The definitive Tolkien biography. Great book. ( )

A brilliant, absorbing, and detailed look at Tolkien's life with of course most emphasis on his life during World War One. A must read for anyone interested in the background of the man behind Middle-earth. ( )

Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Tolkien as an artist. ( )

This isn't a complete biography of Tolkien but instead a detailed account of the careers of Tolkien and his three closest friends, collectively "the TCBSites" during WWI which goes on to discuss how the war affected Tolkien's creative output, making a convincing case that it is here, rather than in WWII we should look for the influence of real events on Lord of the Rings and other works by the most influential figure in 20th Century fantasy literature. Tolkien's childhood and school days are recounted in fair detail but his post-WWI life is treated in the most cursory fashion. This really is what the title suggests it is. The excruciatingly detailed account of WWI got me, dare I say it? - bogged down in the middle but over-all this is a good, readable book that acheives its aims. The "Postscript" looking at Tolkien's work as and in relation to other literary responses to WWI offered an interesting new perspective to me regarding Tolkien's motives, influences and aims and the descriptions of the basic principles of comparative philology added understanding of how and why language and legend were so intertwined in Tolkien's mind. Fans of Tolkien with an interest in the man, motives and influences behind the stories should read this. ( )

I got hold of a copy of this after seeing the recent Tolkien biopic -- for which it was obviously the principal source. Its main interest is as an exhaustive group portrait of Tolkien and his three friends in the "TCBS." Unfortunately Tolkien's wife Edith remains as faceless within its pages as in the Humphrey Carpenter biography. The charming and intelligent person played by Lily Collins in the movie was apparently made up of whole cloth by the screenwriters, and an excellent job they made of her.

As a Tolkienist whose interest is pretty severely restricted to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the book was not much help to me (through no fault of the author's). Tolkien's experiences in the War were certainly crucial to his work, but the influences ran underground for many years before they surfaced. The worst fault of the movie, to my mind, was that it drew thick lines with a grease pencil that do not stand up to analysis. Take the heavy thud with which the word "Fellowship" is plunked down. In the book the word "Fellowship" does not even occur until quite late in Book II (of six). The phrase "the Fellowship of the Ring" appears exactly once, and not until the "Many Partings" chapter (Aragorn says it). It never occurred to Tolkien that it should be the title of Volume One, because in his mind there wasn't a Volume One until the publishers convinced him that breaking the book into three was commercially expedient.