Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth

by JohnGarth (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $15.19

  This biography explores J.R.R. Tolkien's wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Lord of the Rings . The period of Tolkien's life in which he fought in the Great War has remained largely unexplored and unresearched by his many and various biographers - this volume concentrates specifically on this period and relates it to his creation of some of the world's best-loved literary works. Written specifically for a general audience, and not just Tolkien fans, this book allows Tolkien's life, work, inspiration and success to be viewed from a new viewpoint. Having lost many of his friends from school and university in World War I, this, coupled with his time spent as a signaller in the Royal Lancashire Fusiliers, had a profound impact on him. As did, it would seem, the writing of G.B. Smith, a close friend who was sadly lost in the War. Invalided home from the Somme, Tolkien was able to reflect on his life, and John Garth agues that, far from being a flight of fancy, The Lord of the Rings is, in fact, a product of his wartime experiences and stands as a great war novel.

• New

  paperback
  

  $12.48

  Acclaimed as 'the best book about Tolkien', this award-winning biography explores J.R.R. Tolkien's wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 ! by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead. So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War. Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life. It shows how, after two of these brilliant young men were killed, Tolkien pursued the dream they had all shared by launching his epic of good and evil. John Garth argues that the foundation of tragic experience in the First World War is the key to Middle-earth's enduring power. Tolkien used his mythic imagination not to escape from reality but to reflect and transform the cataclysm of his generatuion. While his contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day. This is the first substantially new biography of Tolkien since 1977, meticulously researched and distilled from his personal wartime papers and a multitude of other sources.