Chosen to be first in this experiment not just because it's the most popular series of all time omg but because I can clearly remember where I was when I first read it: in the changing room of New Look in 1999. I'd been complaining that I had nothing to read, so Mum steered me towards these books she'd heard were quite popular (she's an infant school teacher). I bought the first one because it was a magic school - I have fond memories of The Worst Witch books - and because the copyright page told me the J stood for Joanne which is my name. Another Joanne had been published; apply logic and this meant I could be published*, huzzah! So, while my sister tried on clothes, I sat in a dusty corner of the changing room and read:
Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.The tone is perfect, summing up not only the Dursleys themselves but also letting us know what to expect from the book and series. We might not yet know where the magic is going to come from, or who this Harry Potter boy is - is he the Boy Who Lived? What does that mean anyway? - but we get a taste of Rowling's style. And there's that implication that something strange or mysterious is about to happen to the Dursleys, though we don't know what.
We then get a brief description of the Dursleys, and then mention of a "secret" surrounding Mrs Dursley's sister. As Cheryl Klein notes in this article, this is the start of reverse characterization to make us sympathise with the Potters - because we don't like the Dursleys, we automatically like the Potters. Anyone the Dursleys disapprove of must, by extension, be awesome. This carries on throughout the series (even when we know that James was something of an arse) and is used to keep us sympathising with Harry.
But where this chapter really scores, I think, is in the mysteries it sets up. Some of them are answered here - what's with the owls? Why are all these people so happy? - but some of them won't be answered until the end of this book (how did Harry survive?) or Order of the Phoenix (why did Voldemort want to kill Harry in the first place?). The biggie of the series - how the hell is Harry actually going to defeat Voldemort? - is enough to keep us going till the end of Deathly Hallows and, in my case, through eight years of obsession and waiting and speculating.
This is getting a bit long and I should really do a proper in-depth reading rather than just winging it on what I remember from having read this book repeatedly (my first copy fell apart) so that will follow. To sum up my initial thoughts on chapter one of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:
1. Tone is important, especially in that first line. You want to draw the reader in.
2. Mysteries are another great way to make the reader want to continue, although you have to be careful to make sure they're intrigued rather than confused.
3. Though this may be HP-specific, but reverse characterization can be a good way to guarantee sympathy for your protagonist.
*This was before Azkaban came out and everything went really mental. I hadn't heard of Harry Potter at all before this day, so I didn't know the phenomenon that was about to explode.
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