Product Description

The Fellowship of the Ring, part one of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece, first reached these shores on October 21, 1954, arriving, as C. S. Lewis proclaimed, "like lightning from a clear sky." Fifty years and nearly one hundred million American readers later comes a beautiful new one-volume collector's edition befitting the stature of this crown jewel of our list. With a text fully corrected under the supervision of Christopher Tolkien to meet the author's exacting wishes, two large-format fold-out maps, a ribbon placemarker, gilded page edges, a color insert depicting Tolkien's own paintings of the Book of Mazarbul and exceptionally elegant and sturdy overall packaging housed within an attractive slipcase, this edition is the finest we've ever produced.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1493 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-21
• Released on: 2004-10-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Leather Bound
• 1184 pages

Review
"A work of immense narrative power that can sweep the reader up and hold him enthralled for days and weeks." (The Nation )

"J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy remains the ultimate quest, the ultimate battle between good and evil, the ultimate chronicle of stewardship of the earth. Endlessly imitated, it has never been surpassed." (Kansas City Star )

"A remarkable book" (Newsweek )

"One of the great fairy-tale quests in modern literature" (Time Magazine )

"A sustained feat of imagination that has entranced millions" (The Chicago Tribune )

"Tolkien's stories take place against a background of measureless depth…That background is ever-present in the creator's mind and it gives Frodo and company a three-dimensional reality that is seldom found in this kind of writing." (The Washington Post )

About the Author
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but even as he studied these classics he was creating a set of his own.

Customer Reviews

The story is a long tale, mostly very good
"The Lord of the Rings" is an epic fantasy of magic and a battle between the forces of evil and those of good. It is a long tale, in three parts, and it is mostly good. However, there are portions in parts two and three that are somewhat boring. Part three is .. I guess the best word is: dark. This is not some cute tale for young children. This is a myth-like, complicated, story for adults.

You see: Bilbo, the Hobbit brought a ring back from his adventure, many years ago. Now, Gandolf finds that "Bilbo's ring" is one of a set of rings and is magically very powerful. Gandolf decides that it must be destroyed. But, there is only one way to destroy it and a long and dangerous journey will be necessary. For the next several hundred pages we trek through that difficult journey.

I am glad that I read the story. It is quite good. However, the tendency to drag along, more and more slowly as the story moves on, is not a plus.

While this printing is reasonably nice, the price seems steep for what the customer gets.

Buy it. Read it. I enjoyed it.

Ripped map corners
This book is so great. I'm just about at the end and haven't found the first typo. The leather cover looks fantastic and comes with a protective box and a ribbon place marker. The only reason I didn't give it a perfect score is because both the maps ripped a tiny little bit when I tried to open them, even though I was very careful. Other than that though, it's great, and should last for many years.

Very nice edition to have
This review is only about the `50th anniversary edition' and not about the master work of J.R.R.Tolkien.

I don't see any issues with the quality of the book. Like few other reviewers mentioned, the folded map is glued together and you need to take little care while viewing it for the first time without damage. That is not an issue or a reason to give this excellent edition a poor rating. Most of the deluxe editions won't be friendly to read due to unusual size and weight. People buy them because they adore the content and feel proud to have them in their bookshelves. I find this book very comfortable to read also. The paper quality is awesome, very smooth and silky and gives a very nice feeling when you read.

The UK edition of this book from Harper Collins appears to be of superior quality but the price is 150% more then this US edition. I personally like the US edition more due to the more flexible paper used which enables a better reading. Also UK edition don't' come with maps and also no red color font used.

If you want to experience reading `Lord of the Rings' never like before, then don't think again, go for this edition even if you already have other editions with you.