Being the first part of The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings, #1
Hardcover, 423 pages
English language
Published July 27, 1988 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's three-volume epic, is set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth - home to many strange beings, and most notably hobbits, a peace-loving "little people," cheerful and shy. Since its original British publication in 1954-55, the saga has entranced readers of all ages. It is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale. Critic Michael Straight has hailed it as one of the "very few works of genius in recent literature."
Middle-earth is a world receptive to poets, scholars, children, and all other people of good will. Donald Barr has described it as "a scrubbed morning world, and a ringing nightmare world...especially sunlit, and shadowed by perils very fundamental, of a peculiarly uncompounded darkness."
The story of ths world is one of high and heroic adventure. Barr compared it to Beowulf, C.S. Lewis to Orlando Furioso, W.H. Auden to The Thirty-nine Steps. …
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's three-volume epic, is set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth - home to many strange beings, and most notably hobbits, a peace-loving "little people," cheerful and shy. Since its original British publication in 1954-55, the saga has entranced readers of all ages. It is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale. Critic Michael Straight has hailed it as one of the "very few works of genius in recent literature."
Middle-earth is a world receptive to poets, scholars, children, and all other people of good will. Donald Barr has described it as "a scrubbed morning world, and a ringing nightmare world...especially sunlit, and shadowed by perils very fundamental, of a peculiarly uncompounded darkness."
The story of ths world is one of high and heroic adventure. Barr compared it to Beowulf, C.S. Lewis to Orlando Furioso, W.H. Auden to The Thirty-nine Steps. In fact the saga is sui generis - a triumph of imagination which springs to life within its own framework and on its own terms. --front flap
I forgot that Number of the Beast was my least favorite Heinlein...well, now it's tied for last place.
A whole lot of singing, walking, and hungry hobbits.
This is the first book I've read in 2020, the year I have the goal of reading longer books and those that intimidate me. I've read the Hobbit twice, once in fifth grade and then again last year, and I think it's a fun story, but I've never read the Lord of the Rings and haven't read much high fantasy.
I read this front to back, including the foreward and prologue - this made me very concerned that this book would be incredibly dry. It is noted that the trilogy is an attempt at "a really long story that would hold the attention of readers." Thankfully the meat of the story is usually not very dry.
I feel it reads well going into it thinking it will read like a DnD campaign rather than a "typical" novel - there are long journeys, battles, moments of rest, and I can imagine …
This is the first book I've read in 2020, the year I have the goal of reading longer books and those that intimidate me. I've read the Hobbit twice, once in fifth grade and then again last year, and I think it's a fun story, but I've never read the Lord of the Rings and haven't read much high fantasy.
I read this front to back, including the foreward and prologue - this made me very concerned that this book would be incredibly dry. It is noted that the trilogy is an attempt at "a really long story that would hold the attention of readers." Thankfully the meat of the story is usually not very dry.
I feel it reads well going into it thinking it will read like a DnD campaign rather than a "typical" novel - there are long journeys, battles, moments of rest, and I can imagine the successes, twists and turns, and failures as being controlled by a roll of the dice. (I'm not sure how typical this is for fantasy.)
There are slow moments, a lot of songs, and a lot of names of places and people, but I really enjoyed the importance of nature and the merging of human-like beings with the natural world.
Maybe it's just my current priorities in life that have colored my reading, but there were strong themes of stewardship of the land and immersion into nature. Nature is neither good nor evil in this text, rather it's shaped by the people around it. When nurtured and tended to such as Tom Bombadil and Galadriel have done, the land is abundant and nuturing back. In other regions, there is no steward for the land, and it is wild and is neither kind nor harsh.
The corrupt and imperialistc forces destory the natural world. Sam has visions of trees being felled in the Shire and smoke pouring out from a new brick building and he wishes to be home to protect it. Sam is also the character who is gifted soil with which he can garden when his journey is over. (And presumably rebuild.)
I wasn't really expecting the strength of this message of the goodness of working with the land to create bounty rather than its neglect and/or exploitation for one's personal power and gain. This message was a nice surprise because it isn't very well conveyed in the movies.
Overall, a different type of reading experience, but I enjoyed it.
The book is a collection of interviews from the brave fishermen involved in the rescue operations during the 2018 Kerala floods.
In the Lucid writings, the author narrates the events of bravery, reactions of the affected humans, how each one put their life on the boat leaving behind the economic distress with one mission to save lives, and how victims react in the most unexpected line of religion and caste.
Along with the incidents, the author mentions the history and background of the place, fishermen, society, and the state. As a result, the book reaches closer to any reader. The conditions these fishermen faced during the rescue is beyond normal human capacity.
The book is written in an accessible and straightforward manner. You can read it in a single sitting. The page after page, you can witness the generosity, humanness, dedication, simplicity, and bravery of the fishermen folks.
Kudos for …
The book is a collection of interviews from the brave fishermen involved in the rescue operations during the 2018 Kerala floods.
In the Lucid writings, the author narrates the events of bravery, reactions of the affected humans, how each one put their life on the boat leaving behind the economic distress with one mission to save lives, and how victims react in the most unexpected line of religion and caste.
Along with the incidents, the author mentions the history and background of the place, fishermen, society, and the state. As a result, the book reaches closer to any reader. The conditions these fishermen faced during the rescue is beyond normal human capacity.
The book is written in an accessible and straightforward manner. You can read it in a single sitting. The page after page, you can witness the generosity, humanness, dedication, simplicity, and bravery of the fishermen folks.
Kudos for the author for writing it. You can read complete review in this blog post: anthology.kracekumar.com/post/book_review_rowing_between_the_rooftops/
I tried three or four times to read this book but it fell out of my hands for as many times. I guess fantasy really doesn't appeal to me.
Ungeschlagen für mich das Beste der Mittelerdebücher ✨✨✨
This is my review of the entire The Lord of the rings trilogy.
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, …
This is my review of the entire The Lord of the rings trilogy.
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, 7 for Dwarves, and 9 for Men. Then he created the One ring to rule the others and to corrupt them. He loses this ring in a battle and is trying to get it back, and if he does his power will corrupt all of Middle Earth. The only way to stop him is to destroy the ring, and that can only be done in the fires of Mount Doom where it was originally forged. So a mixed group of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Men, plus the wizard Gandalf, set out to do just that. The work is about all of the adventures they have along the way.
The themes embedded in this work display the discomfort Tolkien had with the modern world, and much of that derives from his experience of World War I. Because of the subsequent World War II and the Cold War, the first World War has faded in the minds of many people. But it was a particularly searing experience to those who lived through it. For example, if you look at the total number of Americans killed in Vietnam over the entire course of the war, that is less than half of the number killed on both sides in just 6-day Battle of the Marne in 1914. Human life was of no account in this war, and the butchery was staggering. It was the modern industrial war, and even the killing was industrialized.. Tolkien displays in The Lord of the Rings a deep disdain for industrialization. And as is the case with so much fantasy, class structure is implicitly important, and some races are irredeemably evil. But it has won many awards, and in 2003 the BBC named it Britain's best novel of all time. Virtually all high fantasy traces its roots to Tolkien.
I imagine most people are familiar with this work, either from reading the original novel or from the recent film series. This book was written as a children's fantasy by Tolkien back in the 1930s, and set the stage for the later Lord of the Rings. The plot is about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who is invited to join a company of dwarves who wish to recover their treasure from the dragon Smaug. Bilbo, who had been a pretty simple home-bound soul changes dramatically through the events he experiences and becomes someone much different.
This book was lauded on its publication and deservedly so.
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, 7 for Dwarves, and 9 for Men. Then he created the One …
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, 7 for Dwarves, and 9 for Men. Then he created the One ring to rule the others and to corrupt them. He loses this ring in a battle and is trying to get it back, and if he does his power will corrupt all of Middle Earth. The only way to stop him is to destroy the ring, and that can only be done in the fires of Mount Doom where it was originally forged. So a mixed group of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Men, plus the wizard Gandalf, set out to do just that. The work is about all of the adventures they have along the way.
The themes embedded in this work display the discomfort Tolkien had with the modern world, and much of that derives from his experience of World War I. Because of the subsequent World War II and the Cold War, the first World War has faded in the minds of many people. But it was a particularly searing experience to those who lived through it. For example, if you look at the total number of Americans killed in Vietnam over the entire course of the war, that is less than half of the number killed on both sides in just 6-day Battle of the Marne in 1914. Human life was of no account in this war, and the butchery was staggering. It was the modern industrial war, and even the killing was industrialized.. Tolkien displays in The Lord of the Rings a deep disdain for industrialization. And as is the case with so much fantasy, class structure is implicitly important, and some races are irredeemably evil. But it has won many awards, and in 2003 the BBC named it Britain's best novel of all time. Virtually all high fantasy traces its roots to Tolkien.
I regret waiting this long to read this book. The imagery was wonderful and immersive. It's hard to believe such imaginative world creating happened in the 1930's and 40's. Love it!
Amazing if you like the world building / scene setting.
This book focuses on two men who lived in the original Gilded Age and the solutions they applied to conditions very similar to those we see now. How discouraging to realise that 100 years later, corporate power has systematically undone all of the progress made since then - and again we have a 'government of the people, by the few, for the wealthy'.
yeah, this book is really good, I guess there is a reason that so many people feel fondly about it, like the characters are friendly to each other and seem concern about each other. Its pretty refreshing.
I used to read this every few years, but I think I've let 15 or 20 go by without. It's good - accomplishes everything it sets out to do.
I was surprised by one thing; there were bits I'd intended to skip recalling that they were a bit boring, but when I got to those they were actually pretty lightly touched upon. Interesting that Tolkien was able to convey the tediousness of, say, being lost in the woods or imprisoned for months without the reading itself becoming a chore.
I debated how many stars to give. I profess as a teen (and I have not reread it since then, though I keep meaning to), I actually struggled to read through the whole thing in one go, even though there were large chunks of the story I quite enjoyed, the long travel sequences or 'hey look at my skill with languages' parts were not quite my thing. I primarily give it the rating it has because it handles its classic story much better than most of the rip-offs that come after it, although this will not be fully obvious until the ending, and actually has something interesting to say.
The ending is strangely realistic once you cut the fantasy part of 'They just tossed a ring into a volcano' away, and this is possibly because of Tolkien's view being so heavily colored by actual war. It is easy to come …
I debated how many stars to give. I profess as a teen (and I have not reread it since then, though I keep meaning to), I actually struggled to read through the whole thing in one go, even though there were large chunks of the story I quite enjoyed, the long travel sequences or 'hey look at my skill with languages' parts were not quite my thing. I primarily give it the rating it has because it handles its classic story much better than most of the rip-offs that come after it, although this will not be fully obvious until the ending, and actually has something interesting to say.
The ending is strangely realistic once you cut the fantasy part of 'They just tossed a ring into a volcano' away, and this is possibly because of Tolkien's view being so heavily colored by actual war. It is easy to come away after skimming the first parts of the series with an image of cutesy hobbits, who one imagines surely go home happy and victorious... but in the end this is not a happy-fluff novel, at least if I remember the ending correctly anyway, yet at the same time shows you don't need to go full on 'describe every bit of battlefield gore and rapine' unlike other certain reactionary (and frankly far more awful) works I can think of who seemed to think the problem with Tolkien was not enough gore, sex and misery.
They do not go home undamaged, Frodo does not 'get the girl' like in many fantasy Tolkien homages, and contrary to those who complain of black and white morality (though this book does have a fair deal of that) even Frodo is damaged by holding on to the ring for too long, which stands in for the temptation of power. There is not a lot of romance in this series (although you could make an argument for Frodo/Sam), which is fitting for a work about war, one of the things that makes it stand out as more realistic to me oddly enough. In a war with constant threat of death from above, your sex drive probably isn't going to be one of the first concerns on your mind (although I admit I'm not an expert on that and for some people it probably has the opposite effect - seek what thrills you can while you can, is not an uncommon mentality under threat). Here, war is terrible, not romantic, something that may leave you permanently damaged when you go play hero. This suits more a modern war than a medieval one, admittedly (until modern times, camps with trains of washer women were not unheard of, and war was glorified), which marks another difference between Tolkien and imitators and makes the fantasy strangely richer for it. (Tangently related: It's a weird fact that gorefests don't necessarily de-glorify war, and often the opposite.)
If you are curious about other human viewpoints, the religious undertones of the work may be a bonus, but this is a story that can be read without much thought toward religion at all. Having it (as well as a lot of the magic) largely be 'hidden' made it feel more like a fantasy version of the real world than works where gods actually constantly answer prayers, but like real world religion and magic if you think about it too much it will feel like a weak point - don't try to logic it.
I enjoyed the Hobbit more, which definitely did not have perfect heroes (they are thieves who aren't even that interested in slaying the dragon), but is still a much simpler work, although I feel it is also much better paced which is part of why I enjoyed it more and actually read it straight through as a kid. Nostalgia might also be a reason: my father would read it to me.
Purchasable
Purchasable
https://bookshop.org/a/102303/9780395489314.https://bookshop.org/a/102303/9780395489314.