For those of us who can't read Pushkin in Russian, his prose might be more rewarding than his poetry, where the essence is so difficult to translate. However, Pushkin's "Tales of Belkin" read like the whipped up improvisations of a virtuoso, rather than the carefully crafted Onegin or Godunov. By the end of his Tales, he so tires of his own device that he implores, "Readers will spare me the unnecessary duty of describing the denouement."

That being said, the Belkin stories are delightful. Each story revolves around a mistaken or hidden identity. The narratives are so swiftly paced that they could be considered page-turners if there were more pages to turn.

This collection must be the first serious effort to look at Lord of the Rings as "serious" literature, largely due to Tolkien's overwhelming popularity in the 1960s. Some of the essays are by such notorious writers such as C.S. Lewis and M.Z. Bradley. They look at Tolkien's world, races, characters, and the meaning of power in the trilogy, and the tones range from admiring to a little bit smug (surely, Lord of the Rings isn't "literarature" because... and then looking at a fixed idea, at the time, of what "literature" is.) The essay collection is, on the whole, interesting and insightful. Recommended, if you can find it (it's currently tough to find

The Tolkien Scrapbook contains reviews and scholarly articles on Tolkien and his works, as well as original illustrations and fan fiction. It's great for the dedicated Tolien fan, but not for everyone. I might also add that fans of the Brothers Hildebrandt and/or Terry Brooks may be a little offended by some articles.

This book is an excellent source for anyone who is intrested in urban development and the problems associated with it in an arid environment. I initially had to read to book for a class, but intend to purchase it for use as a reference for my job. I highly recommend this book.

I really enjoyed this book. He goes through some pretty basic things and then goes from there to being able to use these techniques to complete a painting. I like how he introduced color and explained each one on transparency etc. The demos are explained very well, then he goes on to show other ways to use similar techniques. Lots of good photos for reference. It is a fun and very worthwhile book for the beginner and intermediate watercolor painter. I would buy it again!

I'm glad to see this book is available again. I remember giving it years ago to a good employee who just couldn't "get" business writing. I was impressed by how clear, practical and easy to use it was.

Hobbits, Elves and Wizards is a broad over-view of the Lord of the Rings. In it, Stanton goes over the trilogy, and analyses the patterns in Tolkien's writing, historical relevence, Tolkien's life, and his writing.
The book is divided into two parts, and each cover different things. The first half covers the trilogy itself. There are six chapters, one for each of the books in the Lord of the Rings. In each chapter, he points out similarities between scenes, how the characters are progressing, and the geography.
The second half covers the races of Middle Earth, Languges, and Good and Evil, and how they play a role in the story.

Overall, this is a fairly good read, if you are not a die-hard Tolkien fan. Stanton was a UVM (University of Vermont) professor, and taught LOTR for a long time. This is his reactions and conclusions from the books, presented in a book form. It reads like he's there talking in front of you.
But if you are familiar with the Lord of the Rings, this book will just be a reiteration of what you can get out of the books yourself.
The only gripes I had about the book are the signifagance of the Gray Havens, for I would have liked to know more, The Hobbit. This book does not cover it, but it would be good to see in included. Some of Stanton's conclusions are a little off. At one point in the trilogy, Gollum is fantasizing at taking over the world, while Stanton says that he is not ambitious. He could have explained that more.
Also, the hardcover edition was released before the Fellowship of the Ring movie was released. The paperback version has his own comments on the movie, but not in the hardcover.

Even for Tolkien or Lord of the Rings fans, this in a good read about the style and writings of Tolkien.

Informative for the novice only. If you've read LOTR more than twice, pass on this, as you likely will learn little.

This book comes across as the ultimate college English term paper on Tolkien: all the basic lit-class analysis you could possibly want. Prof. Stanton has been teaching Tolkien to undergraduates for many years, and the voice of this book is that of the competent but uninspired freshman-lit teacher, analytically keen but prone to overgeneralization, and hazier than he thinks in his grasp of the facts in a complex novel.
Normally I'd be the last person to object to intelligent scholarly analysis. But this well-meaning book shows the harm it can do. Stanton is so diligent in ferreting out the subtlest threads and connections from =LotR= and laying them out clearly that he sucks all the life out of them, leaving them drab and dead on the page, and denying readers the joy and the vividness of discovering them for themselves.
Stanton makes several good points, and has observed many obscure connections and even loose ends in =LotR=, but that doesn't keep him from stating questionable facts, often through overgeneralization, or highly doubtful interpretations, on almost every page. A good example is his statement that mellifluous languages are spoken by good people and harsh, guttural languages are spoken by bad people. This claim is usually made with the intent (which is not Stanton's) of denigrating Tolkien, and it's not true anyway (what about Dwarvish?).
This book, despite its good points, should on no account be read by anyone who's just finished =LotR= for the first or even second time, and the true newcomer shouldn't even glance in its direction. It should only be read by those with a deep experience and knowledge of =LotR=, who won't be spoiled by it but might still learn something; and, perhaps, by English lit students desperate for term paper topics the night before the deadline.

Author J.E.A. Tyler's goal in this book is unclear. As a book to read for fun, it's not bad: it is mostly written in a flowery historical style somewhat similar to Tolkien's own histories. However, as a source of information on Tolkien's Middle-earth, it is downright bad; almost every Tolkien "expert" I've seen agrees on that.

Tyler's book has two real problems. First, he does a very poor job of distinguishing between facts from Tolkien's writings and his own extrapolations. Second, his research itself is rather poor, as can be seen even from the sample pages provided here. A classic example is the entry for "Adan, Edain": his translation "Father-of-Man" is wrong ("Edain" literally means "The Second People"), his discussion of the Three Houses says nothing of the Haladin (who in any case did not have "much to do with Dwarves"), and many of his other statements in the entry are incorrect or misleading as well.

A far better reference for information on Tolkien's world is Robert Foster's _Complete Guide to Middle-earth_. It's not as fun to read, but it's very reliable and includes page references to the source material. Better still, read Tolkien's own books, such as _Unfinished Tales_.

...I am a really big Lord of the Rings fan. I have read all the books! And the Tokien companion just caught my eye. Well I bought it and this book is like a dictonary of the whole Lord of the rings. It is great, it has almost everything, all except a few elvish words, which are hard to get. But other than that it is a great book!

Wow! I just got this book, and I'd have to say it's pretty amazing. I have hardly found anything to be missing, and have enjoyed reading the articles. The entries are detailed, but no so much that you can't find important information. The only thing I haven't found in this book is translation of some Elvish words, but that can often be difficult, and I see why some terms aren't translated - but many are, that's very handy. Several maps and illustrations are scattered throughout the book. It's also a good read, just for flipping through the pages and poking around.

If you're into Tolkien even a little, and you know how confusing come parts of the books can be, with references to obscure places (e.g. the Tower of Pearl mentioned in another review), you should definitely take a look at this reference.

i tried and TRIED to get interested in this book but to no avail. could not hold my interest. too shallow.

This book follows along with the storyline of the Lord of the Rings and is helpful in pointing out both + and - virtues within characters and/or their development of those characteristics. It might be esp. helpful to those who want to teach the books in a scholastic setting, including home schooling, so that children can see virtue in action. I would recommend it also for the person who simply wants to enjoy the epic more and see some of the thematic elements he/she might be missing.

This is quite light reading; it isn't a major philosophical treatise. However, even with that being true, it draws the readers' attention to choices made by characters in novels, to choices that people may need to make in their own lives, (and these are realistically balanced against frequent occurrence in day-to-day life), and virtues that Tolkien included in his novels. The Lord of the Rings is considered sensu lato, (including the Hobbit). Some of these virtues may even have been included by Tolkien unconsciously, but this is a useful perspective on virtue.

While eye-filling and fairly comprehensive, David Day's work is not a reliable guide to the intricately detailed world of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth novels. Day is entirely subjective, interposing his own interpretations and additions onto Tolkien's text. Tolkien's fans, who tend to have their own strongly-held opinions about such things, will most likely be annoyed, offended, or outraged. Fan fiction has its place, but not when it is marketed as a faithful representation of the original.

With "The fellowship of the Ring" motion picture coming up, I became interested again in Tolkiens wholly self-invented mythology. Strolling through my local bookshop one day, my eye was caught by a beautiful painting of Smaug attacking Lake Town. This painting turned out to be the cover of a beautifully illustrated and quite complete encyclopedia of Tolkiens World.

For me, the buying of this book turned out to be the starting point of a massive inquiry in Tolkiens world which I have far from ended today. And even after all that supplementary reading The Illustrated Encyclopaedia remains today one of my favorite books.

However. Getting nowadays more at home in Tolkiens mythology I am beginning to see the wholes in the text. I'm not saying that the "Encyclopaedia" errs, but I do believe that if the author had taken his research even further it would have turned out to be an even better, if not brilliant book. I give two examples.

First, the books chapters are about history, geography, sociology, natural history and biografies. Why not add a chapter about important objects, discussing for example the Rings of Power and/or the various magical swords wielded by the great heroes of Middle Earth? Such a chapter, I am sure, would prove very interesting. But by letting this stuff out, people are left with an alltogether beautiful, but essentially incomplete encyclopaedia.

Second, when one takes into consideration the subjects that did make the book, it is all to obvious that some of the information that should have been there was simply left out. Considering the history of Arda, for example, I was astonished to find no reference at all regarding the Dagor Dagorath, the final battle of the Gods, when Morgoth the Dark Enemy returns and Arda will be laid to waste...

My final word on the subject : I love this book, but what if...

I felt this is a must have for any fan of the series of books that JRR Tolkien has wrote, its just purely amazing how much actual history is behind the series. I have owned the book for two months and still have not read all of it, the art is great to look at and yes it may seem off from what the characters look today but its still a feast for the eyes, if your a casual fan of the series this is not the book for you, you will get lost in all the history of the books. But if your a fan and wish to learn more about middle earth, this is a book for you as it will open your eyes to the first three ages of middle earth. Great to have and own.