Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
(My dirty secret is that I couldn't get into the Harry Potter books. I was just bored to tears reading about those kids and their adventures, though I admit the general idea was pretty cool. The movies were more interesting, but I still DNFed after a few of them. There's no pleasing everyone).
|
All the ideas in HP are copied.
Jill Murphy, Worst Witch (1st book in series 1974, was on TV)
John Masefield, The Midnight Folk (1927). Sequel Box of Delights was on BBC. The people moving in paintings.
Eva Ibbotson, The Secret of Platform 13 (1994, 3 years before 1st HP). Kings Cross Station has a secret portal. The boy heir is a virtual slave in the posh house in London and is rescued by magical people.
English Boarding School stories 1870s to 1980s.
He whose name shall not be mentioned is a common trope as is the chosen one and the smart girl unexpectedly flung into magical society.
J. Rowling was just very lucky. Also she was lucky that Ibbotson took the copying as a complement and didn't sue. Ibbotson died 20 October 2010 (aged 85). Born in Austria and fled Nazis. Above is just the main HP sources, though I did enjoy all the books better than The Wheel of Time. Never watched the last two movies as they where a bit flat compared to the book, though I have them on BD. I also didn't watch the last Hobbit movie as the first two seemed barely connected with the book. He tried to make a kids/YA book worthy of one movie into a LOTR style adult trilogy of movies. Daft.
I've only read part of Sanderson's completion of Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, which I gave up on. It should have been a 5 or 6 book series.
Edit:
HP influences, and incomplete.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_..._and_analogues
I've read many of these too.