New-York Historical Society.

I'll always be slightly disappointed that I missed seeing the British Library's exhibition on Harry Potter, but at least they published this gloriously lush exhibition book and ensured that it was widely available to a global audience. Not that I wouldn't have paid the customs and duties (or talked nicely to my globetrotting friends), but the hefty discount available at Chapters pre-Christmas made the deal even sweeter. And boy was it worth it, since the writers and editors crammed the book with tonnes of wonderful content from the British Library's and other museum's collections, as well as included lots of illustrations from Jim Kay, film content, and HP exclusive from private collections. I quite enjoyed the smaller version of the exhibition book as well, but even with all of the added content in this volume that established its dominance, the real benefit was how much more academically the subject matter was treated. Instead of just getting materials meant to entertain, we also got treatises on historical medicine and herbology, scientific astronomy, and a serious look at witchcraft throughout the ages. Yet no matter how seriously the curators took the materials (archival research and historical analysis are crucially important), they also imbued the text with a sense of humour by dropping jokes intermittently throughout the text to ensure that readers can't get bored. Though why would they, when the exhibit (and book) so carefully juxtaposed the historical inspirations besides J.K. Rowling's seminal series of novels?!… (més)