Homepage
Uncategorized

THE LORD OF THE RINGS – A TRILOGY?

The Lord of The Rings is often erroneously called a trilogy, though it is not so. It is a single novel, consisting of six books plus appendices (important part) which is sometimes published in three volumes.

I know it is a masterpiece, but I will agree with myself when I shall complete reading it(only a few hundred pages are left, plus the indexes and appendices. They are also an important part of the book. I also like to daydream with those maps of The Middle Earth for few minutes). All the three volumes. No its a single novel.

All three volumes were published in just more than one year, in 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring, then in last months of 1954 the second volume got published, The Two Towers and the last volume with much of pain suffered by Tolkien in indexing and correcting the errors for the past two volumes, in 1955 came the third The Return of the King.

It is just not a masterpiece, it is ‘IT’ because it is well written and a lot of hard work had been done by the author himself to make it a masterpiece. The book has gone through many revised editions due to the errors, printer’s errors, publishers, compositor’s mistakes including dwarves(later corrected to dwarf), elvish(later corrected to elfish),further(later corrected to farhter), and worst of all to Tolkien, elven(later corrected to elfin). In a work such as The Lord Of the Rings, delicacy matters and delicacy is what binds the reader to the book not till he is reading, but for life long. Delicacy what makes a reader thinks that it is a certain masterpiece and thus delicacy comes from the peculiar Tolkien. If he hadn’t taken any pain in correcting those continual errors it would still had been a masterpiece, maybe, but not for the author.

A book which is lived and loved by its author, it is lived and loved by the reader.

A book which is lived and loved by its author, it is lived and loved by the reader.

And with this thought, Tolkien died in 1973. His third son, Christopher Tolkien, a literary executor, sent for additional corrections of misprints to the editors after his father’s death.

Rayner Unwin, who has been for much of his life Tolkien’s publisher, has reminisced that as a child he was told, “that University Presses would pay five pounds to anyone who detected a printer’s error in one of their authorized Bibles”. “I have never heard of anyone who earned this fortune, but I have often imagined an equivalent reward being offered three centuries after the first publication of The Lord of the Rings. It would take at least long to achieve typographical perfection.”

It may indeed.

============================================================================

For those who are interested in the gradual evolution of The Lord of the Rings must try reading Christopher Tolkien’s The History of the Middle Earth:The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring and Sauron Defeated.

View Comments

Sheila (Book Journey) says: June 19, 2012 at 1:41 AM I am fascinated with all things Middle Earth. Your post in enlightening and I thank you for the suggested book to learn more about it. I have a beautiful hard cover volume of Tolkiens works that I found at an auction that I have never read... but love to look at.

I am fascinated with all things Middle Earth. Your post in enlightening and I thank you for the suggested book to learn more about it. I have a beautiful hard cover volume of Tolkiens works that I found at an auction that I have never read... but love to look at.

Aman says: June 19, 2012 at 12:33 PM Sheila, you should try it.. Tolkien's world of Middle Earth is very fascinating and also try Christopher Tolkien's books on Middle Earth.. He has a very similar style and imagination as of his father :D

Sheila, you should try it.. Tolkien's world of Middle Earth is very fascinating and also try Christopher Tolkien's books on Middle Earth.. He has a very similar style and imagination as of his father :D

Announcing Facebook Page I am happy to announce that Confessions of a Readaholic has a Facebook Page. I…
I Took A Short Break From Everything As you might have failed to noticed, I took a short break from the blog.…
Interested in Advertising on this blog? Want to advertise on this blog? This blog provides two different variants for advertising your…

I am happy to announce that Confessions of a Readaholic has a Facebook Page. I…

As you might have failed to noticed, I took a short break from the blog.…

Want to advertise on this blog? This blog provides two different variants for advertising your…

BOOK REVIEW: Elephants in the Room by Suraj Laxminarayanan

What is a better crime fiction novel where a crime revolves around not the detective who tries to fit pieces…

Book Reviews
Books

BOOK REVIEW: Unforeseen by Chandan Sen Gupta

Cleverly woven plots are often a delight for me to read. There are many factors why I like these type…

Book Reviews
Books
Fiction

#BookReview: Dystopia by Manoj Jain

With a peculiar cover Manoj Jain, this is his 5th book release. I have read some of his work in the…

Books

#BookReview: Influencer by Brittany Hennessy

Brittany Hennessy does a great job on writing a book about that targets Instagram as the platform to promote your…

Book Reviews
Books
Non-Fiction

#BookReview: How To Earn $10,000 While Learning To Code by Rob Percival

Learning how to code is a common asset these days for the interested ones. As a full-time software engineer and…

blog
Blogging Tips
Books

Ten Day Book Blog Posts Challenge #1

One of the hardest thing about blogging is consistently writing and publish blog posts and for that, you have to…

THE LORD OF THE RINGS - A TRILOGY? - Confessions of a Readaholic