Modestly describing his book as \u201ca series of fan\u2019s notes,\u201d biographer Taylor examines \u201cvarious aspects of Tolkien\u2019s life, work and personality.\u201d He includes some personal experiences in his engaging investigations of the renowned author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. His wide-ranging references situate Tolkien, the outsider, against a constellation of other writers, mostly English, and in his social milieu and period. He chiefly asks how Tolkien saw or thought of himself; since Tolkien was biography-resistant and is not to be found behind his literary creations, answering such questions is itself an achievement. Taylor sifts abundant material, proposes reasonable answers, and avoids rigid judgment (with the exception of The Silmarillion, published posthumously). In biographical mode, he notes the \u201ctheocentric nature\u201d of Tolkien\u2019s mind; the influence of his World War I service; the well-timed academic rise of philology; his friendship with C.S. Lewis, \u201carguably the most important of his life\u201d (and its later decline); the \u201crackety equipage\u201d of other friendships; his fictional and real-life views on women; his idiosyncratic \u201cTory anarchism\u201d; and what Tolkien himself recognized as his \u201climited sympathies.\u201d The purview extends to his relations with his publishers; the series\u2019 reception by fans, the counterculture, detractors, and condescending academics; and a revealing analysis of A.S. Byatt\u2019s use of the novels. Though the book is not literary criticism, Taylor ably assesses the influence of Kenneth Grahame\u2019s and Beatrix Potter\u2019s worlds; the vocal range of The Hobbit; Tolkien\u2019s poetry; and the unique place of LOTR in English literature. Taylor\u2019s adept and well-turned prose moves both smoothly and briskly among his varied angles. Extensive research is folded unobtrusively into the text, presenting evidence clearly and adroitly. Short chapters of sparkling reflection illuminate the terrain of the mountainous eminence.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Modestly describing his book as \u201ca series of fan\u2019s notes,\u201d biographer Taylor examines \u201cvarious aspects of Tolkien\u2019s life, work and personality.\u201d He includes some personal experiences in his engaging investigations of the renowned author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. His wide-ranging references situate Tolkien, the outsider, against a constellation of other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}