Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Two Towers - The Lord of the Rings Part 2

Rate this book
2002, mass market paperback reprint edition (of a work first published in 1954), Ballantine, NY. 398 pages. Part 2 of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Features 4-color photos from the film.

447 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1973

6 people are currently reading
20 people want to read

About the author

J.R.R. Tolkien

797 books78k followers
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
9 (64%)
4 stars
5 (35%)
3 stars
0 (0%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Profile Image for Ellie Miller.
26 reviews3 followers
May 4, 2025
Just waiting til I get to read about Faramir again ❤️‍🔥
Profile Image for Matt.
1 review
Read
February 8, 2026
Faramir talks about Gondor and Minas Tirith the same way the Psalms and prophets talk about Jerusalem.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.