Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Published in 2000, the release of this book had been surrounded by more hype than any other children's book in recent times - outdone only by its successor, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. At 636 pages (hardback British edition) it was fairly large for a children's book. The book attracted a lot of hype, because J. K. Rowling warned that one of the characters would be murdered in the book, raising pre-publishing rumours as to who the murdered character would be. This was also the first Harry Potter book to be published after Pottermania had comprehensively gripped the world.
This novel won a Hugo Award in 2001.
Editions
- United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada
- US
International edition (children)
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International edition (adult)
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Plot of the book
Peter Pettigrew (a.k.a. Wormtail) returns to what remains of Lord Voldemort and begins helping him. Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys and sees the flying legend of Viktor Krum. At night, there is a riot and the Dark Mark appears in the sky for the first time since Voldemort was at the height of his powers.
At Hogwarts, Harry discovers that the Triwizard Tournament, a competition between the magical schools of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang is to take place at Hogwarts. When representatives from the other schools arrive, and they find that Viktor Krum is a student at Durmstrang.
The Goblet of Fire is the selector who selects a champion for each school. Dumbledore explains that nobody under seventeen is allowed to enter, and he draws an age line around the Goblet to prevent any younger students from submitting their names.
Naturally, many underage students, including Fred and George Weasley, attempt to get past the age line using aging potions, but they are unsuccessful. The chosen champions are Viktor Krum for Durmstrang, Fleur Delacour for Beauxbatons and Cedric Diggory for Hogwarts. Harry is unexpectedly chosen as a second champion for Hogwarts even though he never entered his name. It is later learned that the Goblet of Fire was fooled by submitting Harry's name as the only student in a fictitious fourth school.
Harry focuses most of his energy on getting through the Tournament alive, but he and his friends also speculate on who put his name in the Goblet. Their top suspects are Snape and Igor Karkaroff. They believe whoever is responsible wants Harry killed in the Tournament.
They were mistaken; those responsible wanted Harry to win the Tournament. Their plan almost succeeds as Harry ties with Cedric Diggory. However, it still works for their plan. Harry and Cedric, upon touching the Triwizard Cup, are carried to a graveyard as the Cup has been turned to a portkey. In the graveyard, they are taken to Pettigrew and Lord Voldemort. Cedric is murdered, the beginning of the deaths.
Pettigrew takes blood from Harry and uses it as the final ingredient to make Voldemort rise again. Right after he rises, many of his faithful and not-so-faithful Death Eaters return to him. However, Harry manages to escape back to Hogwarts.
Harry finds out, upon his return, that it was Barty Crouch Jr. who entered him in the Tournment. Crouch Jr. had disguised himself as Alastor Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
Once again, the Ministry refuses to believe Harry's story. Dumbledore does and brings the "old crowd" back together. The school year ends and the students are sent home before Harry has a chance to tell the student body what happened, and before Dumbledore is able to convince many of them.
The film
Filming of the movie based on this book began in March 2004 and is due for release in November 2005; the screenplay was written by Steve Kloves . For American audiences Chris Columbus has been rumored to expect a PG-13 rating, translating to a PG-12 in Japan and PG in Canada.
The film stars all the same actors as the previous film in the series and is being directed by Mike Newell, the first British director for the franchise. New cast members include Katie Leung as Cho Chang, Stanislav Ianevski as Viktor Krum, Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory, Frances de la Tour as Madame Maxime and Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody. Miranda Richardson will play Rita Skeeter, Ralph Fiennes will play Voldemort, Roger Lloyd-Pack will play Barty Crouch and David Tennant will play Barty Crouch Jr..
See Harry Potter cast for a full list.
There had been a rumor from the Hamburg Evening Press in Germany that Harry was to kiss Cho Chang in this movie. That rumor has been effectively squashed by Warner Bros.
Points to consider
The first chapter of this book is similar to that of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone) in that both are the only parts of the books not seen from Harry's point of view. In case of the former, though, this is modified by the fact that Harry is in fact aware of a part of the events narrated in the course of this chapter (such as Frank Bryce's murder) as it happens, as he sees it in the form of a dream.
In this book, Harry's world expands both physically and figuratively. He goes to places he has never been before (the moor where the World Cup is held, the graveyard), and meets a vast number of people of various nationalities and all types. He learns some profound lessons about good and evil, and the difficulty in distinguishing between the two. This is particularly exemplified in the fake Moody, but other characters like Bagman, Crouch and Karkaroff are all examples of various degrees of evil, or evil and good mixed in strange and unpredictable ways.
In many ways, this book can be seen as the turning point of Harry's transition into adulthood (which is in fact the topic of this whole series). Harry has certainly left childhood behind – he "discovers" girls in this book. But he also encounters far more unpleasant aspects of adulthood, from unwanted and malicious publicity to the death of a friend.
The magical world takes on an international aspect in this book, with the introduction of the World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament. The crisis caused by Voldemort's return in the end also, in a way, helps to bring the world together.
External links
Last updated: 10-24-2005 03:52:48
