Neil David Isaacs

As a time capsule, this book is amazing.

This essay collection was published in 1968 -- before the appearance of The Silmarillion, or the History of Middle-Earth, or any of the Tolkien biographies. So there is a lot the essayists don't know. This results in a lot of speculations which proved dead wrong.

On the other hand, the essayists themselves are quite distinguished, including men such as C. S. Lewis and W. H. Auden who knew and truly understood Tolkien the man. In some ways, that makes show more their contributions far more valuable than more recent "criticism." And, because the Tolkien phenomenon was (relatively speaking) just beginning, the level of worship in this book isn't as great as it came to be in later volumes.

So some of the work here, such as Auden's "The Quest Hero," is both inspiring and insightful. Some, such as Burton Raffel's "The Lord of the Rings as Literature (which denies that this, the greatest of modern romances, is literature), is utterly wrong-headed. (Unless Chaucer's Knight's Tale and Franklin's Tale aren't literature, either, since they're romances, too.) Some parts, with their investigation of language or folklore, stand up; some do not. It is just what you would expect for a collection moving up toward the half century mark. Still, if you are a serious collector of Tolkien criticism, there are things you will find useful -- and if you are new to Tolkien, it will give you some idea of how people felt about him at the time when he was still alive and able to frown on their more obvious mistakes.... show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2289084.html

A very interesting collection of essays about Tolkien, of which the two standout pieces are "Men, Halflings, and Hero Worship" by Marion Zimmer Bradley, about love and heroism and how they apply to LotR, and "The Road Back to Middle-earth" by Tom Shippey, unlike the others specially commissioned for this volume, describing in detail the differences between the three Peter Jackson films and the books, and analysing why those choices were made. The show more pieces by C.S. Lewis and W.H. Auden, and Patrick Grants reflection on Tolkien and Jung, are pretty good too. Some of the others have been slightly overtaken by events, specifically by the publication of The Silmarillion and the History of Middle Earth series. But it's well worth getting hold of for Bradley, Shippey, Lewis, Auden and Grant. show less

Fifteen people tried their hands at criticizing Tolkien's book, Isaacs and Lombardo gathered the essays. J.R.R. 's books still sell well, so I guess the defence was worthy.

Returning this to the library for now. I'm enjoying it...I'm just not actually getting anywhere, and I have far too many books checked out anyway. I shall probably go back to it sooner or later.