Harrius Potter Et Philosophi Lapis (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Latin Edition) (Hardcover)

Let's face it, it is easer and more fun to read something you already know. Also it is fun to see how certain phrases and newer concepts are handled. Learning Latin this way also helps kids pass English tests in school by learning root concepts.

So all together now:
Dominus et Domina Dursley, qiu ...

A taste of the delights in store is given on the front cover, where the nameplate on the front of the Hogwarts’ Express is rendered by the Greco-Latin Hamaxostichus Rapidus Hogvartensis. This kind of ingenuity is one of the great sources of fun and pleasure of Needham’s version. I was able, thanks partly to my familiarity with the English original, to deduce most of these gems: in maiore insula Baleari (in Majorca, p17); tintinnabulum liminare (doorbell, p18); instrumentum praenuntium in nebula (a foghorn, p44); stationis autocineticae instrumenta mensuralia (parking meters, p52); Viculus Occidentalis (West Ham, pp117, 148); ludus Caledonicus (golf, p137); claustra ad tesseras inspiciendas instituta (ticket barriers, p54; cf. claustrum tesseris inspiciendis, p247); manuballista (crossbow, p238). Some, however, which I found more troublesome, had me scurrying back to the original for enlightenment: citrina fervescens (sherbet lemon, p8); sorbillum glaciatum transatlanticum (knickerbocker glory, p20); Quadrae Martis (Mars Bars, p81); farina avenacea (porridge, p109). There were others which I should have known but caught me out, e.g. cur nihil es? (Why are you eating nothing? - very annoying! - p168). It is no doubt due to these and other ingenious periphrastics that this volume is a good twenty-five pages longer than the English version.

So much for vocabulary. The grammar, as you would expect, is spot on, and refreshingly reflects actual Latin usage rather than Latin grammar books. Hence ad mensam dexteram (p96) and in dextera parte (p103); similes used with the genitive (pp122, 135) as well as the dative (pp127, 135); obliviscor and memini used with the accusative (e.g. pp169, 173, 187, 195, 208, 213) as well as the genitive (p247). There is no Ciceronian prose here: the syntax reflects the original and is more anglicised than one might have anticipated. Good use is made of verbal prefixes to add the appropriate nuance. Especially impressive are the renderings of the songs (by the Petasus Distribuens, Sorting Hat, p95, and the school song, p103) into couplets.

I spotted only a few typos: carminbus (p51), nostres omnes (p126). alis for aliis (p144), gesisse (p238). But these do not detract from the immense pleasure this volume gives. Once one has grown accustomed to the recondite vocabulary (e.g. manubrium scoparum, broomstick) one’s reading becomes more fluent as one progresses. It was a delight to be reminded of my own youthful attempts at prose composition by the classic quae cum ita sint on p143, and of my own GCE set text, Aeneid II, by conticuere omnes (pp90, 102, 120, 245). Rail journeys from King’s Cross – Statio Regis Crucis - will never quite be the same again, and I await with alacrity the appearance of Harrius Potter et Camera Rerum Arcanarum.