Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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This article is about the book. For its adaptation, see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film).
"Prisoner of Azkaban" redirects here. For other uses, see Prisoner of Azkaban (disambiguation).

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Cover art of the first UK edition
AuthorJ. K. Rowling
IllustratorCliff Wright (first edition)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesHarry Potter
Release number
3rd in series
GenreFantasy
PublisherBloomsbury (UK)
Publication date
8 July 1999
Pages317 (first edition)
ISBN0-7475-4215-5
Preceded byHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 
Followed byHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and is the third in the Harry Potter series. The book follows Harry Potter, a young wizard, in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Along with friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry investigates Sirius Black, an escaped prisoner from Azkaban, the wizard prison, believed to be one of Lord Voldemort's old allies.

The book was published in the United Kingdom on 8 July 1999 by Bloomsbury and in the United States on 8 September 1999 by Scholastic, Inc.[1][2][3][4] Rowling found the book easy to write, finishing it just a year after she began writing it. The book sold 68,000 copies in just three days after its release in the United Kingdom and since has sold over three million in the country.[5] The book won the 1999 Whitbread Children's Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the 2000 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was short-listed for other awards, including the Hugo.

The film adaptation of the novel was released in 2004, grossing more than $796 million and earning critical acclaim. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.

Plot

Harry is back at the Dursleys' for the summer holidays, where he sees on television that a convict named Sirius Black has escaped from prison. After the Dursley's Aunt Marge insults Harry and his parents, Harry accidentally inflates her, then runs away from home, fearing expulsion from school. After encountering a large black dog that seems to be watching him, he is picked up by the Knight Bus and travels to the Leaky Cauldron, where Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, asks Harry to stay in Diagon Alley for his protection. While there, he reunites with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Before leaving for Hogwarts, Harry learns from Arthur Weasley that Sirius Black is a convicted murderer from the wizarding world, and has escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban to kill Harry. On the way to Hogwarts, a Dementor boards the train, causing Harry to relive his parents' deaths before fainting. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin, protects him from the Dementor. They learn Dementors will be patrolling the school in an attempt to catch Black.

During a Quidditch match, Harry faints and falls off his broomstick after Dementors invade the field, and the Whomping Willow destroys the broom. Afterwards, Professor Lupin teaches Harry how to defend himself from Dementors using the Patronus charm. During an illegal trip to Hogsmeade, Harry overhears a conversation between Fudge, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid. He learns that Black is his godfather, betrayed his family to Voldemort, and killed Peter Pettigrew, a family friend, when confronted by him.

Ron and Hermione's friendship suffers when Ron believes Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, to have eaten his rat, Scabbers. When Harry receives a top-of-the-range Firebolt broomstick as an anonymous Christmas present, Hermione gets it confiscated, fearing Black sent it. Hermione becomes stressed by her many classes, some of which seem to occur at the same time. Meanwhile, Hagrid's hippogriff Buckbeak is in danger of being executed by the Ministry of Magic after injuring Draco Malfoy, who provoked Buckbeak. Despite Hermione's and Ron's efforts to defend the hippogriff, they and Harry seemingly hear Buckbeak executed as they leave Hagrid's hut. While visiting Hagrid's, however, Hermione discovers Scabbers hiding there. Scabbers escapes from Ron, who gives chase.

The large black dog attacks Ron, then drags him into a tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Crookshanks, appearing to be in league with the dog, Harry, and Hermione follows them through the tunnel and to the Shrieking Shack, a haunted house in Hogsmeade. They discover that the dog is Black in animal form. Lupin enters and explains that, although he believed Black to have betrayed the Potters, he realises now that it was Peter Pettigrew. Lupin admits he is a werewolf and that, while at school, the Marauders (Lupin, Black, Pettigrew, and Harry's father, James Potter) learned to transform into animals to tame Lupin during his transformations. Lupin explains that Scabbers is Pettigrew in his animal form. Pettigrew faked his death, framing Black for the murders, and hiding from Black since his escape.

Snape, who holds a childhood grudge against the Marauders, arrives to apprehend Black but is knocked unconscious by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Lupin and Black transform Pettigrew into human form and prepare to kill him, but Harry stops them, and convinces them to send Pettigrew to Azkaban instead. While returning to Hogwarts, Lupin, who had forgotten the full moon, transforms into a werewolf and attacks them. Pettigrew escapes, and Harry, Hermione, and Black are set upon by Dementors. A Patronus cast by a mysterious figure rescues them.

Awakening in the hospital wing, Harry and Hermione are told that Black has been sentenced to have his soul sucked out by Dementors. Professor Dumbledore tells Harry and Hermione to use Hermione's time-turner, a device she has been using to attend simultaneous classes, to go back in time and save Buckbeak and Sirius. They rescue Buckbeak and watch themselves attacked by Dementors. Harry then casts the Patronus that drives away the Dementors. Harry and Hermione ride Buckbeak to the tower where Black is held and break him out. Black escapes on Buckbeak.

Harry and Hermione return to the hospital wing. Enraged by Black's escape, Snape lets slip that Lupin is a werewolf, forcing him to resign. Harry returns to Kings Cross with his friends and receives a letter from Black, informing him that he sent the Firebolt and permitting him to visit Hogsmeade next year.

Publication and reception

Pre-release history

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third book in the Harry Potter series. The first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published by Bloomsbury on 26 June 1997 and the second, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published on 2 July 1998.[6] Rowling started to write the Prisoner of Azkaban the day after she finished The Chamber of Secrets.[7]

Rowling's favorite aspect of this book was introducing the character Remus Lupin,[8] Rowling additionally said in 2004 that Prisoner of Azkaban was "the best writing experience I ever had...I was in a very comfortable place writing (number) three. Immediate financial worries were over, and press attention wasn't yet by any means excessive".[9]

Critical reception

Gregory Maguire wrote a review in The New York Times for Prisoner of Azkaban: in it he said, "So far, in terms of plot, the books do nothing new, but they do it brilliantly...so far, so good."[10] In a newspaper review in The New York Times, it was said that "'The Prisoner of Azkaban' may be the best 'Harry Potter' book yet".[11] A reviewer for KidsReads said, "This crisply-paced fantasy will leave you hungry for the four additional Harry books that J.K. Rowling is working on. Harry's third year is a charm. Don't miss it."[12] Kirkus Reviews did not give a starred review but said, "a properly pulse-pounding climax...The main characters and the continuing story both come along so smartly...that the book seems shorter than its page count: have readers clear their calendars if they are fans, or get out of the way if they are not."[13] Martha V. Parravano also gave a positive review for The Horn Book Magazine, calling it "quite a good book."[14] In addition, a Publishers Weekly review said, "Rowling's wit never flags, whether constructing the workings of the wizard world...or tossing off quick jokes...The Potter spell is holding strong.[15]

However, Anthony Holden, who was one of the judges against Prisoner of Azkaban for the Whitbread Award, was negative about the book, saying that the characters are "all black-and-white", and the "story-lines are predictable, the suspense minimal, the sentimentality cloying every page".[16]

Awards

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban won several awards, including the 1999 Booklist Editors' Choice Award,[17] the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers,[18] the 1999 FCGB Children's Book Award,[19] the 1999 Whitbread Book of the Year for children's books,[20] and the 2000 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel,.[21] It was also nominated for the 2000 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first in the series nominated, but lost to A Deepness in the Sky.[22] Prisoner of Azkaban additionally won the 2004 Indian Paintbrush Book Award[23] and the 2004 Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award.[24] Additionally, it was named an American Library Association Notable Children's Book in 2000[25] as well as one of their Best Books for Young Adults.[26] As with the previous two books in the series, Prisoner of Azkaban won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Gold Medal for children aged 9–11 and made the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.[27] In both cases, it was the last in the series to do so.[28] However, in the latter case, a Children's Best Sellers list was created just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in July 2000 in order to free up more room on the original list.[29] In 2003, the novel was listed at number 24 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.[30]

Sales

Prisoner of Azkaban sold more than 68,000 copies in the UK within three days of publication, which made it the fastest selling British book of the time.[5] The sales total by 2012 is said by The Guardian to be 3,377,906.[3]

Editions

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in hardcover in the UK on 8 July 1999[31] and in the US on 8 September.[31] The British paperback edition was released on 1 April 2000,[32] while the US paperback was released 1 October 2001.[33]

Bloomsbury additionally released an adult edition with a different cover design to the original, in paperback on 10 July 2004[34] and in hardcover on October 2004.[35] A hardcover special edition, featuring a green border and signature, was released on 8 July 1999.[31] In May 2004, Bloomsbury released a Celebratory Edition, with a blue and purple border.[36] On 1 November 2010, they released the 10th anniversary Signature edition illustrated by Clare Mellinsky and in July 2013 a new adult cover illustrated by Andrew Davidson, both these editions were designed by Webb & Webb Design Limited.[37]

Beginning on 27 August 2013, Scholastic will release new covers for the paperback editions of Harry Potter in the United States to celebrate 15 years of the series.[38] The covers were designed by the author and illustrator Kazu Kibuishi.[39]

An illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released on 3 October 2017, and was illustrated by Jim Kay who illustrates the previous two instalments. This includes over 115 new illustrations and will be followed by Illustrated editions of the following 4 novels in the future.[citation needed]

Adaptations

Film

Main article: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

The film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in 2004 and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón from a screenplay by Steve Kloves.[40] The film débuted at number one at the box office and held that position for two weeks.[41] It made a total of $796.7 million worldwide,[42] which made it the second highest-grossing film of 2004 behind Shrek 2. However, among all eight entries in the Harry Potter franchise, Prisoner of Azkaban grossed the lowest; yet among critics and fans, the film is often cited as the best in the franchise – in large part due to Cuarón's stylistic influence.[43][44] The film ranks at number 471 in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[45]

Video games

Main article: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)

Three unique video games by different developers were released in 2004 by Electronic Arts, loosely based on the book:

Developer Release date Platform Genre GameRankings Metacritic
KnowWonder 25 May 2004 Microsoft Windows Adventure/puzzle 68.52%[46] 67/100[47]
Griptonite Game Boy Advance Role-playing game 69.58%[48] 69/100[49]
EA UK 29 May 2004 GameCube Action-adventure 69.74%[50] 67/100[51]
PlayStation 2 72.59%[52] 70/100[53]
Xbox 68.39%[54] 67/100[55]

References

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External links

The Wikibook Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter has a page on the topic of: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Wikiquote has quotations related to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

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