The novel begins with Harry living under the closet with his abusive aunt and uncle. He has had a nasty, miserable life, and though an active boy, the absolute amount of shock he must have suffered would scar any child. But the door opens out of this lifestyle.He receives hundreds of letters saying he is actually a wizard. So he sign up the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He, along with his new friend the giant Hagrid, go to Diagon Alley, a mystic souk, and thus he thrust into the magical world so caught the imagination of masses. We soon learn Harry is renowned among wizards for conquering awicked Wizard named Voldemort. Along the way, we learn that Voldemort is after a mystic artifact called the Philosopher’s Stone (which was, unluckily, changed from the UK original title to “Sorcerer’s Stone” in all other regions). Most of the novel is driven by the 3 main characters protecting this stone from Voldemort.
In this novel we get the first ever peeps of Hogwarts, Voldemort, Severus Snape, Quidditch, Dumbledore, muggles, the Forbidden Forest, the Invisibility Cloak, and many other number of things Rowling’s magical confectionery of an imagination has cooked up for us.
One of the best things about this book, and definitely about the whole series, is how Rowling describe details which, when reading, you may not certainly pick up on, but are rather important in later volumes. Who would think Griphook and Hagrid’s warning of no one breaks into Gringotts would have such eminence in Book seven? Or the significance of Harry being able to talk to the boa constrictor, something which is not mentioned again until Book two and then not completely described until Book seven? Or the Invisibility Cloak, a device first presented in this novel, but you have no idea of its importance, or even that it has real significance, until Book seven.
One greater example of this planting of hints is Neville Longbottom, who, but by luck, could easily have been the key star of the series, though you don’t figure out that information until much later in Book five.
The book also familiarizes the relationship dynamics that would last throughout the entire series, from the chemistry between the three main teens (Harry, Ron, and Hermione), to the vague Severus Snape, the astute mentor figure of Albas Dumbledore, clumsy Hagrid with his love of disgusting creatures, formal and reserved Professor McGonagall, evil embodied Voldemort, Draco Malfoy, etc.
Overall, there are several memorable scenes in this novel. As the novels proceeded, the children aged and the target audience would have aged too. In this novel, they are quite very young and immature, but already at this initial point in their career, there are seeds of prominence for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
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