Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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This article is about the book. For the film, see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film). For other uses, see Order of the Phoenix (disambiguation).

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Cover art of the original UK edition
AuthorJ. K. Rowling
IllustratorJason Cockcroft (first edition)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesHarry Potter
Release number
5th in series
GenreFantasy
PublisherBloomsbury (UK)
Publication date
21 June 2003
Pages766 (first edition)
ISBN0-7475-5100-6
Preceded byHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 
Followed byHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the fifth novel in the Harry Potter series. It follows Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of the antagonist Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic. The novel was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada. It sold five million copies in the first 24 hours of publication.[1]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix won several awards, including the American Library Association Best Book Award for Young Adults in 2003. The book was also made into a 2007 film, and a video game by Electronic Arts.

Plot[edit]

During the summer, Harry Potter is frustrated by his friends' non-communication and with Dumbledore barring him from helping combat a newly-resurgent Lord Voldemort. One evening, Dementors attack him and cousin Dudley, but Harry fends them off using the Patronus Charm. Later, Order of the Phoenix members arrive at the Dursley house to evacuate Harry. They whisk him off to Number 12, Grimmauld Place, Sirius Black's family home, which is now the Order's headquarters. Ron and Hermione are there and tell Harry that the Order is a secret organisation that Dumbledore created to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Harry wants to join, but is too young.

The Ministry of Magic, under Cornelius Fudge, attempt to malign Harry for stating that Voldemort has returned. Harry is also charged with performing underage magic while with a Muggle, but is exonerated and returns to Hogwarts. Dolores Umbridge, a senior Ministry employee, is the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. She initiates strict rules and a textbook-only curriculum and forbids the students from practicing defensive spells. Harry, Ron, and Hermione form a secret student Defense group called Dumbledore's Army. The group secretly meets in the Room of Requirement to practice under Harry's instruction.

One night, Harry dreams that Arthur Weasley is attacked by Voldemort's snake, Nagini. His vision is true, and Arthur is found seriously injured at the Ministry. Dumbledore realises that Harry's and Voldemort's minds are connected, and he orders Professor Snape to teach Harry Occlumency, a skill to close one's mind against others. Umbridge is tipped-off about Dumbledore's Army; to prevent Harry's expulsion, Dumbledore claims responsibility for forming the group. To avoid arrest, he goes into hiding. Umbridge is appointed headmistress, though she is magically barred from entering Dumbledore's tower, and begins enacting strict rules and regulations.

Harry's Occlumency lessons go poorly. During his Ordinary Wizarding Level exams, he envisions Voldemort torturing Sirius in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry. Harry attempts to contact Sirius at Grimmauld Place, using the Floo Network in Umbridge's office, but she catches and interrogates him, threatening to use the Cruciatus Curse on him. Hermione intervenes by concocting a story that leads them into the Forbidden Forest. Umbridge provokes the centaurs, who take her captive.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna fly to the Ministry to save Sirius, but he is not in the Department of Mysteries. Instead, the room in his vision has shelves filled with glass spheres, one of which bears Harry's and Voldemort's names. Harry picks it up and is immediately surrounded by Death Eaters. Lucius Malfoy reveals that Harry was lured there by a fake vision from Voldemort, and that he wishes to hear the prophecy contained in the glass sphere. He asks Harry for the sphere, but Harry refuses. The Hogwarts group fight the Death Eaters and evade them. Order of the Phoenix members (tipped off by Professor Snape) arrive and battle the Death Eaters. Lucius Malfoy accidentally drops the prophecy sphere, destroying it. Later during the battle, Bellatrix Lestrange kills Sirius.

Harry chases Bellatrix into the atrium. Voldemort appears and tries to kill Harry, but Dumbledore appears and thwarts him. Fudge and other Ministry of Magic employees arrive on the scene and witness Voldemort just before he escapes. In his office, Dumbledore tells Harry the prophecy was made by Professor Trelawney, who predicted the birth of a child with power against Voldemort. This caused Voldemort to pursue Harry's parents, and is why he targets Harry. Overwhelmed by the prophecy and mourning Sirius' death, Harry grows sullen, although the wizarding community now believes and respects him. Supported by his friends, Harry is able to endure another summer with the Dursleys.

Publication and release[edit]

Potter fans waited three years between the releases of the fourth and fifth books.[2][3] Before the release of the fifth book, 200 million copies of the first four books had already been sold and translated into 55 languages in 200 countries.[4] As the series was already a global phenomenon, the book forged new pre-order records, with thousands of people queuing outside book stores on 20 June 2003 to secure copies at midnight.[4] Despite the security, thousands of copies were stolen from an Earlestown, Merseyside warehouse on 15 June 2003.[5]

Critical response[edit]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was met with mostly positive reviews and received several awards. [6] The Guardian reported on reviews from several British publications that had rated the novel out of five: Daily Mail gave it a four, The Observer, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and The Times gave it a three and Independent on Sunday gave it a two.[7] In 2004, the book was cited as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and as an American Library Association Notable Book.[8][9] It also received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio 2004 Gold Medal, along with several other awards.[10] Rowling was praised for her imagination by USA Today writer Deirdre Donahue.[11] The New York Times writer John Leonard praised the novel, saying "The Order of the Phoenix starts slow, gathers speed and then skateboards, with somersaults, to its furious conclusion....As Harry gets older, Rowling gets better."[12] However, he also criticised "the one-note Draco Malfoy" and the predictable Lord Voldemort.[12]

Predecessors and sequels[edit]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series.[2] The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, 300 of which were distributed to libraries. By the end of 1997, the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9-to-11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.[13][14][15] The second novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in the UK on 2 July 1998. The third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[14][15] The fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was published 8 July 2000, simultaneously by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[16] The fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is the longest book in the series, yet it is the second-shortest film at 2 hours 18 minutes.[17]

After the publishing of Order of the Phoenix, the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published on 16 July 2005 and sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[1][18] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.[19] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[18]

Adaptations[edit]

Film[edit]

Main article: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)

In 2007, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in a film version directed by David Yates and written by Michael Goldenberg. The film was produced by David Heyman's company, Heyday Films, alongside David Barron. The budget was reportedly between £75 and 100 million (US$150–200 million),[20][21] and it became the unadjusted eleventh-highest-grossing film of all time and a critical and commercial success.[22] The film opened to a worldwide 5-day opening of $333 million, the third best of all time, and grossed $940 million total, second to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for the greatest total of 2007.[23][24]

Video games[edit]

Main article: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)

A video game adaptation of the book and film versions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was made for Microsoft Windows, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, Game Boy Advance, and Mac OS X.[25] It was released on 25 June 2007 in the U.S., 28 June 2007 in Australia, and 29 June 2007 in the UK and Europe for PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation 2, Windows, and 3 July 2007 for most other platforms.[26] The games were published by Electronic Arts.[27]

The book is also depicted in the 2011 video game Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7.

Translations[edit]

Main article: Harry Potter in translation

The first official foreign translation of the book appeared in Vietnamese on 21 July 2003, when the first of twenty-two instalments was released. The first official European translation appeared in Serbia and Montenegro in Serbian by the official publisher Narodna Knjiga in early September 2003. Other translations appeared later (e.g. in November 2003 in Dutch and German). The English-language version has topped the bestseller list in France, whereas in Germany and the Netherlands, an unofficial distributed translation process was started on the internet.[28]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "July date for Harry Potter book". BBC News. 21 December 2004. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
  2. ^ a b Ross, Shmuel; Mark Zurlo (2000–2009). "Harry Potter Timeline: 2000 to the Present". Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  3. ^ "Harry Potter Books". MuggleNet.com. 1999–2009. Archived from the original on 6 June 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  4. ^ a b "Potter-mania sweeps bookstores". CNN. 30 June 2003. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  5. ^ "Thousands of Potter books stolen". BBC News. 17 June 2003. Archived from the original on 18 August 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  6. ^ "Article clipped from The Guardian". Newspapers. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  7. ^ "Article clipped from The Guardian". Newspapers. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  8. ^ "Best Books for Young Adults Annotated List 2004". American Library Association. 2004. Archived from the original on 14 April 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  9. ^ "2004 Notable Children's Books". American Library Association. 2009. Archived from the original on 5 September 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  10. ^ Levine, Arthur (2001–2005). "Awards". Arthur A. Levine Books. Archived from the original on 29 April 2006. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  11. ^ Donahue, Deirdre (25 June 2003). "Rich characters, magical prose elevate 'Phoenix'". USA Today. Archived from the original on 1 June 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2009.
  12. ^ a b Leonard, John (13 July 2003). "Nobody Expects the Inquisition". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 June 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2009.
  13. ^ Knapp, N.F. (2003). "In Defense of Harry Potter: An Apologia" (PDF). School Libraries Worldwide. 9 (1). International Association of School Librarianship: 78–91. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 March 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  14. ^ a b "A Potter timeline for muggles". Toronto Star. 14 July 2007. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
  15. ^ a b "Harry Potter: Meet J.K. Rowling". Scholastic Inc. Archived from the original on 4 June 2007. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
  16. ^ "Speed-reading after lights out". The Guardian. London. 19 July 2000. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
  17. ^ Elisco, Lester (2000–2009). "The Phenomenon of Harry Potter". TomFolio.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
  18. ^ a b "Harry Potter finale sales hit 11 m". BBC News. 23 July 2007. Archived from the original on 25 December 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
  19. ^ "Rowling unveils last Potter date". BBC News. 1 February 2007. Archived from the original on 28 December 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
  20. ^ Cornwell, Tim (24 January 2007). "Oscars signal boom (except for Scots)". The Scotsman. UK. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
  21. ^ Haun, Harry (20 June 2007). "Harry the Fifth". Film Journal International. Archived from the original on 4 August 2008. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
  22. ^ "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
  23. ^ "Worldwide Openings". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 23 June 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2008.
  24. ^ "2007 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo. 6 March 2008. Archived from the original on 8 May 2013.
  25. ^ "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Videogame". Electronic Arts Inc. 2007. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  26. ^ "Harry Potter: Phoenix". CBS Interactive Inc. 2009. Archived from the original on 11 June 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  27. ^ "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: The Video Game". Electronic Arts Inc. 2009. Archived from the original on 18 May 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  28. ^ "Harry auf Deutsch: Projekt-Übersicht der Harry Potter Übersetzung (en)". Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2011.

External links[edit]

The Wikibook Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter has a page on the topic of: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Wikiquote has quotations related to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
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