Before he was known as the writer of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien was an acclaimed translator, a deeply scholarly philologist, and a professor of the same at Oxford University. His love for language and his proficiency with Old English dialects is nowhere more evident than in these translations. The beautiful prose and poetry that flows easily from the lips will intrigue and delight even the lay reader. The accuracy and brilliance with which Tolkien sets down these words will make a fan out of any scholar. All told, these aren't of the same stock as Tolkien's fantasy novels, but they are a great find for scholars, Tolkien fans, and anyone else for that matter.

. . .of the Master's academic abilities.

JRR Tolkien is best known (and rightfully so) for "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion". Nevertheless, it must be remembered that he was a career academic, holding professorships in the English Language at Oxford for more than 30 years.

This book, a modern translation of three ancient stories, represents the most accessible of Tolkien's academic works. It also represents the best 20th century critical translation of these important medieval manuscripts.

I highly recommend this book for fans of Tolkien's writings as an introduction to the exciting world of medieval English literature.

This book gets five stars because it contains "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" - not because Tolkien translated it (although that probably helps)

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is one of the masterpieces of the English language, one of those books we are asked to read in school over and over again (I personally read in in 12th grade AP English, my freshman year Arthurian legends class and Introduction to British Lit. my sophomore year). At first it is hard to read and you wonder why it is a legend.

Then I read it out loud, the words sounded better than they read. I also began looking into the mythology behind the story (why Troy is important in the first lines for instance). In the end, I have come to love this poem. To be honest, although I like this edition quite a bit, I haven't gotten around to reading the other two poems. I mean to though, any time now.

In Ray Bradbury's Fahenheit 451, we get to look at a futuristic world where books are banned and reading is prohibited. The narrator is a firefighter named Montag and unlike the firefighters of out modern society the firefighters of Montag's world start fires to burn books as opposed to extingushing fires to help citizens. Through the novel, we see how the government controls society by watching the citizens everymove and controlling what they may see or hear by using their own propaganda. This can be seen through Montag's wife, who is a drug using zombie addicted to watching government TV twenty four hours a day. Montag eventually becomes a victim when becomes interested in the books he is hired to destroy, steals them and hides them in his home. Through Montag's experiences we get a close look at how individuals in his world have no control of their destiny. However, when it seems most bleak and Montag is close to being discovered, Bradbury introduces some savior like characters. Fleeing from the law, Montag finally discovers the Book People living in the forest. These people memorize books and then they repeat the book to others so that books will live on forever in their memory even though they are being destroyed by the government. Although Bradbury builds a complex plot, the message is simple, when a society tries to control peoples basic freedoms so that they can manipulate them with their own propaganda, its time to start heading for the woods.

I read this book about 18 months ago, but I am writing a review now because the book came up during a mealtime conversation. We talked about how prophetic a very good science fiction writer can be. This is definitely the case in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Guy Montag lives in a world that represses freedom of speech, creativity, and the core of human spirit. People, including his estranged wife, are drones glued to these pseudo realities in television. It describes senseless trivia shows (can anyone say "Who wants to be a millionaire?") and awfully realistic soap operas that his wife affectionatly refers to as the "family."

What is most disturbing is that as televisions and technology become more "artificially intelligent" we will face some of the brainless drivel (we already do) that the major media networks provide us.

As a fireman, Guy Montag starts fires with books as the culprit - rather than putting them out. The idea is that books can make some people feel bad and as a result we should get rid of them - in other words books can be controversial and our country does not need disputes. The enforcer is a mechanical dog (which I found a little unrealistic and distracting) that injects a lethal poison into any opponents. Despite the silliness of the mechanical dog - the underlying theme is fantastic - open your mind and save the beauty of spontaneity and creativity of the human spirit.

The book talks about a fireman and his group starting fires and burning books. They were trying to get rid of the past, they did not want to leave a trace of what happened before, they believed that the characters in the books never existed. That reading those books would only make us think and creat ideas that could harm us...

Montag "the fireman" meets Clarisse, his 17 year old neighbour, and that changes his life totally. She opens his eyes to things he never thought of before, she takes him back to simple feelings, and warns him about the future...

Montag tries with no luck to change that at home, but his wife "Mildred" is hooked on the sopa operas and reality TV. So he decides that something major has to be changed which takes him to do the unthinkbale with the help of Clarisse, and a professor...

Stick with the books, they will make you see things this world is trying to forget, ignore, and burn on purpose.

Great book, read between the lines...

I read The Prince of Rags and Pathes a few months ago, and I enjoyed it. However, since then i have found out the truth about Richard III: he did not order Sir James Tyrell to murder his nephews, as this book suggests. I would not recommend anyone read this book, unless they want to be introduced to the widely believed but totally incorrect story. I would instead recommend "The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, which answers this "riddle" of the Princes in the Tower. Apart from this one book, the rest of Terry Deary's books, especially his "Horrible Histories" series, are an entertaining and informing look at historical events. But please, do not believe this one book: while the Marsdens are fictional, so too is the plotting, murdering Richard III portrayed in it.

Although this series is rather misnamed, methinks, since I didn't find it in the least bit scary, the books are a real treasure. Terry Deary, beloved for his "Horrible Histories", presents history again, this time in a nicely wrapped package complete with a timeline and quotes from Shakespeare. This is young adult mystery story and historical fiction combined in one, and I think anyone who reads in the genre will dig "Tudor Terror". "Prince of Rags and Patches" is the best one I read so far; the riddle of the "Princes in the Tower" is intriguing.

Having wanted to learn about the fascinating subject of the Philadephia Experiment I came to Amazon.com to look for credible books on the subject. Unfortunately, I fell for the suggestion to read this book. The only good news is that it cost less than $5 and wasted only a day of my time reading it. The book is not credible. It's a fairy tale, literally as well as the way the story is told. Save your money and buy something else.

I went into this book already knowing a lot on the subject of the Philadelphia Experiment and learned even more new info. It has an interesting format and easy to follow. I highly recommend it if you are interested in the subject.