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Title: J.R.R. Tolkien by Harold Bloom, Henry W. Berg, Albert A. Berg ISBN: 0-7910-7813-2 Publisher: Chelsea House Publications Pub. Date: December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.11 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Lord of the Ring's (Collector's Edition)
Comment: What can be better than reading the three greatest books--"The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers," and "The Return of the King"--ever written? Having a leather-bound volume with all three together is better. If you are a fan of the books or you have a loved one that is, this is the best edition to own. It has a big fold-out map in the back for reference, all the references you can think of, and a really neat red leather cover. I have had this edition for 20 years and it's still in excellent condition. Well worth the cost.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Epitome of Excellent on White Paper
Comment: Outside of The Bible, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is simply the best book written in all of time. On a scale of 1 - 10 it is a 100. Nothing in any genre has ever been written better. Originally designed as a six-book, three-volume work, the wonderful people at Houghton Mifflin Company have published the books in an awesome one-volume, leather-bound collector's edition for easy reading (and many re-readings). I am only sixteen, but I am constantly reading, and let me tell you now that nobody beats Tolkien; and nothing beats The Lord of the Rings! Read this book and join the largest group of fans to ever walk the earth.
Rating: 2
Summary: An edition of old (and largely oudated) criticism
Comment: Harold Bloom appears to have done little work and put very little thought into this collection of "Modern Critical Interpretations" of Tolkien. His so-called introduction is barely a page long and says nothing of the history of Tolkien criticism. He does not even explain why the included articles were chosen (and there are no introductions to individual articles either). In truth, his introduction is so short, supercilious, and devoid of substance that I do not believe it to even be a sincere scholarly effort-- it more has the character of something that was dashed off in 10-15 minutes.
Nor is a significantly greater effort evident in the selection of articles. The ten articles republished here are all 20-30 years old (written between 1968-1982) and do not reflect current (or even recent) trends in Tolkien criticism. That's not to say that they're bad or completely irrelevant, mind you. However, they are starting to show their age (especially the older ones, like Roger Sale's article and Paul Kocher's contributions, as well as the Jungian approach to ciriticism evidenced by the excerpt from Tim O'Neill's _The Individuated Hobbit_, and Anne C. Petty's application of Joseph Campbell's _Hero with the Thousand Faces_ and Vladimir Propp's _Morphology of the Folktale_ to Tolkien's fiction. Again, it's not that these are bad per se, but the kinds of approaches and methodologies they represent are pretty much passe-- both in literary criticism in general and in Tolkien studies in specific. They make some worthwhile observations, but they just seem old, tired, and a bit too well-worn. The one exception to this is an excerpt taken from Tom Shippey's excellent _The Road to Middle Earth_, one of the most recent works to be reflected here (published in 1982). In short, the essays included here have OK substance, but it's not entirely clear why Bloom chose such old ones-- or whether these were even the best old ones to choose.
All in all, there is enough substance in these old articles to interest a Tolkien fan or scholar in spite of their age-- however, don't expect a lot (or in fact, any) insight from Bloom himself on Tolkien's fiction or on the history of Tolkien criticism, because it just ain't there.
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Title: Tolkien and the Great War : The Threshold of Middle-earth by John Garth ISBN: 0618331298 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Tolkien in the Land of Heroes : Discovering the Human Spirit by Anne C. Petty, J. Stein ISBN: 1892975998 Publisher: Cold Spring Press Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in the Lord of the Rings by Matthew T. Dickerson ISBN: 1587430851 Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series) by Gregory Bassham, Eric Bronson ISBN: 0812695453 Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: One Ring to Bind Them All: Tolkien's Mythology by Anne C. Petty ISBN: 0817312056 Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr (Txt) Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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