Despite its 1997 publication and placement far to the right in our novel timeline, the first edition of Rowling's best-selling series Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone possesses several connections to the formation of fantastical elements in the genre of novels. For starters, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter has greatly impacted the development of magical realism in literature. We have seen elements of this same branch of the novel as a genre in reading Virginia Woolf's Orlando (1928) through the construction of time as well as the portrayal of magical love and festivities like the carnival thrown in London during the Great Frost. The examples of magical realism in Harry Potter run rampant. The mere fact that the entire Wizarding World exists underneath the everyday lives of Muggles (non-magic folk) connects the magic going-ons of Harry's new world to the realities of the world he knew before receiving his Hogwarts letter. Orlando also possesses magic working under the surface and unexplainable events, like Orlando's transformation from male to female. Orlando is biographical while Harry Potter... is simply third-person limited POV, but both works manage to maintain enough of a sense of reality so that the magical and fantastical elements do not create a sense of ridiculousness or impossibility that turns readers off: Orlando "could be seen to still maintain aspects of a ‘true’ autobiography despite its fantastical elements" ("Orlando as Magic Realism"). Rowling provides plenty of characters ready and able to offer explanations for the niche wizard culture that Harry is still growing accustomed to, like Hagrid, Ron, Dumbledore, and Hermione. And Orlando learns about the changes resulting from passing time despite supernaturally defying the laws of aging. The settings of both novels are also situated in parts of London and Europe that exist in real life, adding to the realistic elements of their narratives; many other novels throughout the ages have followed a similar pattern of finding inspiration in real-world places and events. It is through these carefully crafted atmospheres that readers' willing suspension of disbelief is maintained and the magical realism of the pieces function as it is supposed to. The comprehensive matter of magical realism branches far beyond both of these works and has impacted the genre of the novel in numerous ways, but Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone certainly stands as a hallmark piece of literature in its groundbreaking narrative and plot devices and ability to enthrall readers in a world capable of holding reality as well as magic.

“Orlando as Magic Realism.” Theneedofanescapade, WordPress.com, 14 Oct. 2011, theneedofanescapade.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/orlando-as-magic-realism/#:~:text=To%20summarise%2C%20Orlando%20is%20a,autobiography%20despite%20its%20fantastical%20elements.