Dumbledore

The Life and Lies of Hogwarts's Renowned Headmaster: An Unofficial Exploration

By: Irvin Khaytman

Narrated by: Richard Trinder

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

A brilliant investigation into the motivations and methods behind the actions of Hogwarts's renowned Headmaster!

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, is one of the most recognizable and mysterious figures in the Harry Potter series. As an unscrupulous beetle-like journalist once said, he's "a biographer's dream." Is he omniscient or limited? Is he benevolent or malevolent? What really drove him in the last years of an extraordinary life?

Dumbledore dives between the lines of the Harry Potter books to create a portrait of the controversial Headmaster. We find Dumbledore's hand in every seeming coincidence and consider the impossible decisions he had to make. This in-depth examination from author Irvin Khaytman casts the events of the Harry Potter series in a whole new light, resolving fans' questions that linger to this day.

©2021 Irvin Khaytman (P)2023 Tantor

Footnotes annoy

I love Harry Potter so of course I liked this book. I recommend to anybody to put up with mediocre narration and super annoying footnotes read about throughout the book. They are entirely distracting and nearly ruined the experience…for me, at least. Maybe they are required in this time of text or maybe it’s a choice by the author but having footnotes present at the bottom of the page on a book is a lot different than being forced to listen to them as they are read aloud character by character.

Dumbledore deep dive for potter nerds

My wife and I have been falling asleep to HP for 15 years now (Jim Dale of course). I expect we’ve listened to them all as many times as the author has read them. Yet this offered new insights, and ideas.
Certainly worth the $5 if you’re a potter fan looking for a fun, quick listen.
The footnote web addresses being read aloud is annoying, but by the end I was actually laughing at them more than anything. It’s a very random 15 seconds every time. Irksome, yes -but brief.

Interesting compilation, interesting conclusions

This is essentially a dissertation. This is well-researched, and the conclusions drawn make sense. However, if you are not interested in literary analysis, this is not the book for you.

In-depth

I liked how far down the rabbit hole others have gotten about this series. I hope to find more like this l.

Muy adecuado y objetivo

El libro está muy bien escrito y tiene muchos detalles interesantes.
Sin embargo, la historia y los detalles se pierden cuando se hace la lectura de los links mencionados en los pies de página, es una interrupción innecesaria y aburrida que en momentos casi hace que deseche el libro. Deberían eliminar esos links del audio y hacer un adjunto con ellos para no perderlos y poder aprovecharlos de mejor manera.

Interesting and informative, but...

The content and narrator are fine, but my only complaint are the lengthy web-sourced footnote citations read aloud

they-get-to-be-tedious_when/they/are_read#[e-mail]ivepointmade#ihope

Thoughtful and Thorough

I've read the Harry Potter books probably 20 times, and I love finding others that are as intrigued by the details and behind the scenes realities as I am. This felt like a chat with dear friends about dear friends, and I'm glad I can add this to my Harry Potter collection.

Great logic and very entertaining

If you love HP, I highly recommend the book. It is very well thought out and expressed, and presented in an interesting and conversational style. While I don’t agree with absolutely every point made in the book, I thought they were all entertaining and generally pretty logical. I loved it. Recommend. (I Think it would have made more sense to save all the references/website citations until the end of the reading for interested parties, but it didn’t bother me personally enough to not thoroughly enjoy the book and reading.)

Jubilant, ecstatic, triumphant… A wonderful, wonderful thing had happened…

That was basically my reaction when I found out this book was coming to audible. Khaytman’s book in regards to the enigmatic Dumbledore is by far one of my favorite “Wizarding World” analysis books (I also own the hardcover as well as the e-book 🤓

Irvin’s book is a most illuminating and intriguing book. I have high respect and admiration for all the work that he (and countless other Harry Potter scholars) did. While using the flat side of a silver dagger, they crush the words of the book and release all the juicy details that Jo had put into these books.

This book is also quite funny at some parts too. I don’t want to spoil anything, but one that always gets me to giggle is a mention of “Dumbledore dangling a carrot in front of Voldemort’s nonexistent nose.” 😌

I’ll leave this review by just saying that if you love Harry Potter and/or psychology/character analysis; you will most enjoy this book…. Especially since Augustus Rookwood will be reading it to you 😉

The theories are a real stretch

The author starts the book by saying he doesn't believe that Dumbledore was omniscient but then spends the rest of the book stretching his theories into convoluted ramblings that rely on the idea that Dumbledore is so smart that he figures everything out or that he is using legilimency or that he is using the deluminator to spy on everyone's conversations. I found many of his theories extremely improbable. I don't think the book was worth the price. I also agree with other reviewers that the reading of the footnotes was extremely irritating but this isn't the performer's fault.