Overview

No writer has surpassed the epic achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien, who spent decades refining his world of Middle-earth-a world that has felt so real to so many readers that it is almost impossible to imagine that anyone could have created it, seemingly out of thin air. In The Tower and the Ruin, Michael D. C. Drout explores Tolkien's genius, allowing us to glimpse the making of every work from The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion to lesser-known books such as The Fall of Gondolin as well as his poetry. We see how Tolkien invented myths, legends, cultures, languages, histories, and an intricate, multivocal narrative. We come to understand how, early on, Tolkien drew upon and modified material he found in Beowulf, the Kalevala, and other medieval literature from Northern Europe, and how he later developed the complex form of sorrow that is the primary theme of his mature works. Sweeping and hugely perceptive-and enhanced throughout by Drout's personal reflections as a dedicated reader of Tolkien since childhood-The Tower and the Ruin illuminates Tolkien anew.

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9781324093886

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Reviews

In The Tower and The Ruin Michael Drout has given us a rare, brave work at the crossroads of scholarship and memoir, where the tales we read and the tales we are in really do meet.--Tom Hillman, author of Pity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring Michael Drout 's The Tower and the Ruin combines his reader's journey through the major works of Tolkien with his personal journey as the son of a reading father and the reading father of a son. The result is an erudite and insightful discussion that shines new light on old stories.--Verlyn Flieger, author of Splintered Light Michael Drout's The Tower and the Ruin is a splendid and original combination of sharp analysis and deeply-felt emotional memoir. We know what makes Tolkien's fiction good, but what makes it qualitatively different, so that it feels like entering a world, not just reading another book? And what makes it such an effective resource for those experiencing grief and loss? Drout answers both questions, powerfully, personally, convincingly. He shows how, more than any other work, The Lord of the Rings is not just a story. It's a life-changer.--Tom Shippey, author of The Road to Middle-Earth

Author Information

Michael D.C. Drout is a professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College. He specializes in Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature, science fiction and fantasy, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin, and is the author of How Tradition Works and Drout’s Quick and Easy Old English, among others. He lives in Dedham, Massachusetts.

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