My Mumma recently visited an Oxfam bookshop and brought back two different editions of The Chamber of Secrets for me. I’m a massive Potterhead and I’ve decided to start collecting different editions, particularly from other countries. This French edition is the first one that I’ve gotten my hands on.
I’d never seen the one on the right before but I really like the sort of ’60’s vibe it gives off. It seems to have been published in 1999 so I believe it may have been part of an early Adult version of the series. Do any of you know?
The French editions have truly terrible covers but it’s funny that the illustrator decided to go for the traditional wizard look with the tall, black and pointy almost puritan looking hats. Here’s a close up:
Poor Hermione has been completely shafted out of the picture!
I have actually attempted to read the first chapter but it is definitely going to be a long and probably slightly frustrating process. For example I knew that Uncle Vernon was having eggs for breakfast but I had to use the other book to find out which kind. (For the record it was fried.) Perhaps this will be a good incentive to prevent my GCSE French skills from getting dusty!
– Kayla x
Shh!...It's a Library 
Aha, yes, it’s true that French covers are terrible! I cannot understand why they decided not to put Hermione on it. Very weird choice indeed…
Good luck for reading the books in French, I’m sure it will get easier with practice 🙂 It really helped me with my English!
Perhaps they were trying to aim the book at young boys who might have been put off by a female main character. Still, though.
Thank-you! Are you French?
I don’t know… for what I remember, there were more girls reading Harry Potter than boys! Maybe it’s just another proof of how sexist our society can be, even inconsciously… I might be over-thinking it though ^^;
And yes, I am French! 🙂
I don’t think that you are over-thinking it at all. The cover is one of the main ways to attract an audience to the book so the way it is designed is always purposeful.
Hi Kayla,
I am responding to your question here because there wasn’t an email address attached to your comment about the social media icons. The last step of my post is to copy and paste the code into a gadget for HTML or Java script. Does WordPress have any of those add ons or gadgets for your side bar. I researched it for you and found this…hope it helps. Just copy and paste this address into your search bar at the top of your computer to read more about it.
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-you-add-html-codes
Good luck
Karen
Thank-you so much!
It was very kind of you to look that up for me and to get back to me so quickly.
I think maybe Hermione was not on that cover because this maybe protraying the scene where both Ron and Harry go down to the Chamber of Secrets, where obviously she didn’t go as she was in the hospital wing..
Ahh, that’s a very good point. In fact the British cover only has Harry and Ron in it, come to think of it.