The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien
1954-1955
Around 1200 pages
The first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released on my birthday July 29, just 41 years off. Truly, this must portend great things for me (terrible but great). As I have squealed before on this blog, I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. That being said, I fully understand why 1200 pages of Middle Earth might be a slog for some people. But I just have so much fun with this universe, that I never tire of reading about these characters, even if they are just walking.
This was originally intended to be part of a two volume set with the The Silmarillion, but for economic reasons was split into three novels. We pick up after the Hobbit, with Bilbo Baggins celebrating his eleventy first birthday. Hobbits are so damn charming. Bilbo passes the Ring he stole from Gollum to his heir Frodo, who is our quintessential fantasy hero. Gandalf the Wizard of course, knows what's up, and starts Frodo on an epic quest to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom and save Middle Earth from evil.
I wish Tolkien had spent a little more time on the practical world-building questions, (i.e. how does the economy work? Where are all the women?), but that's just a personal preference. He is obviously a master at creating a world that you just want to disappear into, provided you didn't have to be an orc. He's also a very moral and quotable author, and makes you feel like good will always triumph over evil.
The characters are also unforgettable; I will be in love with Aragorn until the day I die. Samwise Gamgee is also one of my favorite characters in literature, and Merry and Pippin warm my shriveled heart. This story contains everything you want in an adventure: heroic battles, fantastical beasts, and the power of love and friendship conquering all. Post War Europe needed this.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
Over 150 million copies sold.
The work was named Britain's best novel of all time in the BBC's The Big Read.
"Tolkienian" and "Tolkienesque" have entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
UP NEXT: The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
1 comment:
Since you raise the subject, George RR Martin said something once about us not knowing what Aragorn's economic policy was and therefore we can't say if he was a good leader. So someone made an interesting video on YouTube analysing this question from what Tolkien mentions here and there.
I always got the feeling with LotR that Tolkien was just making it all up as he went along with no real idea where it was all heading until he completed the first "book" as they arrive in Rivendell. Which, it turns out, was exactly how it was.
Love this, I've read it much more often than any other book in my life.
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