet of Fire the grade of A-, praising the development of the characters as well as the many themes presented. However, she did worry that the "shocking" climax may be a "nightmare factory" for young readers.[17]
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won several awards, including the 2001 Hugo Award for Best Novel.[18] It won the 2002 Indian Paintbrush Book Award, the third after Philosopher's Stone and Prisoner of Azkaban.[19] The novel also won an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award for one of the best books, who claimed it was "more intense than the first three books".[20]
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was adapted into a film, released worldwide on 18 November 2005, which was directed by Mike Newell and written by Steve Kloves. The film grossed $102.7 million for the opening weekend,[21] and eventually grossed $896 million worldwide.[22] The film was also nominated for Best Art Direction at the 78th Academy Awards.[23]
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