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The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1984)
Front Cover Book Details
Author
J.R.R. Tolkien
J R R Tolkien
Publication Date 12/31/1996
Format Hardcover (197 mm)
Publisher Harpercollins Pub Ltd
Plot
The seven 'essays' by J.R.R. Tolkien assembled in this new paperback edition were with one exception delivered as general lectures on particular occasions; and while they mostly arose out of Tolkien's work in medieval literature, they are accessible to all. Two of them are concerned with Beowulf, including the well-known lecture whose title is taken for this book, and one with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, given in the University of Glasgow in 1953.

Also included in this volume is the lecture English and Welsh; the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959; and a paper on Invented Languages delivered in 1931, with exemplification from poems in the Elvish tongues. Most famous of all is On Fairy-Stories, a discussion of the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy, which gives insight into Tolkien's approach to the whole genre.

The pieces in this collection cover a period of nearly thirty years, beginning six years before the publication of The Hobbit, with a unique 'academic' lecture on his invention (calling it A Secret Vice) and concluding with his farewell to professorship, five years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings.

Personal Details
Collection Status In Collection
Index 440
Read It Yes
Links Amazon US
Amazon UK
Powell's
Product Details
ISBN 026110263X
Cover Price $22.95
Nr of Pages 256
First Edition No
Rare No
Original Details
Original Publication Year 1984
Notes
The cover shown is from an older edition than what I own.