JK Rowling's Magical Story(a)

JK Rowling's Magical Story

by Brian Foden

JK Rowling has seen enormous success with her Harry Potter books, but she suffered adversity and depression before making it big.

It's impossible to talk about JK Rowling and her Harry Potter books without using a number of superlatives. After the first three books in the series earned the top three positions on The New York Times best-seller list in 1999, her fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, won the distinction of becoming the fastest-selling book in history when it was released in 2000. The sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sold the most copies ever on an opening day, with nearly seven million bought in the US in the first 24 hours. Rowling's seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was so greatly anticipated that it received the most pre-orders in the history of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bookstores. When Harry Potter hit the big screen in late 2001, its box office receipts of US$93.5 million during its opening weekend in the United States broke the record set by The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997 by US$20 million. Eventually, all seven books were made into blockbusters.

　　All the amazing success of the Harry Potter novels and films has turned Rowling into one of Britain's richest women with her having more money than the Queen of England. However, this incredible fame and fortune is a far cry from her humble origins. Rowling was born on July 31 1965, in Yate, England. She had a difficult relationship with her father and later became estranged from him. In 1990, the year her mother died, Rowling moved to Portugal to teach English. Little did she know that her move to Portugal would be the start of a long, difficult journey.

　　谈到 JK．罗琳和她的《哈利波特》系列书籍，你不太可能不用一些最高级形容词来加以描述。继该系列的前三集于 1999 年拿下《纽约时报》畅销书籍排行榜的前三名之后，她的第四本小说《哈利波特：火杯的考验》在 2000 年发行时，便赢得史上销售最快书籍这项殊荣。第六本书《哈利波特：混血王子的背叛》在开卖的第一天便创下销售最多本书的纪录，开卖二十四小时内在美国就卖出了将近七百万本书。罗琳的第七本，也是该系列的最后一本书《哈利波特：死神的圣物》受到万众瞩目，因此它在亚马逊网络书店及巴诺书店都接到有史以来最多的预购订单。当《哈利波特》于 2001 年底登上大银幕，上映的第一个周末便在美国写下九千三百五十万美元的票房收入，以两千万美元的差距打破了 1997 年由《侏儸纪公园二：失落的世界》所保持的票房纪录。最终，该系列的七本书都被翻拍为卖座电影。

　　《哈利波特》小说和电影所带来的惊人成功已使得罗琳成为英国最富有的女性之一，她的财产甚至比英国女王还要多。然而，这不可思议的名望与财富却与她卑微的出身相去甚远。罗琳于 1965 年七月三十一日出生在英国的叶特镇。她和她父亲的关系很差，后来便和他疏远了。1990 年，也就是罗琳的母亲去世的那一年，她搬到了葡萄牙教英文。她当时并不晓得她搬去葡萄牙会开启一段漫长而艰辛的旅程。