Published in 1975, this is a good collection of essays about Tolkien's fiction given that the essays are ostensibly written by "fans" rather than scholars. A few of the essays are, it must be conceded, naive in style and scope-- like the one which makes the rather obvious claim that the main theme of the Lord of the Rings is that "power corrupts". Quite a few others, however, are quite insightful, particular Charles Huttar's article on "Hell and the City", Robert Plink's analysis of the "Scouring of the Shire" chapter, and Richard West's analysis of the 'interlace' structure of The Lord of the Rings. Also Bonniejean Christiansen's article on the characterological differences between Gollum that were produced by the *major* revisions of the "Riddles in the Dark" chapter of the Hobbit is extremely valuable-- both for what she has to say about Gollum and for the fact that she offers side-by-side quotations from both the first and second editions of that chapter so the reader can see what has changed from one to the other.

Quite surprisingly, these essays aren't nearly as dated as a lot of other Tolkien criticism that came out at the same time or earlier. (The publication of Carpenter's biography of Tolkien in 1977, as well as the posthumous publication of the _Silmarillion_ and then later of Tolkien's letters has rendered a lot of older Tolkien criticism out-of-date or irrelevant). In fact, these essays are just as good and insightful as a lot of Tolkien criticism being written now (in fact, they're better than a lot of it!). The main reason for their continued relevance, I think, is tha they are clearly focused on Tolkien's fictional *texts* as texts that can be analyzed on their own terms. Rather than delving into lots of biographical details, into questions of authorial intention, trying to place The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the context of _The Silmarillion_, or connecting them to Tolkien's alleged goal of creating a 'mythology for England', these articles focus on specific chapters, images, themes, and structures from The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, this gives them a kind of 'permanence' that other earlier Tolkien criticism has lacked. (Also, I think the emphasis upon Tolkien's texts themselves leads to more insightful analysis than the biographically-oriented authorial-intention-minded criticism that's still dominant among Tolkien criticism). It's a real shame this has gone out of print...

. . .including the first version of Bilbo's finding of the Ring!

By now, all hobbits know that the original story which Bilbo told his friends (and set down in the Red Book) about the finding of the One Ring was, shall we say, a unusual departure from the truth on the part of a very honest hobbit. What most hobbits probably don't realize, however, is that Bilbo's original story is once again available. Bonniejean Christenson presents an excellent essay detailing the original story of the Riddle Game -- and the subsequent changes over the years.

This essay is one of several in this worthy volume, written by lovers of Middle Earth and compiled by Professor Jared Lobdel. Of further note is an excellent guide to names from "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". Considering the hobbitish interest in geneaologies, nomenclature and familiy trees, this index is indispensible.

This hobbit highly endorses this book.

Professor Jared Lobdell has, in this volume, collected a number of excellent critical essays relating to the writing of JRR Tolkien, one of the most interesting being Bonniejean Christenson's excellent work "Gollum's Character Transformation in 'The Hobbit'" (Note: not every essay is necessarily worthy of 5 stars!).

Professor Lobdell has also provided an informative introduction, and a Guide to Names which will prove helpful to Tolkien scholars.

It's a shame that this volume is out of print. Serious Tolkien scholars will wish to find a used copy.

I recommend this book for any Tolkien fan!

This Book is worthy of every reading award the is, this book is pure exlence

"The War of the Ring" is the third installment of Christopher Tolkien's "The History of The Lord of the Rings" series, and the eighth volume of his massive "The History of Middle Earth".

Like the two volumes before it, Christopher Tolkien takes the reader on a detailed journey of the creative processes through which "The Lord of the Rings" came to be. Of particular interest in this book:

The development of the "Paths of the Dead" story.

The development of the character of Denethor, Steward of Gondor.

The development of "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields".

The development of the story of Shelob and Frodo's capture.

It's unfortunate that Christopher Tolkien was unable to finish "The History of The Lord of the Rings" in three volumes, so the reader is left with the story still unfinished. It is also worth noting that these books, especially as they proceed to the end of the story, do not simply rehash the final work. If sections of a chapter underwent little or no evolutionary development, they are treated briefly. The greatest attention is paid to those episodes which were written and re-written, often in very different ways.

I was somewhat disappointed that the theme of Gollum's "near repentance" was not treated in detail, as JRR Tolkien felt that this was a key turning-point in the story. But again, if an episode underwent little development, Christopher did not spend much time on it.

Five stars -- and another "Thank-you" to Christopher for this labor of love on his late father's behalf.

Nevin's _Anxious Bench_ is a critique of the artificial methods revivalists, evangelists, and pastors were using in the mid-1800's to stimulate "conversions" in their moribund congregations and communities. With much insight, Nevin dissects both the rationale and practice of getting people onto the anxious bench. Anyone who has indured altar calls in fundamentalist churchs, listened to all 67 verses of "Just as I am", or remembers the phrase "Every head bowed and every eye closed" has a watered down taste of the what Nevin was addressing.

I was also struck by how appropriate his work was for the recent past. Almost every use of the the term "anxious bench" could have had the words "laughing revival" substituted and the meaning would not have changed.

I would have liked more exegesis from Nevin, but that was not the point of his work.

Here's the myth: Roman Catholicism invents the idea that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper actually conveys grace. This eventually becomes the superstition of Transubstantiation. Then Luther and Calvin rise up and liberate the masses from such belief in magic. Luther never quite liberates himself, but Calvin gives us Luther's justification by faith undergirded by nothing more than hard-core predestinarianism. The sacraments are simply symbols, pictures, and/or dramatizations of a spiritual truth designed to bring it into the participant's remembrance.

Nevin's _The Mystical Presence: A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist_ was a reality check for American Evangelicalism. He demonstrated that the assumption of American "puritans" that their heritage came from sixteenth-century Geneva was purely a delusion. Calvin believed and taught repeatedly and emphatically that believers truly partook of Christ's flesh and blood in the Lord's Supper. The idea that the Eucharist was merely a symbol was a complete abomination in Calvin's eyes.

Nevin's makes his case masterfully. He quotes copiously from Calvin to show that His view of the real presence of Christ in the rite was not an obsure part of his teaching but an essential componant of his theology. He also explains how Calvin's view of the Eucharist was essential to his soteriology. For Calvin, a person is not saved from the wrath of God simply because God imputes "in a merely outward way" Christ's righteousness to him. A person is saved because he is incorporated into Christ's human body so that he is more intimately bound to Christ than a branch to a tree, a member of a body to his head, or a human to Adam. Only those united to Christ in this way by the power of the Holy Spirit can benefit from Christ's righteousness, having it imputed to them as His glorified human life is imparted to them.

The Lord's Supper, says Nevin, according to Calvin and the other sixteenth-century Reformers, renews and strengthens this union. We are truly given Christ's human body by the Holy Spirit when we partake of the Sacrament. Anything less would not be sufficient for our salvation and sanctification.

Nevin carefully distinguishes Calvin's view not only from the socinians and other rationalists, but from that of traditional Lutherans and Roman Catholics. Regarding the former, Nevin must have made his contemporary Evangelical readers wince when he pointed out that their view was identical to that of unitarians and other liberals of the day. On the other hand, unlike tran- and consubstantiation, Calvin's view did not allow for actual material particles to be locally present in the elements or to pass into the bodies of partakers.

Probably one of the most difficult aspects of Calvin's view was his insistence on a real participation in Christ's flesh and blood without any matter being transported into the participant. Thus, Nevin's attempt to formulate and improve on Calvin's explanation is perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of the book. Nevin make the rather obvious but head-aching comment that a physical organism does not consist in particular physical particles! Living human beings pass out and ingest new particles all the time. Our human body is actually a "law" or "force" which must have matter to exist but is not identical with it. An acorn is considered identical to the oak tree which grows from it, but the oak tree is exponentially more massive and probably does not possess one material particle in common with the acorn from which it originated. By these analogies Nevin clears away the conceptual difficulties which make Calvin's view hard to believe. It would do no good if mere dead particles from Christ's flesh were transported into us. What we need is Christ's life. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ's resurrected, glorified, human life is given to us so that we become sharers in it.

There is much else of value in Nevin's work, more than I can recite from memory as I punch out this brief review. Perhaps the most questionable portion of Nevin's work is his exegesis. There he makes statements about the incarnation which are hard to makes sense of. On the other hand, the texts he uses are very similar to those used by Richard Gaffin in _Resurrection & Redemption: A Study in Pauline Soteriology_. In other words, Nevin was a century ahead of the cutting edge of conservative Reformed scholarship. The difference is that Gaffin concentrates on the Resurrected humanity of Christ, instead of the "theanthropic person" which concerns Nevin almost exclusively and in my opinion leads to some difficulties.

Anyone claiming to be Evangelical and/or Reformed needs to read this book. There is simply nothing else like it. You will never be the same again.

Mark Horne

This is a fabulous collection representing the beginning of Gothic fiction. Otronto is the very first such work, and is a perfect illustration of the basic themes and plotlines predominant in Gothic. Although not the most polished work of fiction, it's often so bad it's funny, and definitely worth reading. The other stories are much more professional, albeit a bit drier reading. I'm especially fond of Vathek, as it more clearly represents fear fiction as it was to become. Dr. Polidori's piece is particularly intersting as he was a physician and present at the famous ghost-story-telling session(s) of Byron and the Shelley couple.

On the whole, this collection is the ideal glimpse into the genre at its rudimentary level.

This volume is an excellent introduction to four
works of the Gothic mindset, which hit England at
the end of the 1700s and lasted on into the early
Romantic period, all the way up to the late decadence
of the 1890s, winding up in Robert Louis Stevenson's
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1886),
Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1891), and
Bram Stoker's DRACULA (1897).
These are four of the earliest of this Gothic genre.
The volume includes Horace Walpole's THE CASTLE OF
OTRANTO (Christmas Eve, 1764); William Beckford's
VATHEK (1786); John Polidori's VAMPYRE (1819); and
a Vampire Fragment by Lord Byron (1819), "which was
published at the end of MAZEPPA in 1819."
The list of Gothic NOVELS (rather than stories)
in chronological order which make the grade are:
Horace Walpole's CASTLE OF OTRANTO (1764), Clara
Reeve's THE CHAMPION OF VIRTUE (1777), William
Beckford's VATHEK (1786), Ann Radcliffe's THE
MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO (1794), Matthew Gregory Lewis's
THE MONK (1795), Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN (1818),
John Polidori's VAMPYRE (1819), Charles R. Maturin's
MELMOTH THE WANDERER (1820).
There are excellent introductions to each of the
writers and their works at the beginning of the book.
In speaking of THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, Bleiler says:
"This novel has been called one of the half-dozen
historically most important novels in English. The
founder of a school of fiction, the so-called Gothic
novel, it served as the direct model for an enormous
quantity of novels written up through the first
quarter of the 19th century.... It was probably
the most important source for enthusiasm for the
Middle Ages that suddenly swept Europe in the later
18th century, and many of the trappings of the early
19th century Romantic movement have been traced to
it. It embodied the spirit of an age."
There is included a series of impressive "Notes"
to the novel VATHEK: An Arabian Tale. The novel
begins in an interesting fashion: "Vathek, ninth
caliph of the race of the Abassides, was the son
of Motassem, and the grandson of Haroun al Raschid.
From an early accession to the throne, and the talents
he possessed to adorn it, his subjects were induced to
expect that his reign would be long and happy. His
figure was pleasing and majestic: but when he was
angry, one of his eyes became so terrible, that no
person could bear to behold it; and the wretch upon
whom it was fixed instantly fell backward, and
sometimes expired. For fear, however, of depopulating
his dominions and making his palace desolate, he but
rarely gave way to his anger."
And here is a sample bite from John Polidori's
VAMPYRE: "There was no colour upon her cheek, not
even upon her lip; yet there was a stillness about
her face that seemed almost as attaching as the life
that once dwelt there: --upon her neck and breast
was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of teeth
having opened the vein: -- to this the men pointed,
crying, simultaneously struck with horror, "A
Vampyre! a Vampyre!"

Patrick Curry has given Tolkien readers (both admirers and critics alike) something to celebrate and much to chew over in writing this book. The book, though short, is actually an outgrowth of a paper he wrote for a Centenary Conference on Tolkien in 1992. This tome is a fairly complex read and is rather ambitious in its scope. Curry aims to answer bedeviling questions such as why is Tolkien such a modern day success when his books have nothing to do with modern day preoccupations such as sex, murders, money,or lawyers? More to the point, in Curry's own words he asks us,"What are millions of readers from all over the world getting out of reading these books?" I have to hand it to you, Mr. Curry, this is a very interesting question to ask.

Curry's book is divided into a lengthy introduction, four chapters,and a modest ending of roughly 15 pages. The focus of Curry's analysis on Tolkien's popularity centers on Lord of the Rings, since both LOTR and The Hobbit are the two stories that the world has responded to best.

Early on in his introduction, Curry confronts academic / literary snobbery towards Tolkien head on. Most of this criticism is based on the attitude that Tolkien's work is irrelevant in our world because it is seen as nothing more than juvenile escapism that does not deal with any of the problems that plague (or have plagued) our modern day world. Meanwhile Curry tells readers that he intends to look for help in explaining Tolkien's popularity through post-modernist ideas which may in fact refute the very criticisms made by the intelligentsia. He also tackles other criticisms of Tolkien, such as alleged racism,class,oversimplification of good verses evil, etc. An incomplete laundry list of other topics that Curry covers in the book includes: reviewing Middle Earth (especially LOTR)as potentially great literature, exploring LOTR's Christian and Pagan aspects,its spirituality,nature and ecology,comparing magic verses enchantment in Middle Earth,social aspects of The Shire,the idea of wonder and how to invoke more of it in our world,and looking at Tolkien's hope to make a mythology for England.

Since the part title of the book announces that Curry wants to deal with the subject of Tolkien and "Modernity", it would help to give potential readers who may not be familiar with the idea of Modernism a brief synopsis of what Modernism actually is. Actually Curry's definition, that Modernism is

"a world - view that began in late seventeenth-century Europe,became self-conscious in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, and was exported all over the world with supreme self-confidence, in the nineteenth (century).It (Modernism) culminated in the massive attempts at material and social engineering of our own day. Modernity is thus characterized by the combination of modern science, a global capitalist economy, and the political power of the nation-state."

provides a sufficient explanation, although his idea neglects the notion that various interests in the world may not always be so neatly aligned. However, potential readers do need to understand this idea in order to judge whether they should bother reading this book.

Making my own "world-view" judgment, I do not agree with Curry's pessimism regarding what Modernism has brought us or what it will bring us in the future. However,his use of modernist / post-modernist arguments in trying to explain Tolkien's popularity are both thoughtful and keen.Readers may argue on how solid Curry's arguments are, but I would recommend reading them anyway.

Curry ends his work by speaking of Tolkien's offer of hope without guarantees. Curry invites that reader to think that this statement means that Modernity should be fought by those who are disillusioned with it. But Curry clearly states that Middle Earth offers a vision of peace between peoples, with nature, and with the unknown. Is this book a polemic on behalf of post - modernist leftism? Good question.But ah Mr. Curry, does not the Road ever go on?

At first I thought this book was going to be one of thosecorny, ( ) informative type books. NOT SO! I found it nice, neat, andconsise, with more info than I thought I would find. I highly recomind it to any intrested in Tolkien, for even an old fan like me discoverd things I did not know. Have fun.

A friend lent me a copy of "The Healing Power of the Eucharist". I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. If you are interested in deeping your connection with God, this is a must read! Thank you Father John for writing this book!

I came across this book and have read it and reread it and have also shared it with a number of friends. This is truly an inspiration book and will further your faith and intimacy with the Eucharist - the most wonderful gift from God. If you ever had questions about the Eucharist, your answers are here.

The first thing J.R.R. Tolkien says is that this is not parity or an allegory. He emphasizes that this has no relation to the war or any particular place.

The First thing that Barron's notes does is say the ring is like the atomic bomb. And the land influences the landscape after the war.

Some of the things in the book are useful for pointing out what is assumed you already know about; like shadows are bad and stars are good. As for the story it is just the bare bones with no meat. If you read this first you would be discouraged form reading the book thinking it was long and dry.

An almost believable fantasy adventure that will make you not want to put the book down. If you have an imagination this book will make you feel as if you are on the journey with them. The characters, events and places are so vividly described for the imagination that you can almost picture them and what they might actually look like. You will wish you yourself were really a part of Middle Earth after reading this epic adventure tale.

Victor Thoren has done a remarkable job with what looks like relatively scant material. He draws as detailed a picture as possible not only of Tycho the astronomer and nobleman, but also the man. And it is in this latter department that his lack of material and references is sensed. Nevertheless, as far as the science and technology is concerned, he has done an excellent job in rebuilding for us all of Tycho's instruments and reconstructing the environment and atmosphere where these remarkable measurements were made.

This is not an "easy" read for the lay person, but will be rewarding eventually with a little determination.

"The Lord of Uraniborg" is a scholarly description of the life of Tycho Brahe, the eccentric and brilliant Danish astronomer whose work laid the foundation for the discovery of the motion of the planets by Johannes Kepler. Author Victor Thoren demolishes a number of myths about Brahe, while at the same time his exhaustive research into historical records reveals a number of fascinating aspects of Tycho's life.

In the case of Tycho Brahe, truth is both stranger and more entertaining than any fiction that has been created about him. For example, he did not die of a burst bladder following a night of excessive drinking. But he did die of uremia caused most likely by an enlarged prostate which prevented urination. His dying words to Kepler, "let me not seem to have lived in vain", could not have been scripted better for a man who sought immortality through science.

Readers should be aware that this book is not written in a style intended for the general public. It is a work of historical scholarship, and is packed with the kind of detail that some may find trivial. However, the sheer weight of these historical records (letters and official documents) helps to create a vivid and convincing portrait of this unique individual.

I am a graduate student in English Literature, and this book turned out to be exactly what I need in researching the structure of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." A bonus was how "The Hobbit" fits into the scheme as well. Precisely and carefully written - the author knows her field well.

So glad to see this classic study back in circulation. Also liked the new and improved introduction that talks about how much Tolkien research has changed since the book first came out. The much bigger bibliography is also very useful, which also shows how much more has been written about Tolkien in the past decade. Belongs on any Tolkien scholar's bookshelf.

I'm far from an expert, but an interested novice in this field... Crane's book is interesting for the unique take it presents on the people and events.

On the other hand, his language is flowery, his opinions unsupported by his own evidence, and his patronizing superiority sometimes beathtaking. Byron is held up as a person of judgement and moral probity -- at least in Greece. The Greeks are dismissed as grasping, brutal and mendacious -- and this is attributed to their national character. The Turks are brutal and cold -- again, a "character" trait.

As far as Trelawney himself, I've never read a biography in which the author had such patent and intense dislike of his subject. Without much to go on, Crane gives us a pathological liar and cold-hearted manipulator of people and events. There are many paragraphs which open with the phrase "it's impossible to know given the scanty evidence... but in this case we can be sure that..." or its variant.

At the same time, I'm compelled to read on, if only to see what verbal atrocity the author will commit next. What a ride!

In his book "Adventures of a Younger Son," Edward Trelawny set down the facts of his youth as he had told them for years: how as a teenage midshipman he began his adventures by breaking the skull of his commanding officer and deserting into the pirates' paradise of the Java Sea; of Zella, his fawn-like, thirteen-year-old bride; fearless, bloody years of piracy and rape; and the stirrings of conscience (if not calmness) which led him back to Europe to seek out the Pisan Circle and its "Dioscuri," Shelley and Byron. Shelley's social conscience and intellectual boldness attracted him; Byron, his former idol, repelled him, because the poet could see through his lies and his posturing. Byron was both a dreamer and a cynic, and the spectacle of a Lara or Childe Harold parading unironically in the real world unleashed all of his contempt. (Try to picture Ian Fleming confronted with a fan who's modeled himself on James Bond).

"Lord Byron's Jackal," the title of David Crane's biography, is from a remark by Keats' friend Joseph Severn, who suggested that Trelawny had glutted himself on Byron and his anti-heroes until nothing of the man remained. (Severn might easily have used a different phrase, had he read a certain novel by Trelawny's friend Mary Shelley). Another view, though, is that Trelawny responded to Byron's work because its bold palette mirrored his own abilities and panache; all that had robbed him of the bloody youth of his dreams was bad luck. Now, with the help of the Pisan Circle (most of whom believed his tales), all that would change. Trelawny is not the first man in history to lie his way to the truth, but as Crane tells it, he may be the most fascinating.

I can't think of another non-fiction book that I've enjoyed as much as this one. This has as much to do with Crane's language as with the vivid times and personalities he brings to volcanic life. (In many ways the 1820's was the last gasp of Romanticism, when great poets and writers trumped their own words on the world stage, staking everything on their ideals). A previous reader described Crane's writing as "flowery." No. Crane's sentences are often dense, but never with ornamentation. There's not a word out of place, and I often found myself rereading certain passages just for their beauty and perfection of language--and being rewarded with new meanings and insights. That this amazing book is the author's first is almost unbelievable: Trelawny lives in Crane's words as vividly as in his own.

Equally moving is Crane's portrait of the "Philhellenes": the idealists/adventurers who poured into Greece from Western Europe and America in the 1820's to fight the Turks. Many were on fire from Byron's verse; some were spoiled, self-dramatizing youths, victims of a 19th-century version of Jerusalem Syndrome; a few were cold pragmatists; none of them had the slightest idea what they were in for. Devoured by the savage infighting and double-crosses that typified the war, many of these naïfs died ingloriously and in great confusion and pain. As Crane puts it: "There were young Byronists absorbed in a designer war of their own invention, charlatans attracted by the hope of profit, classicists infatuated with Greece's past, Bethamite reformers, aging Bonapartists--and then all those there for a dozen different motives, who might just once have known why they came but had long forgotten by the time they died."

Trelawny himself was immune to disillusion, because his one cause was the test of his own courage and strength, and he seems to have known from the start what stuff he was made of. What makes Trelawny unique (at least until George Orwell) is that eventually he cut as great a figure with the sword as with the pen--though he seems sometimes to have confused the two. We (and Trelawny too) are fortunate to have another great storyteller, David Crane, to tell us which was which.

A companion to this book would be Trelawny's own "Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron," a great work covering some of the same years as Crane's--by turns hilarious, thrilling, moving, and wise--one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century fiction.

They may now call it the Romantic period, but it was a brutal period, and Crane makes it clear that a scoundrel like Trelawny -- seducer, adventurer, poetaster -- was in his element. The other people in the area at the time, whether Greek, Turk, or Englishman, weren't so admirable either, and if you're looking for straight-arrow heroes this isn't your book. The "heroes" that populate LBJ are of the Heathcliff variety.

This amazing history brings to mind the current conflict in the Balkans, complete with backstabbing, massacres, self-important generalissimos, singleminded nationalists and bandits. An extraordinary trip into a time almost as scary as our own -- with the added benefit of star players like Byron and Shelley. I loved this book and recommend it highly. (And unlike the previous reviewer, I note Crane's clear sympathy for Trelawny -- despite his disapproval of the man's actions: he details Trelawny's brutal upbringing by his father and the torture inflicted upon him by the British Navy.) It seems to me you don't need to admire someone to find him fascinating.