Paris, Dec 04: For French fans of Harry Potter, an agonizing wait is over. The French edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling's fifth tale about the boy wizard - hit store shelves on Wednesday, six months after its release in English.
Publisher Gallimard Jeunesse said it has printed more than one million copies in French. Some booksellers opened at midnight to meet high demand. Many in France are spellbound. Some 250,000 copies have been reserved in bookstores across the country, the publisher said. The French edition has been atop Amazon.fr's best seller list since the book was made available online for pre-orders in June, said Elisa O'Neill, a spokeswoman for the Internet retailer. Gallimard Jeunesse's translator only received the original text at the time of its worldwide public release to avoid the chances of plot leaks. Following its release in June, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix became the first ever book in English to top the French best seller list.

In November, Rowling's agent announced that the five Harry Potter books have sold over 250 million copies worldwide.
Bureau Report