...It's perfectly evident to me that the Potter books are a 'gateway drug,' so to speak, to three millennia of great literature. Why else would Rowling have had the first book translated, at her own personal expense, into ancient Greek and Latin? Is there a lucrative market for what we used to call 'the sacred languages'? Look at the sales ranks of the books on Amazon, and you'll see that these translations are a labor of love. Love of what? Love of learning. Why else would Rowling put so much Latin into these books? Why all the myriad of literary references, from "Guinevere" Weasley (daughter of Arthur) to a tattling little cat named Mrs. Norris? (Read Austen's Mansfield Park for more.)...
