Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the 7th and final book in the Harry Potter series, was published in 2007 and, in principle, is about the final year at school for the three friends. Their relationship with teachers, especially Harry’s relationship with headmaster Dumbledore, is front and centre and underlines how this is still very much a children’s book, where adults are looked to for a guiding hand as practical and moral decisions are made.
More than 600 pages in length, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a pageturner. J.K. Rowling keeps a number of plotlines in the air, gradually tying everything together. She maintains complexity and interest—like the introduction of “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” a story inspired by one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales—while also giving the satisfaction that everything across the series makes sense and culminates in the book’s final pages.
There are lots of things in medieval literature that are relevant either to our particular moment or that are timeless. For example, JK Rowling’s The Deathly Hallows is based on a Canterbury tale, ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’.
Marion Turner recommends the Best Medieval Historical Fiction
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