Tolkien, J.R.R. | The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, uniformly and handsomely bound

Tolkien, J.R.R. 

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, uniformly and handsomely bound

Lot includes:

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. All 8vo (135 x 219 mm). Half-titles, The Fellowship of the Ring signed by Tolkien, folding maps printed in red and black tipped in at end; minor toning, one or two stray spots. Modern full green crushed morocco, covers with gilt rules, spines with raised bands in six compartments, second and third with gilt-lettered brown morocco labels, others with repeat gilt rules and cornerpieces, topstained burgundy, marbled endpapers; minor scuffs or indentations to upper cover of The Two Towers, some spotting to fore-edges.  

First editions, first printings, signed by Tolkien on the general half-title of The Fellowship of the Ring

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.

The Lord of the Rings has been read as an allegory for multiple good-versus-evil conflicts: post-World War I and the rise of Hitler; Christian myth; even the environment, with the Dead Marshes reflecting Tolkien’s despair over the desolation wreaked by military technology.

The greatest work of modern fantasy.

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West A20-22