Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire by by J.K. (Joanne) Rowling: Summary and reviews

About this Book

Summary
Excerpt
Reading Guide

Book Summary

The pivotal fourth novel in the seven part tale of Harry Potter's training as a wizard and his coming of age.

This is the pivotal fourth novel in the seven part tale of Harry Potter's training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream). He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at the Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened in a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen year old wizard. Unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards.

And in his case, different can be deadly.

Chapter 1
The Riddle House

The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle House," even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there. It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied.

The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was "creepy." Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there, something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was quite sure what the truth was anymore. Every version of the tale, however, started in the same place: Fifty years before, at daybreak on a fine summer's morning, when ...

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Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers!

The Book

Wizards and Hogwarts! Muggles and mudbloods! Quidditch and broomsticks! None of those things mean anything to Harry Potter, a small, skinny, bespectacled boy with an unusual lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead—until his eleventh birthday. That's when he starts receiving letters inviting him to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that his parents did not die in a car crash but were killed by Voldemort, the Lord of Darkness, and that he's famous in the world of wizardry. So Harry leaves the home of his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and their hateful son Dudley, who are mere muggles (humans without one drop of magic in them), and embarks on a new life. And the changes continue as Harry spends ...

Media Reviews

Salon - Charles Taylor

....for kids, Harry Potter is of their time, something that will always be theirs instead of a legacy left to them by a previous generation....Like all great fantasy sagas, the Harry Potter books have grown narratively, morally and psychologically more complex as the series progresses. There is a special pressure on a writer who midway through a series finds herself entrusted with the imagination of a huge number of readers. That Rowling has done nothing to break that faith seems a deed as brave and noble as any her hero has accomplished.

Salon - Charles Taylor

....for kids, Harry Potter is of their time, something that will always be theirs instead of a legacy left to them by a previous generation....Like all great fantasy sagas, the Harry Potter books have grown narratively, morally and psychologically more complex as the series progresses. There is a special pressure on a writer who midway through a series finds herself entrusted with the imagination of a huge number of readers. That Rowling has done nothing to break that faith seems a deed as brave and noble as any her hero has accomplished.

Publishers Weekly

The details are as ingenious and original as ever ....Rowling plants the red herrings, the artful clues and tricky surprises that disarm the most attentive audience.

Publishers Weekly

The details are as ingenious and original as ever ....Rowling plants the red herrings, the artful clues and tricky surprises that disarm the most attentive audience.

Guardian (UK)

...this is storytelling of a high order indeed. It draws the reader in with a riddle and a letter. It proceeds through a series of trials to a great confrontation. And it concludes with a death and a climactic resolution. E.M. Forster famously observed that, 'Yes - oh dear, yes - the novel tells a story'. HP IV is the apotheosis of 'story.'

Guardian (UK)

...this is storytelling of a high order indeed. It draws the reader in with a riddle and a letter. It proceeds through a series of trials to a great confrontation. And it concludes with a death and a climactic resolution. E.M. Forster famously observed that, 'Yes - oh dear, yes - the novel tells a story'. HP IV is the apotheosis of 'story.'

London Times (UK)

Once again, Rowling packs the pages with witty and imaginative ideas....Fourth year report? Another fine year, Ms Rowling. Three more to go and it looks as though your OWLS (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) results will be terrific.

Reader Reviews

taylor

very good
I love this book. I have all the books and the movies at my house. They all are just getting better and better.

Rishabh Shah

Goblet of Fire is phenomenal!!!
The Harry Potter series are just getting better and better! The Goblet of Fire is more gripping than the last three, opens lots of more secrets, and the absence of the usual InterHouse Quidditch Tournament has been compensated with a Quidditch World ... Read More

anu

thiz is 2 amazin
hey every1 omigod thiz book is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!! ive read it abt 100 times now (not really i dono how many times i read thiz book i neva counted)ive read all the hp books just fin readin the HBP the 5th time loved it 2 i just decided 2 ... Read More

Jen~Jen

LOVE LOVE this book!!
Even though HBP is now out, my fav HP book for some reason is still GOF!! Probably cuz I loved the Triwizard Tournament & it was both funny, sweet & sad at the same time. Plus, someone's in it that I rly liked. of course he HAD to die...*hint hint* ... Read More

...216 More Reader Reviews

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