From the Publisher
For the first and last time, The Lord of the Rings is presented in
seven volumes, one for each of its six parts plus a seventh volume
of appendices.
Originally intended by J.R.R. Tolkien for publication as a
single volume, The Lord of the Rings grew in the telling such that
its publishers had to split it into three volumes for the sake of
both convenience and economy. But Tolkien wrote his epic fantasy as
a work of six books, plus a series of appendices, and now the work
is finally published as the author intended.
This is a slipcase set of small hardbacks, bound in black covers
with the distinctive Eye of Sauron (from the original jacket
design) embossed in red and gold on each copy. For the first time
ever, each book bears Tolkien's original title, and has been
specially typeset for this edition.
About the Author
A writer of fantasies, Tolkien, a professor of language and literature at Oxford University, was always intrigued by early English and the imaginative use of language. In his greatest story, the trilogy The Lord of the Rings (1954--56), Tolkien invented a language with vocabulary, grammar, syntax, even poetry of its own. Though readers have created various possible allegorical interpretations, Tolkien has said: "It is not about anything but itself. (Certainly it has no allegorical intentions, general, particular or topical, moral, religious or political.)" In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), Tolkien tells the story of the "master of wood, water, and hill," a jolly teller of tales and singer of songs, one of the multitude of characters in his romance, saga, epic, or fairy tales about his country of the Hobbits. Tolkien was also a formidable medieval scholar, as attested to by, among other works, Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics (1936) and his edition of Anciene Wisse:English Text of the Anciene Riwle.
Hardcover
11.1 x 17.8 cm
October 15, 1999
Harper Collins
English
0261103873
9780261103870