The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Tolkien Reader
Book Review: A Warning -- Book You Get Is Not What Is Pictured
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is a wonderful Tolkien book, but if you are expecting the one that is pictured, you will be disappointed. As of February 20, 2007, Amazon is still showing the cover with the pleasant green water-side scene. The book that came when I ordered this has a rather ugly cover -- a somewhat distorted picture of Tolkien, with the top two inches or so of the cover a rather purplish color embossed with black-outlined white letters spelling out the author's name. The text is still the same. Just the cover is different. I only wanted to mention this for the sake of those to whom it may matter.Book Review: A collection of some of Tolkien's short works
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a collection of either 4 or 5 shorter works, depending on how you count; Tolkien himself grouped "On Fairy Stories" and "Leaf by Niggle" together as "Tree and Leaf", but I think of them as being very different.
The 1986 edition in front of me was illustrated by Pauline Baynes. My understanding is that her work with Tolkien on "Farmer Giles of Ham" led him to recommend her to C.S. Lewis; the style of the pictures for that story resembles those she later created for "The Magician's Book" in Lewis' THE VOYAGES OF THE DAWN TREADER.
"The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son" is part analysis of an epic poem, and part play based on the poem. I find this hardest to get into of all the pieces in the book.
"On Fairy Stories" A serious essay, starting with prettified Victorian fairy tales and tracing them back to their origins in more serious stories of Faerie and its inhabitants. Personally I would have paired this up with SMITH OF WOOTTON MAJOR rather than "Leaf by Niggle" in terms of subject matter.
"Leaf by Niggle" I acquired the book solely for this story; everything else was icing on the cake. Niggle, although he knows that he will someday have to go on a long journey with no return, finds the idea distasteful and avoids preparing for it; instead, he prefers to spend all the time he can painting, being 'the sort of painter who can paint leaves better than trees'. But when the time for his journey finds him completely unprepared, it turns out that neither his time working on leaves nor helping his disagreeable neighbour Parish has been wasted.
"Farmer Giles of Ham" is another of Tolkien's 'translations', but along the lines of THE LORD OF THE RINGS - that is, when discussing it he refers to it seriously as a translated history rather than an original story, to the point of identifying his source texts and criticizing some earlier scholar's carelessness about detail. (Tolkien and Lewis indulged in games like this often; see THE LAYS OF BELERIAND for examples of some of their letters analyzing the work of 'translators' on various poems of Tolkien's.) The hero of the story, Giles, starts out as an ordinary farmer who almost accidentally causes a giant to leave his village alone (the giant being hard of hearing, and not caring for what he took to be stinging insects). Unfortunately for Giles, being an official hero isn't always convenient when the professional knights inexplicably can't spare the time to chase *real* monsters, and the giant gave other people quite the wrong impression of his home. I happen to like Tolkien's sense of humor myself, so I enjoy this story, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The story's style also reminds me a bit of THE SWORD IN THE STONE, particularly in dealing with professional knights.
"The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book" is a collection of 16 poems; note that only the first two poems feature Bombadil. The preface identifies them as coming from THE RED BOOK (the 'historical' record from which THE LORD OF THE RINGS was 'translated'), and identifies the chararacters who wrote some of them. "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" and "The Stone Troll" also appear early in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, but there are more poems along similar lines such as "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon", "Perry-the-Winkle" (another troll-song), and "Oliphaunt". About a quarter of the poems have a more serious tone.
Book Review: A wonderful collection. . .
Summary: 5 Stars
. . .of essays, short stories, poetry, etc. by the Master of Fantasy, JRR Tolkien.In addition to a fragment of a play, "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", etc., there is Tolkien's famous essay "On Fairy Stories" which, in the mind of this reviewer, is the seminal work on what "Fairy Tales" actually are, how they are constructed -- and, most importantly, why people want to read and write them. The concept of man as "sub-creator" and the ultimate longing for the Great Escape is explored, as is the final resolution in the Gospel story. Surely a work of sheer brilliance.
As an example of how "Fairy Stories" work, Tolkien provides the reader with his short story "Leaf, by Niggle". Truly it is a gift.
Anyone who wishes to truly understand Tolkien cannot be without this volume.
Book Review: An Essential Anthology of Tolkien's Shorter Works
Summary: 5 Stars
This book contain's Tolkien's shorter fiction and works, including a play and Leaf by Niggle. There are four works in total:1. The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son: a play dealing with two men after the Battle of Maldon. Interesting, and shows more of the scholarly side of Tolkien.
2. Tree and Leaf: This is a book consisting of two things: his essay on faerie tales, and Leaf By Niggle. Tolkien's essay is now considered one of the main centerpieces of literature defending and validating fantasy and faerie tale (as if THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT weren't enough). Leaf By Niggle is a very deep work, and basically it deals with his despair of mortality and not being able to finish his mythology, his great work. However, in the end Tolkien shows his glorious hope.
3. Farmer Giles of Ham: a mock medieval story. Everything that THE LORD OF THE RINGS represents, this story pokes fun at and parodies. Very funny story, and shows Tolkien's sense of humour. This was written originally for his children (as much of his stuff was).
4. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil: This is a very misleading title. It is a collection of poetry, and only the first two poems have anything to do with Bombadil. The rest of the poetry deals with Middle-earth, or set therein. It is a nice selection of his verse.
Overall, a well put together anthology. However, it would have been better had it included SMITH OF WOOTTON MAJOR. That, along with the two works constituting TREE AND LEAF, is the closest thing to autobiography he ever wrote, and all three are vitally important in any serious study of Tolkien.
Book Review: An interesting look at Tolkein
Summary: 4 Stars
I had hoped for more with this book but I bought it with a particular essay in mind for school work. However, for hardcore Tolkein fan, this is a great treasure trove of essays, short stories, etc.