J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers, the Return of the King, the Hobbit/Boxed Set - Softcover

Tolkien, J. R. R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345340426 ISBN 13: 9780345340429

Publisher: Del Rey, 1990

Synopsis

Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Review Hobbits and wizards and Sauron--oh, my! Mild-mannered Oxford scholar John Ronald Reuel Tolkien had little inkling when he published The Hobbit; Or, There and Back Again in 1937 that, once hobbits were unleashed upon the world, there would be no turning back. Hobbits are, of course, small, furry creatures who love nothing better than a leisurely life quite * from adventure. But in that first novel and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo and their elfish friends get swept up into a mighty conflict with the dragon Smaug, the dark lord Sauron (who owes much to proud Satan in Paradise Lost), the monstrous Gollum, the Cracks of Doom, and the awful power of the magical Ring. The four books' characters--good and evil--are recognizably human, and the realism is deepened by the magnificent detail of the vast parallel world Tolkien devised, inspired partly by his influential Anglo-Saxon scholarship and his Christian beliefs. (He disapproved of the relative sparseness of detail in the comparable allegorical fantasy his friend C.S. Lewis dreamed up in The Chronicles of Narnia, though he knew Lewis had spun a page-turning yarn.) It has been estimated that one-tenth of all paperbacks sold can trace their ancestry to J.R.R. Tolkien. But even if we had never gotten Robert Jordan's The Path of Daggers and the whole fantasy genre Tolkien inadvertently created by bringing the hobbits so richly to life, Tolkien's epic about the Ring would have left our world enhanced by enchantment. --Tim Appelo Review "The Hobbit is a flawless masterpiece". -- The Times of London "The Hobbit is a flawless masterpiece". -- Review "The Lord of the Rings is an extraordinary work -- pure excitement". -- The New York Times --This text refers to an alternate Paperback

About this title

Review

‘One marvels anew at the depth, breadth and persistence of J.R.R. Tolkien’s labour. No one sympathetic to his aims – the invention of a secondary universe – will want to miss this chance to be present at the creation.’
Publishers Weekly

‘Extraordinarily imaginative, and wholly exciting’
The Times

‘The story itself is superb’
Observer

‘A most remarkable feat’
Guardian

‘Masterpiece? Oh yes’
Evening Standard
An astonishing imaginative tour de force’
Daily Telegraph

‘A story magnificently told’
New Statesman

‘Tolkien was a storyteller of genius’
Literary Review

‘Amongst the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century’
Sunday Telegraph

From the Publisher

A beautiful illustrated boxed set collecting the two most popular Tolkien hardbacks - the Centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings and the 60th Anniversary edition of The Hobbit, both illustrated by Alan Lee.

Edition details

• Publisher: Del Rey
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0345340426
• ISBN 13: 9780345340429
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback