Lord of the Rings 1-3 Trilogy Box Set JRR Tolkien Hardcover with foldout maps

The Lord of the Rings, J. Tolkien's three-volume epic, is set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth - home to many strange beings, and most notably hobbits, a peace-loving little people, cheerful and shy. Since its original British publication in 1954-55, the saga has entranced readers of all ages. It is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale. Critic Michael Straight has hailed it as one of the very few works of genius in recent literature. Middle-earth is a world receptive to poets, scholars, children, and all other people of good will. Donald Barr has described it as a scrubbed morning world, and a ringing nightmare world... Especially sunlit, and shadowed by perils very fundamental, of a peculiarly uncompounded darkness. The story of ths world is one of high and heroic adventure. Barr compared it to Beowulf, C. Lewis to Orlando Furioso, W.

Auden to The Thirty-nine Steps. In fact the saga is sui generis - a triumph of imagination which springs to life within its own framework and on its own terms.