The Lord of the Rings - Hardcover

Tolkien, J. R. R. And Alan Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007136587 ISBN 13: 9780007136582

Publisher: Harper Collins, 2002

Synopsis

Comprising three oversized hardback volumes housed in a full-colour slipcase, this edition of Tolkien's classic masterpiece is fully illustrated in watercolour throughout by the acclaimed and award-winning artist, Alan Lee. Since it was first published in 1954, The Lord of the Rings has been a book people have treasured. Steeped in unrivalled magic and otherworldliness, its sweeping fantasy has touched the hearts of young and old alike. Well over 100 million copies of its many editions have been sold around the world, and occasional collectors' editions become prized and valuable items of publishing. With the epic trilogy now being released on film, images of the characters and landscapes have become eagerly sought after. Much of the look of the movies is based on Alan Lee's paintings, giving this Centenary edition of Tolkien's great work new relevance for the ever-growing number of fans.

About this title

Review:

This is a single-volume edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which the hobbit Frodo and his elfish friends get swept up in a mighty conflict with the dark lord Sauron (who owes much to proud Satan in Paradise Lost), the monstrous Gollum, the Cracks of Doom, and the awful power of the magical Ring. The book's characters--good and evil--are recognizably human, and the realism is deepened by the magnificent detail of the vast parallel world Tolkien devised, inspired partly by his influential Anglo-Saxon scholarship and his Christian beliefs. (He disapproved of the relative sparseness of detail in the comparable allegorical fantasy his friend C.S. Lewis dreamed up in the Chronicles of Narnia, though he knew Lewis had spun a page-turning yarn.) It has been estimated that one-tenth of all paperbacks sold can trace their ancestry to J.R.R. Tolkien. But even if we had never gotten Robert Jordan's The Path of Daggers and the whole fantasy genre Tolkien inadvertently created by bringing the hobbits so richly to life, Tolkien's epic about the Ring would have left our world enhanced by enchantment. --Tim Appelo

From the Back Cover:

Includes the 50th anniversary fully corrected text setting and an extensive new index"An extraordinary work -- pure excitement." -- New York Times Book ReviewOne Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.
When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was in the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but while he studied classic works of the past, he was creating a set of his own.
For information on other books by and about J.R.R. Tolkien published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, visit www.lordoftheringstrilogy.com."

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Collins
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0007136587
• ISBN 13: 9780007136582
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1