“J. K. Rowling, the most Dickensian of contemporary writers and the author of the Harry Potter books, announced the other day that in the seventh and final volume in the series, not yet scheduled for publication, two characters would die, and she hinted that one might even be Harry himself. Not that Potter fans will necessarily accept something so unthinkable…”
This is a consideration of the other famous literary characters whose authors killed them off (among them Little Nell, Emma Bovary, and Sherlock Holmes, the clamor about whose death was so great that Conan Doyle was compelled to bring him back, as you know) and whether we should really want it any other way:
“…[D]o we really want to contemplate Harry, now bald and grizzled, the lightning-shaped scar faded into an age spot, retired from magic and, pint in hand, prattling on about old quidditch matches?”
(New York Times )
