Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis

I finally got around to picking up Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, translated by Peter Needham.  First, though, a brief digression:

The Sorcerer’s Stone!?  This has incensed me for years (and I’m sure I’m hardly the only one).  Britain had no problem selling hundreds of thousands of copies of a book with (O horrors) the word ‘Philosopher’ in the title.  Renaming the book to the “Sorcerer’s” Stone is nothing less than crass, vicious condescension, a deliberate stupidification enacted by mealy-brained, cowardly editors and executives at Scholastic.  Sure, Rowling is playing fast and loose with her sources, but the Philosopher’s Stone has a cultural history, and discarding that damages both the book and its readers.

On to Latin.  I’d previously mentioned Philosophi Lapis, and was pleased to have an opportunity, finally, to crack its pages:

Dominus et Domina Dursley, qui vivebant in aedibus Gestationis Ligustrotum numero quattuor signatis, non sine superbia dicebant se ratione ordinaria vivendi uti neque se paenitere illius rationis.  in toto orbe terrarum vix credas quemquam esse minus deditum rebus novis et arcanis, quod ineptias tales omnino spernebant.

While not as lyrical as Winnie Ille Pu, it is nonetheless quite servicable, and I’m enjoying it.  It is definitely stretching my vocabulary, and is a slow slog with frequent recourse to Whittaker’s Words and my ongoing notes.

rattus ille Scabbers de digito eius pendebant, dentibus parvis et acutis in Goylis condylo immersis – Crabbe et Malfoy pedem rettulerent, Goyle Scabberum magno cum ululatu circumagente, et cum tandem Scabbers avolavisset et fenestrae incursavisset, tres illi statim evanuerunt.  fortasse putabant rattos plures inter bellariola latere, fortasse sonum pedum audiverant quod post secundum, ingresa est Hermione Granger.

This is, by no means, an easy read, but once one has the basics under one’s belt (say, having worked through Wheelock’s) it’s more than surmountable and has the engaging charm of the original.  I’d recommend it to anyone classically inclined who is fond of fantasies and doesn’t take himself or herself too seriously.