Tolkien: A Critical Assessment

The works of J. R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) have been widely read and widely discussed, often in an openly partisan spirit. Few attempts have been made to arrive at a sober assessment of Tolkien's achievement as a literary artist, and even fewer to define a place for him in twentieth-century literature: both admirers and detractors have treated him as an anomaly in the context of modern writing. This book is a comprehensive and discriminating introduction to Tolkien's work which also aims to redress these deficiencies in earlier criticism. Two chapters are devoted to Tolkien's longest, and greatest, work, The Lord of the Rings. A third explores the bewildering profusion of shorter works, identifying those which are most rewarding and tracing the development of Tolkien's creative technique over several decades. The last chapter, 'Tolkien and the Twentieth Century', considers the significance of his life and career in the century of modernism.