Mark Horne

[Book received from publisher for review, through BookSneeze]
[Review originally published at my blog: AWordsWorth.blogspot.com]

As a lover of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, I know very little about the author - and looked forward to the introduction offered by a Christian Encounters biography. Horne does a wonderful job of breaking Tolkien's life into manageable chapters, and corresponding them with Tolkienesque chapter titles that made my inner geek smile. Beginning at the very beginning, show more Horne looks at Tolkien's life from a dual-perspective: how it impacted the man, and how it influenced the writing. Drawing from previously written, more extensive biographies as well as Tolkien's letters and writings, Horne creates a biography that is condensed without feeling lacking - an enjoyable read, but also substantive. And, of course, there's attention paid to Tolkien's faith and its role.

The writing of the biography is such that I am led from chapter to chapter - not just in the text, but in Tolkien's life as well. Spanning cultural and political changes (Tolkien 'came of age' during WWI, losing all but one of his closest friends), it's interesting to look at how his life experiences may have shaped his writing -- and I'm a literature major who hates to superimpose meaning on texts! In this instance, there's a compelling case. With this informative, though necessarily brief, introduction to the personal story of one of my favorite authors, I now feel compelled to track down some more in-depth information -- and I'm probably starting with Horne's own bibliography! show less

J. R. R. Tolkien's fame seems strangely limitless. His limited published output of only one children's book, one three-part adult book, and a few scholarly works during his lifetime only add to the curiosity of his world-wide appeal. That is, at least, until you sit down and read The Lord of the Rings. Then it all makes sense.

Mark Horne has written a slender little book on Tolkien for Thomas Nelson's "Christian Encounters" series of biographies. This isn't a book of original research on the show more man; it's more a summary and overview of the work of other biographers such as Humphrey Carpenter and Leslie Ellen Jones. That's not a criticism. If you're looking to get a bit of a handle on this legend in a short amount of time, this is an excellent biography.

Horne explains what made Tolkien the man he was with clarity and incisiveness. Tolkien's early love for languages, his forbidden relationship with his future wife, and his struggle with losing friends in the great war mark his early years. As life moved along, his struggle to support his family coincided with his perfectionism and his inability to ever consider his work finished (this explains why The Silmarillion was never published in his own lifetime). His friendship with C. S. Lewis which degenerated over time is also telling.

I was most pleased by Horne's account of Tolkien's Christianity. Christianity was a way of life for Tolkien—it was more the substructure of his life than a passion. Horne doesn't try (in a "Christian Encounters" book) to turn Tolkien into someone he's not, or read Christianity into his works. He simply reveals Tolken for the man he was: a brilliant perfectionist who lived and loved like the rest of us.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free as a member of Thomas Nelson’s Booksneeze program. show less

** I received this book free from Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze program in exchange for an honest review.**

It seems everyone is familiar with the name J.R.R. Tolkien, especially after the most recent film productions of his work. Growing up, myself, to be familiar with Tolkien’s works (we even read The Hobbit in class in… eighth grade, I want to say…), it is rewarding to be able to get a closer glimpse at the man behind the works, at his life and how it shaped him, in turn shaping the show more books so many have come to love, which have themselves shaped the very face of literature, leaving a lasting impression on the genre that we still feel today.

And this book does an excellent job at giving us a basic look into the life of this great author. Shorter than a typical biography, it divides his life into various periods of time (for example, his childhood, his early schooling, “coming of age”, time in Oxford, the war, etc), and appears to give an overview of Tolkien’s life at the time, where he lived, issues that he faced at the time, important people in his life. We are revealed the struggles (like his almost inhabilitating perfectionism) and pains (deaths of his parents and friends) of this great man, no longer able to take for granted the work he left us without understanding and appreciating the person who gave them life.

Interesting, for me, was to see where various aspects of his life may have influenced his writing. Various locations or people, images he may have incorporated... I also thought it was clever how the author gave the various sections of the book titles like “Between the Shire and Mordor, Part One” and “Hobbits and Epic Heroism”.

This book is a great, quick, look into the life of one of the greatest authors mankind has ever known. It was an enjoyable read, and despite being a “Unitarian nonconformist”, as the author would probably call me, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the life of J.R.R. Tolkien. In fact, I’d love to get the chance to read any of the other books from the series. show less

I've never read any Tolkien, though my wife made me watch all the movies. Meh. But, I appreciate his impact on culture and society and his Christianity, even of the Catholic variety. As such, this is the short, informative biography I needed to know more about Tolkien and his work. It is short, informative, and just enough without going into excruciating in-universe detail. One of the better volumes in the Christian Encounters series.