J.R.R. Tolkien

<p><strong>J.R.R. TOLKIEN: THE BOOKS THE FILMS THE WHOLE CULTURAL PHENOMENON</strong></p><p>A book exploring the world of J.R.R. Tolkien Britain's premier fantasy author in over 800 pages.</p><p>Part one of this book focusses on J.R.R. Tolkien's texts principally those dealing with his 'secondary world' of Middle-earth. Part two explores the 2001-03 Hollywood movies of The Lord of the Rings with a scene-by-scene analysis of the three films. Part of this book explores the influence of the Tolkien industry in areas like computer gaming pop music merchandizing and cinema.</p><p>EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION</p><p>Philip Toynbee declared in 1961 that Tolkien's 'childish books had passed into a merciful oblivion' a wonderful statement just a tad inaccurate. In 1997 The Lord of the Rings was voted the top book of the 20th century by readers in a British bookstore's poll (Waterstone's). 104 out of 105 stores and 25000 readers put The Lord of the Rings at the top (1984 was second).</p><p>Around 100 million copies of The Lord of the Rings had been sold by the end of the twentieth century and 60 million copies of The Hobbit with sales of around 3 million per year of the two books combined. Readers just love reading Tolkien's books. It's that simple. You can't force people to buy books or go see movies; there's isn't a magic formula (or ruling ring) to hypnotize readers and consumers (if there was it'd be worth billions). And the Tolkien phenomenon began with readers. Back in 1937 1954 and 1955 the publishers Allen & Unwin did their bit of course with reviews blurbs advertizing and so on promoting The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and the critics too but it was readers who first started the phenomenon that has become truly global. Tolkien's influence on literature has been considerable too and not just in the realm of fantasy sci-fi fairy tales and related genres. As fantasy author Terry Brooks said Tolkien 'was the premier fantasy writer of the last century and all of us writing today owe him a huge debt.' No other writer W.H. Auden reckoned had 'created an imaginary world and a history in such detail'. Colin Wilson agreed that only a few writers have concocted a total universe and that Tolkien's was very impressive. Tolkien's mythological writings may be the 'largest body of invented mythology in the history of literature' according to David Day. Invented that is by one person. It's also 'certainly the most complex and detailed invented world in all literature'.</p>