by J.R.R.Tolkien
ISBN: 0-04-823185-1
529 pages
Publisher: Unwin Paperbacks
Cover illustration: Unknown
6/5 Stars
A wonderful book that defines what a ‘fantasy story’ is. We follow a party of Hobbits from the Shire to Rivendell, and then a party of all the races of Middle-Earth on an epic quest. The book covered two volumes, originally entitled; ‘The Ring sets out’, and
‘The Ring goes south’. It is difficult now to think of it apart from the films. There was a time, before the movies, when people would say ‘WWFD? ” or “What would Frodo do?”
But what makes it so magical? My feeling is that it is the sheer depth of history that the characters are embedded in. Each has a bloodline and relatives and have a history before this chapter begins. The other item is the landscape, well drawn, as if in minute, intricate, pencil line. The landscape shifts as the plot shifts as the tensions shift and change.
There are other noticeable composition tools. For example, each piece of bad news, each items of terror gets progressively larger and progressively worse. And with that each saving grace, each refuge or safe-haven, gets progressively larger and gets progressively better. For example, the Barrow-wights and Tom Bombadil, or Weathertop and Rivendell, Until we have, at almost the very end of the book, the juxtaposition of The Mines of Moria, where Gandalf the wizard is lost, with the forest of Lothlórien, where the fellowship recuperate and are given gifts for the journey ahead.
The book is as pleasing now as it was when I was a child.
Highly recommended.
The Eclectic Book Review 