Tolkien: Look Behnd Lrd

This was one of the first books to delve into Tolkien's now-classic tale, and in many ways, it's still one of the best. By exploring the roots of both Tolkien's work & the fantasy genre overall, Carter provides much-needed perspective ... to say nothing of having introduced an entire generation of fantasy readers & future fantasy writers to the masters of the field. I still recall the excitement of learning about Lord Dunsany & Wiliiam Morris for the first time, and my appetite for their work was whetted by the brief samples Carter so tantalizingly provided to his readers!The entire Ballantine Adult Fantasy series so wonderfully developed & edited by Carter can be seen as an outgrowth of this seminal work; for that reason alone, it's deserving of praise. But it's also enjoyable & informative reading on its own merits. Carter wrote at the height of the intial Tolkien craze & much of that exhilaration & delight is reflected here. His prose is deceptively easy-going & always accessible: he's clearly writing about a living man & his living work, not the ponderous monument so many writers have since made of him. Yes, there are more detailed (and more accurate) books about Tolkien, but this one truly conveys the pleasures of masterful & classic fantasy. Recommended!

Lin Carter's book is a tour through the literary world of Europe in the last thousand years touching on Norse Epics, warrior tales and the Spanish adventure series parodied by Don Quixote. It's amazing in it breadth even if its depth is shallow. As she goes over the literature that influenced Tolkein in his epic you will understand why you can't read The Lord of the Rings just once and why there's so much going on (even in those boring appendices of Tolkein). You will also understand why you haven't read a fantasy book for years.Tolkein was a genius. But everyone else imitates Tolkein these days. There are some exceptions - Tanith Lee, Stephen King, Barry Hughart but the Terry Brooks and Robert Jordans of the world set their books in that pseudo medeival tripe you know there's something missing. This book explains why. Tolkein had decades of research and pure love behind him. The other fantasy writers can only imitate Tolkein. Buy this book when it comes out new and give it as a gift to all your friends. You'll be happy you did. And then go through it for reading suggestions - as it provides the most invaluable reading list since Stephen King's Danse Macabre chapter.

It may be difficult to diggest if your are not into Tolkien, and more specifically, if you are not a die-hard fan of The Lord of the Rings. But if you are a fan, not only you will find this book very informative, but you will devour it from cover to cover!

This book is a fascinating inquiry into the process of making of the greatest fantasy epic of our time. Along with the analyses of Middle Earth's different trends you will find a wealth of fantasy lore about other authors of the time and their works. This is an enchanting book that will make you see fantasy in a completely different light.

Contrary to the opinion of the reviewer below, who indicates an inability to remember what was read (which says quite a bit all by itself, doesn't it?), this book does its job admirably well. A popularized account of the literature behind the literature which Tolkien left for us, this book takes us through the wide range of mythic and legendary material from various historical periods in Europe & nearby regions which lie at the source of J.R.R. Tolkien's greatest fantasy works (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) and which influenced the great fantasist, himself. Not a book for scholars but apparently too erudite for some readers of Tolkien's works, this book takes us on a quickie survey of the legends and linguistic antecedents which influenced and captured Tolkien's fancy. At the same time it gives us a fairly educated survey of the history of fantasy literature itself. The book is meant to be entertaining for those who love to understand what they are reading -- though it's no fantasy itself, which is perhaps what our disappointed reviewer expected. Or perhaps this person was seeking the inside dope on Tolkien and his times. Whatever. At the least, this is a good source for those who want to understand the history of this type of literature and who want to go farther than just reading the material. It was for me. And it took me farther than I'd expected. Afterwards, you can go on to many of the sources themselves. This book tells you what they were and, often enough, where to find them. --- Stuart W. Mirsk