Tolkien Studies, Volume 1

Rating:
Summary: pricey, but worth it
Review: More excellent scholarship from all the "usual suspects." The only name I didn't know from the Contents list was Olga Markova, and although her piece was specialized from a Russian perspective, I still found it highly interesting. For the rest, required reading for any serious student of Tolkien. All the articles are well written and mostly free of the liberal arts academic jargon that in my humble opinion cripples so much of university-published literary studies today. I especially enjoyed "Tolkien's Prose Style" by Michael Drout, "Identifying England's Lonnrot," by Anne Petty, and "Do the Atlantis Story," by Verlyn Flieger.

The volume is costly, but when you have it in your hands you will see why. It is beautifully printed and bound, and probably because is a university publication the press run isn't large, thus the expensive per-book price. Still and all, any serious student of Tolkien will want to own this work, and likely the others in the series that come afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: For the serious student
Review: This book is a collection of studies by several different authors on various aspects of Tolkien's work. It covers territory beyond The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. For full appreciation of this collection, a knowledge of The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers (found in Sauron's Defeat) from the History of Middle-earth series are necessary, at the very least. Familiarity with the terminology of grammar and linguistics is helpful. There are references to King Lear, Sir Orfeo, and the Finnish Kalevala. Non English quotations are well glossed. This book is for the serious student of Tolkien's writing style. In spite of its challenges, I found it fascinating and finished all except the Sir Orfeo chapter on the day that I received the book. The 4 star rating reflects the degree to which this is a specialist's book.