The Lord of the Rings

First Line:

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

Description:

THE LORD OF THE RINGS is regarded by many to be the most important and influential work of fantasy of the 20th century. It generated the fantasy novel industry practically single-handedly, inspiring a multitude of novels concerning elves and dwarves on quests to conquer ultimate evil despite overwhelming odds. Although THE LORD OF THE RINGS was originally published as a trilogy, here it is presented in a single volume, as Tolkien always intended. The Dark Lord Sauron, an utterly evil and powerful being, is stirring again after a long period of dormancy. He will soon dominate all of Middle-earth if he is not stopped. The key to Sauron's defeat is Frodo, nephew and heir to Bilbo Baggins--the hero of THE HOBBIT. The magic ring that Bilbo picked up on his adventures is in fact the One Ring, into which Sauron deposited much of his power. If the Ring is destroyed in the volcano at the heart of Sauron's realm of Mordor, Sauron too will be destroyed. Unfortunately, the longer someone bears the Ring, the stronger grows its ability to corrupt the bearer and those around him. Will Frodo be able to resist the seductive call of the Ring and complete the perilous journey to Mordor?

Selected Reviews:

"The first thing that one asks of an adventure story is that the adventure should be various and exciting; in this respect Mr. Tolkien's invention is unflagging, and, on the primitive level of wanting to know what happens next, 'The Fellowship of the Ring' is a least as good as 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'....Mr. Tolkien is fortunate in possessing an amazing gift for naming and a wonderfully exact eye for description....Lastly, if one is to take a tale of this kind seriously, one must feel that, however superficially unlike the world we live in its characters and events may be, it nevertheless holds up the mirror to the only nature we know, our own; in this, too, Mr Tolkien has succeeded superbly....No fiction I have read in the last five years has given me more joy than 'The Fellowship of the Ring.'"

--W. H. Auden, New York Times Book Review