Description: Recent polls have consistently declared that J.R.R. Tolkien is "the most influential author of the century" and The Lord of the Rings is "the book of the century". The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have said something important and meant something important to a high proportion of their many millions of readers. Is it something timeless? Is it something contemporary? Or is it both at once?

Now the respected academic and world-renowned Tolkien scholar Professor Tom Shippey presents us with a fascinating companion to the major works of J.R.R. Tolkien. He gives us a penetrating critical analysis that places Tolkien firmly in the great traditions of twentieth-century literature, alongside such members of the canon as James Joyce, George Orwell, William Golding, Thomas Pynchon, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The core of the book examines The Lord of the Rings as a linguistic and cultural map, a twisted web of story, and a reaction to the meaning of myth. Shippey sees Tolkien's work as "a deeply serious response to what will be seen in the end as the major issue of his century: the origin and nature of evil". Tolkien's ongoing appeal and popularity are far form accidental, Shippey argues, but are a distinct product of his professional authority as a linguist and philologist, his experiences as a combat veteran, and his sheer artistry.

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