Episode 279: “Best of” – “Harry Potter” Book 1, Intro and Ch. 1-2

The Literary Life Podcast

Angelina Stanford

Education, Selfeducation, Classicaleducation, Reading, Literature, Homeschool, Arts, Books, Charlottemason, Homeeducation, Homeschooling

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode on The Literary Life podcast, we bring you a special re-mix of our popular series on Harry Potter: Book 1 by J. K. Rowling, with hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. After sharing a little on their own backgrounds as teachers and their commonplace quotations for the week, Angelina and Thomas open the book discussion with some introductory information on this book and series. They address the controversy surrounding these books in Christian circles. For our previous episode on magic, listen to our Best of Series Episode 168: Wizards, Witches and Magic, Oh My!

Angelina sets up this series with some background on children’s publishing in the 1990s, the why there are differences in the British and American editions, the basis for this book in the classic literary tradition, the form and structure of stories. They also share some thoughts on these first couple of chapters. Join us again next week for chapters 3-7!

Visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com for updates on classes with Angelina, Thomas, and other members of their teaching team.

To view the full show notes for this episode, including links to books mentioned, today's commonplace quotes, and poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/279.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Literary Life Podcast. We've grown quite significantly since our debut in 2019,
0:07.4	and we've had many requests to highlight older episodes that new listeners may have missed, as well as revisit listener favorites.
0:15.2	To honor that request, I present to you this episode of the best of the Literary Life podcast.
0:21.6	This is not just another book chat podcast.
0:26.6	Lifelong reader Cindy Rawlins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well.
0:36.6	Explore the lost intellectual tradition and
0:39.3	discover how to fully enter end to the great works of literature. Learn what books
0:44.6	mean while delighting in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week we will rescue
0:50.9	story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your kitchen, and your commute.
0:57.1	The literary life is for everyone because in the words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted
1:02.4	by story is to be granted a deeper insight into reality.
1:07.2	Join us for an ever unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world.
1:13.3	This is the Literary Life Podcast. Hello and welcome to the literary life podcast and welcome to our long-awaited series on Harry Potter.
1:40.6	Here, here. Indeed. Now, before we jump in, I'm going to do something a little different than we usually do.
1:47.6	I want to say a few words right here at the beginning because I suspect that this series is going to draw in lots of new listeners to the podcast.
1:58.0	So I want to explain a little bit about who we are and what the purpose of this series is
2:02.6	for anyone who's brand new. So as it said in the opening, we are Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks
2:10.1	and we've been teaching for a combined 45 plus years. I actually just did the math. Is that right?
2:17.1	Did I do it right? Sure. We'll go with that. We're going to go with years. I actually just did the math. Is that right? Did I do it right? Sure. We'll go with that.
2:19.0	We're going to go with that. I have a master's degree in English literature and my husband here,
2:25.2	Mr. Banks, has double degrees in classical languages and English literature, which actually,
2:31.3	quite amusingly, means you have a very similar degree scenario to J.K. Rowling herself.
	...

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