Lot 271
  • 271

Tolkien, J.R.R.

Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Tolkien, J.R.R.
  • [Lord of the Rings Trilogy] —The Fellowship of the Ring. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1954 — The Two Towers. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1955 — The Return of the King. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1955
  • paper
All 8vo. Publisher's red cloth, red topstain; some very light offsetting to endpapers. Original white, red, black and gold dust-jackets; light rubbing along jacket folks and front panels, very minor fading to spines as usual.

Literature

West A20-22

Catalogue Note

While serving in the trenches in WWI, Tolkien conceived of these tales set in a “secondary World,” for consolation and pleasure; they developed over a period of forty years into an epic narrative. 

In his essay “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien spells out his purpose in writing about an imaginary world: The peculiar quality of the “joy” in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a “consolation” for sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, “Is it true?” The answer to this question that I gave at first was (quite rightly): “If you have built your little world well, yes: it is true in that world.”