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A Reader's Companion to the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings
From the back
This books includes nearly four decades' worth of intelligent, lively, and controversial Tolkien commentary from some of the major literary figures of our time. Here you will find W. H. Auden praising The Hobbit as "one of the best children's stories of this century"; Edmund Wilson deriding The Lord of the Rings as "an overgrown fairy story"; and critques by C. S. Lewis in the 1950s, Ursula K. Le Guin in the 70s, and Isaac Asimov in the 80s. What emerges from these twelve provocative commentaries is not only a colorful survey of American and British literary and cultural tastes over several generations, but a multifaceted tribute to one man and his imagination that is sure to enhance and deepen a reader's understanding of Tolkien's two most famous works.
This books includes nearly four decades' worth of intelligent, lively, and controversial Tolkien commentary from some of the major literary figures of our time. Here you will find W. H. Auden praising The Hobbit as "one of the best children's stories of this century"; Edmund Wilson deriding The Lord of the Rings as "an overgrown fairy story"; and critques by C. S. Lewis in the 1950s, Ursula K. Le Guin in the 70s, and Isaac Asimov in the 80s. What emerges from these twelve provocative commentaries is not only a colorful survey of American and British literary and cultural tastes over several generations, but a multifaceted tribute to one man and his imagination that is sure to enhance and deepen a reader's understanding of Tolkien's two most famous works.
118 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,337 books27.6k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 21, 2018
I was hoping for more companion to hobbit life; this was more let me explain how popular it is, again, and again, and with a few different words a decade later.
December 18, 2013
I don't think this book is well named -- as a Reader's Companion, it fails, at least in terms of what I'm usually looking for in books with that sort of title. While I would recommend this to Tolkien fans, I do not recommend it to someone who isn't familiar with the books or who is looking for considered analysis or discussion. Many of the articles here were originally reviews in some periodical like the New York Times, and most of them were written by people who've read the books only once. As such, some of them make some pretty laughable errors, like the plot summary from The Times Literary Supplement, which says that when the Ring had an impact on Bilbo's health and "the evil magician sent spies into the Shire to win it from him... Bilbo consulted the White Council of Elves and magicians who led the powers of Good. As a result his nephew Frodo Baggins was deputed to carry the Ring to the evil realm of Mordor...".
Wrong in so many ways... Plus a lot of the articles are on the "phenomenon" of LOTR, as much about the books' popularity as about the books. There's also an article that gives some tidbits on Tolkien, and LeGuin's is about how the books impacted her personally, but those are the two big exceptions. OTOH, as a fan, I liked the fact that it has a lot of the essays you'll see regularly quoted in other books on Tolkien, for instance the notorious Edmund Wilson essay as well as C.S. Lewis' original reviews.
Wilson argues that Frodo "has no serious temptations, is lured by no insidious enchantments, perplexed by few problems," and that James Branch Cabell's Poictesme is far superior. Even without knowing anything about Cabell, it's clear that Wilson's review boils down to, "Tolkien should have written a totally different book," which is an approach I rarely have patience with. I will occasionally come to the conclusion that "this book is not for me", but I figure if someone is going to go to the trouble of writing a book, they get to write the kind of book *they* want!
Still, Wilson pretty clearly exposes the mindset of many who hate the books, which is useful I thought. All the articles, including Wilson's, are quite readable, and it's entertaining to see what people are looking for or find in the books on (in many cases) their first read.
The only article I had read before was Ursula K. LeGuin's, which may or may not be in her Language of the Night collection (can't remember, even though I read it once a year for probably a decade), but at any rate it's an old favorite of mine. I think she's quite right when she says reading Tolkien when young could be bad for someone who is fated to grow up and write fantasy novels -- I read some of Tolkien's imitators and I don't think they had any impact on my own writing at all, but reading LOTR in my teens would have been something else entirely!
While I argue with the title, this is a nice collection of essays, and two of the last three articles are well chosen. After so many articles written by people who don't "get" the books or the phenomenon and are talking from outside, it's lovely to read the Philip Norman article that quotes Tolkien directly and clears up some earlier misquotes, and then LeGuin's article is a nice taste of what the fans are getting out of it. Despite the fact that they sandwich the laughably inaccurate (but generally positive) Times Literary Supplement article, they're a surprisingly satisfying ending to an entertaining if lightweight collection.
Wrong in so many ways... Plus a lot of the articles are on the "phenomenon" of LOTR, as much about the books' popularity as about the books. There's also an article that gives some tidbits on Tolkien, and LeGuin's is about how the books impacted her personally, but those are the two big exceptions. OTOH, as a fan, I liked the fact that it has a lot of the essays you'll see regularly quoted in other books on Tolkien, for instance the notorious Edmund Wilson essay as well as C.S. Lewis' original reviews.
Wilson argues that Frodo "has no serious temptations, is lured by no insidious enchantments, perplexed by few problems," and that James Branch Cabell's Poictesme is far superior. Even without knowing anything about Cabell, it's clear that Wilson's review boils down to, "Tolkien should have written a totally different book," which is an approach I rarely have patience with. I will occasionally come to the conclusion that "this book is not for me", but I figure if someone is going to go to the trouble of writing a book, they get to write the kind of book *they* want!
Still, Wilson pretty clearly exposes the mindset of many who hate the books, which is useful I thought. All the articles, including Wilson's, are quite readable, and it's entertaining to see what people are looking for or find in the books on (in many cases) their first read.
The only article I had read before was Ursula K. LeGuin's, which may or may not be in her Language of the Night collection (can't remember, even though I read it once a year for probably a decade), but at any rate it's an old favorite of mine. I think she's quite right when she says reading Tolkien when young could be bad for someone who is fated to grow up and write fantasy novels -- I read some of Tolkien's imitators and I don't think they had any impact on my own writing at all, but reading LOTR in my teens would have been something else entirely!
While I argue with the title, this is a nice collection of essays, and two of the last three articles are well chosen. After so many articles written by people who don't "get" the books or the phenomenon and are talking from outside, it's lovely to read the Philip Norman article that quotes Tolkien directly and clears up some earlier misquotes, and then LeGuin's article is a nice taste of what the fans are getting out of it. Despite the fact that they sandwich the laughably inaccurate (but generally positive) Times Literary Supplement article, they're a surprisingly satisfying ending to an entertaining if lightweight collection.
January 6, 2017
This was created especially for the Quality Paperback Book Club back in 1995 (no named editor). I was glad I picked it up about five years ago, as it is no longer published. It contains literary critiques of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and Tolkien himself. There are about 14 articles which appeared in various publications throughout the years, but most are from 1955 when the books were initially released.
Isaac Asimov, C.S. Lewis and Ursula K. Le Guin are some of the authors of these articles. This is an interesting piece to my Tolkien collection, as nothing else resembles it. It was fun to read critiques from 1955 when the books were still new. I liked this book quite a bit, and it was a nice change of pace to my Tolkien reading.
Isaac Asimov, C.S. Lewis and Ursula K. Le Guin are some of the authors of these articles. This is an interesting piece to my Tolkien collection, as nothing else resembles it. It was fun to read critiques from 1955 when the books were still new. I liked this book quite a bit, and it was a nice change of pace to my Tolkien reading.
June 20, 2013
Nice book compiling some magazine articles on the Tolkien books from around when they came out, including several written by luminaries (CS Lewis, Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. LeGuin). I mostly read this because it was a very short book I had hanging around that I hadn't read, and we're trying to get rid of most of our books before moving. It was definitely nice to be back in the world of Middle-Earth for a while, even at one remove. And although the writers have different perspectives, I found myself agreeing with each of them while I was reading them!
October 19, 2008
My edition is published by Quality Paperback Book Club. A Reader's Companion is a collection of responses to both The Hobbit and TLOR when the books first were published. It includes essays by C. S. Lewis, Issac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin, and W. H. Auden. Some essays are favorable to the books, while others are not.
June 10, 2012
This is very hard to rate. Some of the essays (especially C.S. Lewis') were excellent, and others were not so good or even insulting (or amusing, depending on how you look at it) to Tolkien fans.
February 10, 2010
A nice collection of reviews throughout the generations and their perspectives on the great works of Tolkien. I found it to be a fast and pleasant read.
Currently reading
March 14, 2010so far, so good!
March 5, 2014
Read in the nineties and my notes only say: Good, esp. the LeGuin [essay]
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews