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"Harry Potter storms French bookshops"(Reuters, November 29, 2000) |
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| PARIS - After Britain, Germany and the United States, the latest instalment of the Harry Potter saga swept into French bookstores on Wednesday. Shops across the country threw midnight parties to welcome the arrival of the French-language edition of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" -- the fourth volume in the hugely successful childrens' series. French publishers Gallimard have printed 450,000 "special edition" hard-cover copies of the novel for the pre-Christmas launch, with Pottermania apparently knowing no bounds. "I have waited a year to know what happens next, so I can wait until midnight," said 11-year old Antoine as he queued patiently outside a Paris store on Tuesday night waiting for the clock to strike 12. The book, by British author J.K. Rowling, details the latest adventures of apprentice wizard Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he has magic powers. It first went on sale in Britain and the United States in July and arrived in October in Germany, where it sold more than 500,000 copies on its first day. Gallimard has sold 1.25 million French-language copies of the first three Harry Potter novels, including 300,000 copies last month alone as marketing went into overdrive. |
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