By Naoko Iwasa
Britain has much juvenile literature such as "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," "Winnie-the-Pooh," "Aliceﾕs Adventures in Wonderland" and each is world-famous. Novels representative of modern times are certainly such works as J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. It was in 1997 that the first work, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published in Britain. The Japanese versions are published up to the fourth volume at present. In July, 2002, this series reached 160 million copies published world wide, translated into 46 languages. The rising popularity of "Harry Potter" brought the limelight onto Darren Shan's novel, "Darren Shan" which deals with vampires, and J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" published in 1954, became a big hit again. The enthusiasm of British fantasy novels shows no tendency to cool.
British fantasy novel has a Celtic atmosphere. Many descendants of Celtic people live at present in the British Isles around Scotland, in Ireland, and in France. Many Celtic folktales and myths are found in these regions. The Celts told of fairies in many folktales. The Celtic feeling appears in the fairies and the phantom living creatures in the series of "Harry Potter." They are mostly the fairies which were passed down from generation to generation in Celtic folktales. Although they are the creation of the author's and her own arrangement, they remain Celtic images.
The point of "Harry Potter" is the battle between Voldemort a magician of the darkness wanting to conquer the world of magic, and Harry Potter who is the hero, his parents killed by Voldemort. It contains the element of mystery, and because the story continues into the next volume leaving some mysteries unsolved, people cannot help but read the next one. Moreover the personalities of the characters are more attractive than anything else. Although it has a rather large number of characters, each of them is described clearly. Harry Potter, the hero, is not a superman. He has many aspects of an ordinary boy in many scenes; not completely satisfactory school record, quarrels with his friends and blunders in class.
The novels of the "Harry Potter" series are being published at the pace of one volume a year, and it is said that it will be concluded by volume seven. The fans in the world will continue pursuing the mysteries of this story for a number of years.
The reason fantasy novels are popular is that the readers are attracted by the fantasy novels' elements of dream, friendship, love, adventure, justice and/or anything which is being lost in modern society. The readers immerse themselves in an unreal situation, and can experience the world of the fiction. It's impossible to find the dream world in reality, however, the readers can do so in the world of the fantasy.