Recommendation: A Field Guide to Harry Potter, by Colin Duriez

by Travis

I’ve just finished Colin Duriez’s helpful book, A Field Guide to Harry Potter. This is probably one of the better examples of a Harry Potter manual one will be able to find. The first half the book is given to literary analysis, touching lightly on a wide variety of subjects, including analysis from the various genres that are mixed into Rowling’s work, including children’s lit, fairy tale, fantasy, the school story, mythology, and the romantics. The only glaring omission is the detective novel. He interacts with Tolkien, Lewis, MacDonald, and many other great thinkers about children’s stories (laying some helpful groundwork for my book!) and argues that Rowling stands firmly in line with Tolkien, tapping into the “cauldron of story” (once again, I’ll be addressing this in detail) and renewing, re-imaging, and restoring a love for classical virtue. While I might have some reservations about that conclusion, the first half of the book is, overall, well-reasoned and helpful analysis.

The second half of the book is basically an encyclopedia, with two appendices at the end: an overview of the seven novels, and a timeline of events. If you’ve been following the Harry Potter series for many years, the first two chapters are basically skim-able, at best, but chapter 3-6, and the helpful A-Z manual are worth the price of the book (about $10!).

My only real complaint with the book – aside from the fact that I’d like to hear Duriez develop his theses even further, with more supporting evidence – is the lack of citation of sources. Quotes, references, and ideas fly by at rapid pace with no way to trace them to their original sources. I’m sure that on some of the material, Duriez has become enough of an expert to serve as his own source. Still – and especially for the longer quotes – references would be nice, because I’m the sort of reader who goes out and buys materials referenced in a work like this, to see what else the quoted author has to say.