J. R. R. Tolkien
A Biography
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J. R. R. Tolkien
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Narrated by:
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Roger May
About this listen
The original authorised biography, and the only one written by an author who actually met J. R. R. Tolkien.
In the 25 years since Tolkien’s death in September 1973, millions have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books.
Born in Bloemfontein in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood, brought up in near poverty and almost thwarted in adolescent romance. He served in the First World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost some of his closest friends, and returned to academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford.
Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while marking essay papers he found himself writing 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' - and worldwide renown awaited him.
Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien’s papers and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the 20th century's most cherished author.
©2018 Humphrey Carpenter (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedCritic Reviews
"One of the most interesting and readable biographies of a literary figure." (The Times)
"The story is rich and beautifully told." (Sunday Times)
"Absolutely fascinating." (Daily Mail)
What listeners say about J. R. R. Tolkien
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gabby Howse
- 24-09-2018
A Tolkien Admirer
As a Tolkien admirer, I loved listening to this Book. I'm now keen to listen to other works
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- CullBang
- 30-06-2024
A must read for any Tolkien fans or writers
Having recently finished another biography on both Tolkien & C.S. Lewis (see Review 22: The Hobbit, A Wardrobe and a Great War), it only felt right to finish this dusty tome I picked up from my favourite book dealer, 'The Little Lost Bookshop' in the Blue Mountains.
This book is based upon the diaries, letters, papers and sketches of the late Professor Tolkien, the creator of The Hobbit, LOTR - Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth, along with memories and anecdotes from his friends and family.
What's interesting is Tolkien himself did not entirely approve of biographies. Or better said, he disliked it as a form of critiquing one's work "One of my strongest opinions," he once said, "Is that investigation of an author’s biography is an entirely vain and false approach to his works." Nonetheless, he was absolutely aware of the incredible influence his books have made on the world and thus made it highly likely that a biography would indeed follow after his death.
And what's more, it seems he made some preparations for future biographers in the last years of his life with annotated number of papers and lettters with comments and explanatory notes. He also wrote several pages on his childhood and fond memories he had in his youth. Thus Humphrey used these in hopes it would not be entirely foreign to his wishes.
Our biographer has tried to tell the story of Tolkien's luminous career without injecting any critique on his literary style or works of fiction. This is partly in deference to his aforementioned stance but furthermore a biography itself is not the medium to make such judgements, which will just reflect the character of the critic rather than the person one is writing about.
What Humphrey does well is painting the picture of a complex man in his simple county home, delineating some of the influences, literary and otherwise that came to bear on this giant's imagination, in the hopes the reader will have further light shed on his books.
Many would be surprised to learn that Tolkien was a Professor in Thelology or The Study of Language, and he created his books as a way to compliment the languages he created from scratch RE elvish.
One of my favourite parts of the book is the 2nd page, where our biographer meets Tolkien in his home office "The shelves are crammed with dictionaries, works on etymology and philology, and editions of texts in many languages, predominant among which are Old and Middle English and Old Norse; but there is also a section devoted to translations of The Lord of the Rings into Polish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Japanese; and the map of his invented ‘Middle-earth’ is pinned to the window-ledge."
What's more, he describes the way the man spoke, in short quick bursts as if his speech couldn't keep up with the ideas in his mind, and would often go on seemingly unrelated tangents only to deftly link them up later to an overall point.
A must read for anyone with a passion for fantasy fiction or aspiring writers interested in the creative process of great authors. What I'm always facinated by, is that a universe as rich as Middle Earth was created by a man who lived a quiet middle class English life which further adds weight to the old cliche, never judge a book by it's cover.
Happy reading all!
CPH
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 20-11-2024
Excellent
An engaging and fascinating portrait of the greatest author of all time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed Tolkien's works (which should be everybody). After reading this book, there a number of other works that can take you into Tolkien's creative life in more detail, and that of the Inklings more broadly.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Viranga
- 21-09-2022
Surprisingly ordinary, yet satisfyingly informative
As the biographer said, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion are the true biography. I learned too much about one of my favourite authors. A man with an extraordinary imagination was very much a typical man of his times. Edith Bratt had given up much of her identity to please Ronald Tolkien. It's difficult to view their lives through a modern lens.
Both biographer and voice actor seem competent, although it's possible that the biographer is skewing my perception.
My real rating is 3.5 stars. A 3-star review would have been unfair; a 4-star review hides some of my disappointment.
Later in the narrative, I started liking Ronald Tolkien more.
The best parts of the biography deal with Tolkien's perfectionism and procrastination ... and his publishers.
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