.....of the last Harry Potter book, and really the whole series, by Alan Jacobs of Wheaton College. And how can I not love something that quotes extensively from G. K. Chesterton?
Mr. Jacobs takes a unique slant--comparing them (and as a favorable comparison!) to the "penny dreadfuls" of 100 years ago. They were much despised then, especially by the cognoscenti, and none other than GKC rode to their defense. Here's a snippet of Jacobs, quoting GKC:
"There is no class of vulgar publications about which there is, to my mind, more utterly ridiculous exaggeration and misconception than the current boys' literature of the lowest stratum." Chesterton is perfectly happy to acknowledge that these books are not in the commendatory sense "literature," because "the simple need for some kind of ideal world in which fictitious persons play an unhampered part is infinitely deeper and older than the rules of good art, and much more important. Every one of us in childhood has constructed such an invisible dramatis personae, but it never occurred to our nurses to correct the composition by careful comparison with Balzac."
Jacobs goes on with what is a very positive review. Very interesting.
