The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays

J. R. R. Tolkien

ISBN 10: 026110263X / ISBN 13: 9780261102637

Published by HarperCollins, 2007

Complete collection of Tolkien's essays, including two on Beowulf, which span three decades beginning six years before The Hobbit to five years after The Lord of the Rings. Num Pages: 256 pages. BIC Classification: DNF. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 130 x 17. Weight in Grams: 186. 2007. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # 9780261102637

Synopsis:

Complete collection of Tolkien’s essays, including two on Beowulf, which span three decades beginning six years before The Hobbit to five years after The Lord of the Rings.

The seven ‘essays’ by J.R.R. Tolkien assembled in this new paperback edition were with one exception delivered as general lectures on particular occasions; and while they mostly arose out of Tolkien’s work in medieval literature, they are accessible to all. Two of them are concerned with Beowulf, including the well-known lecture whose title is taken for this book, and one with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, given in the University of Glasgow in 1953.

Also included in this volume is the lecture English and Welsh; the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959; and a paper on Invented Languages delivered in 1931, with exemplification from poems in the Elvish tongues. Most famous of all is On Fairy-Stories, a discussion of the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy, which gives insight into Tolkien’s approach to the whole genre.

The pieces in this collection cover a period of nearly thirty years, beginning six years before the publication of The Hobbit, with a unique ‘academic’ lecture on his invention (calling it A Secret Vice) and concluding with his farewell to professorship, five years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings.

J.R.R. Tolkien's book 'The Fall of Númenor' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2022-11-07.

About the Authors:

J.R.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 80 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

Christopher Tolkien, born on 24 November 1924, was the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien. As his father’s literary executor, he devoted over forty years to the publication of his father’s unpublished works, from The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales to Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin, and within 'The History of Middle-earth' series, and was awarded the Bodley Medal for his services to literature in 2016. He died in January 2020 at the age of 95.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 2007
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: New