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The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation

The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation - Hardcover

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Availability:In StockContributor:Michael DC DroutPublish date:12/2/2025Pages:384
Language:EnglishPublisher:W. W. Norton & CompanyISBN-13:9781324093886ISBN-10:1324093889UPC:9781324093886Book Category:Literary Criticism, Biography & AutobiographyBook Subcategory:Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literary Figures, English, Irish, Scottish, WelshSize:9.10 x 6.00 x 1.30 inchesWeight:1.4506Product ID:SCSFA3VQDQ

No writer has surpassed the epic achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien, who spent decades refining his Middle-earth--a world that has felt so real to so many readers that it is almost impossible to imagine that any single person could have simply created it, seemingly out of thin air. In The Tower and the Ruin, Michael D. C. Drout takes us deep into Tolkien's genius, allowing us to glimpse the making of not only The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion but also lesser-known books such as The Fall of Gondolin as well as Tolkien's poetry and innovative scholarship.

Drout, who has spent decades reading, studying, and teaching Tolkien, allows us to understand the author's methods and to embrace his works as never before. With great erudition and sparkling prose, Drout shows us how Tolkien invented myths, legends, cultures, languages, histories, and an intricate, multivocal narrative. We come to understand how Tolkien drew upon and modified material he found in Beowulf, the Kalevala, and other medieval literature from northern Europe, using the subtle qualities of those famous works as inspiration for his own. We also see the process by which he created the complex form of sorrow that is the primary emotional effect of his mature works, a sadness "blessed without bitterness," carefully woven through a tapestry of themes that has resonated with generations of readers.

Sweeping and hugely perceptive--and enhanced throughout by Drout's personal reflections on how Tolkien has shaped his own life and relationships--The Tower and the Ruin illuminates Tolkien anew and will come to be seen as an essential work for anyone who has journeyed to Middle-earth.

Language:EnglishPublisher:W. W. Norton & CompanyISBN-13:9781324093886ISBN-10:1324093889UPC:9781324093886Book Category:Literary Criticism, Biography & AutobiographyBook Subcategory:Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literary Figures, English, Irish, Scottish, WelshSize:9.10 x 6.00 x 1.30 inchesWeight:1.4506Product ID:SCSFA3VQDQ
Drout, Michael DC: - Michael D.C. Drout is a professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College. He specializes in Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature, science fiction and fantasy, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin, and is the author of How Tradition Works and Drout's Quick and Easy Old English, among others. He lives in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

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