Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4 - Part 1 - 7 Audio Cassette set)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the long-awaited, heavily hyped fourth instalment of a phenomenally successful series that has captured the imagination of millions of readers, young and old, across the globe. For J K Rowling the pressure is certainly on to continue to come up with thrilling, pacey storylines that allow her hero to mature into a young man without detracting from the magical secret that has made Harry into a superstar. In this book, the teenage Harry has a certain gawky charm that fits well with his advancing adolescence. As the story moves on, Harry too moves on to a new level of maturity that leaves the reader wondering how he will learn from his experiences, and liking him all the more as a character.

Once returned to Hogwarts after his summer holiday with the dreadful Dursleys and an extraordinary outing to the Quidditch World Cup, the 14-year-old Harry and his fellow pupils are enraptured by the promise of the Triwizard Tournament: an ancient, ritualistic tournament that brings Hogwarts together with two other schools of wizardry--Durmstrang and Beauxbatons--in heated competition. But when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire, and he is chosen to champion Hogwarts in the tournament, the trouble really begins. Still reeling from the effects of a terrifying nightmare that has left him shaken, and with the lightning-shaped scar on his head throbbing with pain (a sure sign that the evil Voldemort, Harry's sworn enemy, is close), Harry becomes at once the most popular boy in school. Yet, despite his fame, he is totally unprepared for the furore that follows.

This is a hefty volume: 636 pages, of which probably at least 200 could have been cut without detracting from the story. The weight and complexity of the book is perhaps a hint that Rowling now has her eye sharply focused on her adult audience, and the average child-reader (particularly one who is coming to Harry Potter for the first time) may well find its girth daunting. Rowling's ironic and pointed observations on tabloid journalism and the nature of media hype is just one of the references littered through the book that will tickle the grown-ups but may well fly over the heads of her young fans.

However, after a slow start, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire really starts to sparkle halfway through with Rowling's familiar magic (and yes, there is a death--sudden and tragic--and yes, Harry does start to notice girls). The crux of this story, however, is Harry's gradual coming-of-age and his handling of the increasingly determined threats to his own life.

This book is pivotal, not just for the author for whom the heat is well and truly on, but for Harry and his readers who, by the last chapter, are left in little doubt that there is much more to come. (Ages 10 to adult) --Susan Harrison

The first hundred or so pages see Harry suffering at the hands of his wretched relatives - the Dursleys - before finally being released for long enough to enjoy the exciting atmosphere of the Quidditch World Cup. Upon returning to Hogwarts, Harry and his fellow witched and wizards learn of a once-annual tradition known as the Triwizard Tournament. It is at this point that J K Rowling unleashes information about magic schools in other countries: Durmstrang and Beaxbatons are the names of the other two schools that compete against Hogwarts for the Triwizard Cup. Times are stressful for Harry during the competition, and it is then that we glimpse changes in his personality and angry outbursts caused by his awkward adolescant phase.

There are, of course, plenty of new characters introduced to the reader: The new Defence Agsinst the Dark Arts teacher - the eccentric and - some believe - dangerous 'Mad-Eye' Moody. We also come across some familiar faces, such as the amusing house-elf Dobby, formerly seen in book two - The Chamber of Secrets. Not only this, but surprising facts are uncovered about characters such as Neville Longbottom, and sinister pasts of thoses working for the Ministry of Magic. There is plenty of excitement within the Goblet of Fire, and suspense during difficulties Harry must overcome during tests of friendship between himself, Ron and Hermione. There are lots of surprises in store, plenty of twists and several weepy moments. It is my personal favourite in the series, and I urge you to give it a read.


4th the best!   January 13, 2008
Mehajabeen Farid (Coventry)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

The book for the fourth year for Harry at Hogwarts is very different to the movie because Sirius Black was way more involved and Harry, Ron and Hermione visit him and brings him food while he lives in a cave in the mountains looking over Hogsmeade instead of him eating rats all the time. The book is about the Triwizard Tournament which is set in Hogwarts between Beauxbatons, Hogwarts and Durmstrang. Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, Harry Potter are selected to compete in the Tournament and they have to get through 3 tasks, each one harder than the previous and Cedric and Harry draw first place from the first and second so they have to go into the labyrinth first. Victor and Fleur are both out in the third task so it is between Harry and Cedric. At the end, Harry is in a hospital bed with everyone around him including Padfoot (Sirius as a dog). I would rate this book
10/ 10 and I think this is the best Harry Potter book.



A dark story for Harry--but a great one for us!   August 15, 2000
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

"Wow." That was the one word I could get out after finishing and finally closing the covers of the massive and long-awaited "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." It was everything I've been eagerly waiting for and *more*, and not just because of its hefty 734-page length. I *won't* summarize the plot here in my review--there are just too many delights, shocks, and surprises that you should discover yourself. This is by far the most involved, detailed, and most of all *dark* Harry Potter novel--Harry's life becomes far more complicated, with friendship problems, romantic difficulties, and far more deadly threats to his life and happiness than ever before. But don't be put off: there's as much of the usual fun, silliness, and delight to J.K. Rowling's wonderful writing that definitely had me laughing out loud even in some of the darker moments. Rowling has planned the general structure of her entire seven-book saga beforehand, and it shows in the care and attention to details that pick up plotlines and characters from previous books (Tom Riddle, Dobby the House-Elf, Sirius Black) and take them in dramatic and exciting directions, as well as adding innovative twists and startling new characters ranging from the frightening to the humorous. As great as the first books were, Book Four is more mature, more involved, and more personal. She has, with this book, taken the Harry Potter saga halfway through its full seven-volume story, and I found myself thinking of another favorite saga: conceived as a single structure but broken into parts that captured the imaginations and hearts of kids and adults around the world: The "Star Wars" movies. And what is generally considered the best of all the Star Wars movies?--the *middle* one, "The Empire Strikes Back." On the 20th anniversary of that, my favorite Star Wars movie, I sat and read the new Harry Potter, halfway through Harry's saga, and was amazed at how much it reminded me of "Empire," not specifically in plot but rather in theme. At the end of both "Harry IV" and "Empire," the villain has shown himself to be more powerful than imagined, our heroes have suffered a serious blow, and dark, dark times are coming. We know they'll triumph...but half the fun is accompanying them on their adventures. We know how it all worked out for Luke Skywalker...and I can't wait to see how it will come out for Harry Potter. I'm already counting the days until Book Five, but in the meantime I think I'll read Books One through Four all over again. Harry Potter is not likely to look back on his fourth year at Hogwart's with much fondness...but I, and his millions of fans, *will*.


By far the best, and yet more to come   August 14, 2001
Jacques COULARDEAU (OLLIERGUES France)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This fourth volume makes you hope there will be many more. By far, so far, the best, and the thickest. The book is packed with events and a tremendous level of creativity and imagination. At the same time the references to the previous volumes are still numerous, giving to this new episode a perfect continuity in the story.

The first element that jumps out is the fact that Harry Potter has been growing in age from one volume to the next, and in this volume he really has his age, thirteen. This is the mark of a very good writer who is able to follow the maturity or the maturation of the characters, so that the story is realistic. Never in the four volumes, and particularly in this volume, are the characters older than they should be. Hermione discovers social consciousness and gets interested in the fate of elves, as well as she discovers the difference between friendship and love. Ron Weasley discovers the need to believe his friends and the first pangs of love or sexual awareness. Harry Potter opens his eyes to the necessity to assume his responsibilities by learning what he needs to accomplish his tasks and the sense of honor and human solidarity even within a competition in which he tries, and he is not the only one, to remain human, with his challengers or co-competitors, instead of being an unsensitive and selfish winning machine. This is done with great subtlety and delicacy. Fred and George Weasley are older and they discover the need to have a social and economic position in society that brings in an income based on a creative project for the whole community : this is known as business in any society.

The second element is that the confrontation between Potter and Voldemort finally comes to a direct face-to-face one-on-one duel whose stake is life or death for Harry Potter as well as life or death for his direct friends and the whole community. The battle leaves the level of individuals to reach the level of society, a real universal value, a cosmological dimension. And in this progressively built up, and non-final because undecisive as for the life of death of Voldemort himself, frontal shock, the writer shows a level of imagination that has no limits. She uses older elements in an unforeseen or at least partially unpredictable way, and she adds new elements that are totally undeductable from the previous volumes. Suspense is absolute and never, at this level, loosened or weakened.

The third element is The widening of the national and ethnic scope of the book. The author introduces a competition that brings into the picture two schools from abroad : one from France and another one from eastern and central Europe. Hence there is a play on the particular dialects of those foreigners in their use of English, a play on food variations, on clothing variations, on transportation variations, etc. This is supposed to widen the scope of the students' consciousness and awareness of the differences that exist between and among humans to bring out a wider accepting of national and international cooperation. But she also widens the scope by introducing several other communities, particularly some that are traditionally rejected by wizards and witches on the basis or pure prejudice, that is to say racism : merpeople, elves, goblins (a little), giants (only a beginning). The aim is always to show that cooperation between different ethnic groups is necessary to give the future some stability and predictability.

The fourth element has to do with political power and its abuses. Power for the sake of power (Lord Voldemort), or for the sake of stability (The Minister of Magic, Fudge), or for the sake of lawfulness (that always covers some unlawful element and some inhuman attitudes to impose the law), or for the sake of personal privileges (like the power to show off, to get publicity, to bet and gamble) leads to abuse and cecity, at least shortsightedness, the incapability to see how the future will change and warp those principles or objectives, those ambitions, those values : to be a real leader you have to keep in mind the unification of your people and the wider longer aims of human life, of social life, of history. Lord Voldemort and his followers find themselves on the wrong side of history, just the same as the Minister of Magic who only wants to protect what has achieved, which is the past, and to prolong it into the future. This idea that the future needs moral commitment and the accepting of change is essential in this book. There is a real mirror in the book that gives us a picture of our own society that uses democracy in order to capture power in the name of change and progress, and then defend it in the name of stability. Any political leader is led to conservativeness, I am even inclined to saying conservation.

We thus wait for the next volume that will have to deal with the fight against the revived Lord Voldemort and also with some fundamental issues that have not yet been solved : love and its outcome, the fate of Harry's godfather, the need of justice and to avoid injustice or to repair cases of injustice, when injustice occors, etc. We can trust the writer to bring in new elements that will constantly feed the mill of suspense and imagination.