The letters of J. R. R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter
Added by: arcadius | Karma: 2802.10 | Non-Fiction, Other | 7 January 2011
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The letters of J. R. R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter
Scholars and fans of the great mythologist will find a rich vein of information in Humphrey Carpenter's The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien was a prodigious letter writer all his life; the sheer mass of his correspondence would give pause to even the most stalwart archivist. Carpenter manages find the cream of the crop - the letters that shed light on Tolkien's thoughts about his academic and literary work, as well as those that show his more private side, revealing a loving husband, a playful friend, and a doting father. The book has 354 letters.
J.R. R. Tolkien: Beowulf The Monsters and the Critics
"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" was a 1936 lecture given by J. R. R. Tolkien on literary criticism on the Old English heroic epic poem Beowulf. It was first published in that year in Proceedings of the British Academy, and has since been reprinted in many collections, including in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, the 1983 collection of Tolkien's academic papers edited by Christopher Tolkien.
The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy consists of The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road. The first book of the trilogy was published in 1984, and was runner-up for SF Book Club's book of the year award. The trilogy is set firmly and consciously in the Tolkien tradition of High Fantasy. GGK has said that one of his motives for writing it was to show that the 'matter' of High Fantasy was deep enough to be used in various original ways, and that the genre did not have to become debased into nothing but pale Tolkien imitations.
The revered author of the fantasy works 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy also had a distinguished career as a professor at Oxford University. This compact book embraces both the gift and the challenge of Tolkien, presenting an accessible portrait of the man and a reliable and useful insight for the general reader into the inner workings of his complex mind.
This is one of the great overlooked Fantasy/Sci-fi adventures of all time. And to be honest, I hate even putting it into a genre category; it's just a damn good read. After having read tons of sci-fi/fanasy in my youth, I had reached a point where I was embarrassed to read any more of the stuff; almost all of it was trite, Tolkien- or Arthur C. Clarke-derivative, and, frankly, just plain juvenile....
