Not the greatest book of the century (The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien)

Name: michaird

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Product:	The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Date:	09/01/03 (88 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rich in detail, Wonderful and engaging story.

Disadvantages: Restricts the imagination of the reader, Poor female characters, Too much pointless material

Well I did it, it was hard work but I managed it. I took a whole year too. Well actually I started it a year ago but having got a third of the way into the first volume I just gave up, bored to tears. But after moving house at the end of the last year the dusty copies found their way from the top of my bookcase and I vowed that I was going to read them if it killed me. I started them again last week and have managed to finish them in just seven nights, at a thousand pages with a life to lead too aren't you impressed?

The word epic could have been invented for The Lord of the Rings, I tend to stay well clear of the 'classics' as I find then hard going and I read as a means of enjoyment not intellectual challenge. I did however enjoy the film and have yet to read a book that wasn't far superior to the film. Also I couldn't wait another year to find out what was going to happen.

This is the tale of the great ring forged by the evil lord Sauron in the fires of mount doom. Sauron bound the majority of his power in with the ring and when it was lost in a great battle many, thousands of years ago, he was struck down, but not forever. For as long as the ring still remained Sauron did also. The ring became lost until by chance it was found by a creature named Gollum. Gollum worshiped the ring and it twisted him and drove from the light until one day in his cave Biblo Baggins, a hobbit from the shire, found his ring and took it.

Sauron seemed to know that the ring had been found and began to rise again and gather strength. In order to complete his renewal Sauron needed the ring so that he could take control of Middle Earth. Many years later the ring was passed to Biblo's nephew Frodo, who learning of its power and evil vowed to take the ring back to mount doom and cast it into the fires in which it was forged, the only place it could be destroyed.

That's the plot in a nutshell. A basic story of good against evil,
friendship and how even the smallest person can change the world. It's nothing that hasn't been written before and nothing that won't be written again for there are only so many stories to go around, you know.

The thing that sets this apart from other, less memorable stories is it's sheer scope. In three volumes spanning one thousands pages with, a two hundred-page appendix and an index that looks as it if came straight out of a textbook.

The first volume 'The fellowship of the ring' tells of its finding and of the beginning of its long journey. The companions that were chosen for Frodo in his quest and of the many adventures they had on their way.

The second volume 'The two towers' follows the separate fortunes of the members of the broken fellowship. Their many adventures in battle, travel and with walking talking trees!

The third volume 'The return on the king' deals with the final battle, the fate of the ring and the setting to right of the things that were damaged.

My favourite of the three volumes has to be the second, it is the most varied and interesting. It has the most exciting bits in it, in my opinion. The first book spends too much time on setting up the plot and the third is far too bleak. However, being the middle book and not a story in it's own right it is the most unsatisfying of the three.

As I said, the sheer scope of the book is impressive. Tolkien spent many years creating middle earth, the world of book, and this is clearly shown in the richness of detail. Often I will read a book and wish that it would tell more of a particular character rather than carry on with the story. However, on such occasions I will just use my own imagination and make up what I want to know and it doesn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. However in Lord of the rings there is very little leeway for the imagination of the reader and I found that this did spoil my enjo
yment of the books. A case of be careful what you wish for I suppose.

I also felt that there were huge swathes of the book that very completely irrelevant and unnecessary. Page upon page of things that do nothing to add to the plot and little to engage the interest. Pieces of verse are littered throughout some of them spanning a page or more. I don't claim to be any poet but what little I didn't skip over and ignore was awful. However I suppose there are those that enjoy poetry like this and maybe I didn't because I cannot relate to it. If you don't like it either then I would recommend that you ignore it too. I don't think you'll miss much. I read or saw somewhere that Tolkien's editor had commented that 'you do not *edit* Tolkien' as he was after all a master of English. However his mastery of English got in the way of the story far to many times for my liking and it seems to me that a bit of clever editing would have done the book some good.

Another of the books flaws are it's female characters, or characatures more accurately. It is no coincidence that Tolkien himself kept mostly the company of men and his only significant dealing with women were with his mother and his wife, both of whom he worshipped. The women in his book, all four of them, are sketchy and unreal. How Tolkien can be proclaimed as the author of the 20th century without a firm grasp, so to speak, on the character of women is beyond me.

However having slated the book I have to saw that it is a good book. It is impressive for its richness even if it does curb my own imagination. It is also a very good story, Engaging in a way that ensures that you really want to know what happens next. You may say that 'if that was so how come you couldn't get through the first half of the first volume?' and I'll say that it's due to the fact that I had barely got anywhere near the story by then! A particularly long bit of irre
levance got in the way, which I completely ignored the second time I tried to read it. As did the makers of the film incidentally (of course I'll get strung up by lovers of the book for saying such things about Tom Bombadil, but I'm a brave soul). However even to the end nothing is certain and it's still possible that the heroes may die, or that the ring will win over, and who says they don't?

It is a good book, a good story and well worth reading. However it is hard going and I may be shot for saying but it is not, in my opinion, the greatest book of the century (though don't ask me what is, as I barely know my own name from one day to the next, never mind a book!) If you expect too much of it you many well be disappointed.

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