A world-renowned Tolkien scholar presents readers with a fascinating companion to the major works of J.R.R. Tolkien, offering a critical analysis of The Lord of the Rings as a linguistic and cultural map--a reaction to the origin and nature of evil.
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The Definitive Critical Study of J.R.R. Tolkien's Greatest Works -- An Indispensable Companion to the World of Middle-Earth
"Shippey succeeds brilliantly [His] exploration of Tolkien's themes, especially the nature of evil, power, and what one character calls 'the long defeat,' is superb Taking on the critics on their own ground, Shippey reveals Tolkien's use of a complex narrative structure and the flexibility with which he moved between different literary modes." --Independent
"Shippey's witty, combative book is illuminating the central chapters demonstrate the ingenious articulation of the trilogy, the profundity of its thought about suffering, and evil, both personal and institutional, cosmic and frankly devilish." Observer
In a wonderfully readable study aimed at not just the Tolkien fan but any literate person curious about this fantasy author's extraordinary popularity, British scholar Shippey (The Road to Middle-earth) makes an impressive, low-key case for why the creator of Middle-earth is deserving of acclaim. (Recent polls in Britain have consistently put The Lord of the Rings at the top of greatest books of the century lists.) Having taught the same Old English syllabus at Oxford that his subject once did, Shippey is especially well qualified to discuss Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon sources, notably Beowulf, for the elvish languages and names used in the fiction. The author's theory on the origin of the word hobbit, for example, is as learned as it is free of academic jargon. Even his analyses of the abstruse Silmarillion, Tolkien's equivalent of Joyce's Finnegans Wake, avoid getting too technical. In addition, Shippey shows that Tolkien as a storyteller often improved on his ancient sources, while The Lord of the Rings is unmistakably a work of its time. (The Shire chapters, like Orwell's 1984, evoke the bleakness of late-'40s Britain.) In treating such topics as the nature of evil, religion, allegory, style and genre, the author nimbly answers the objections of Tolkien's more rabid critics. By the end, he has convincingly demonstrated why the much imitated Tolkien remains inimitable and continues to appeal. (May 16)Forecast: With the long-awaited part one of the Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, due for movie release later this year, this, like all Tolkien-related titles, will benefit from hobbit fever.
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