TOLKIEN AND THE GREAT WAR

奇幻文學經典大作《魔戒》系列作者、傳奇文壇大師托爾金，自1977年後唯一問世的傳記！

中土世界的靈感來源來自戰爭時期？

自托爾金戰時的手札和其他豐富的資訊精粹而成的這本傳記，首次告訴讀者托爾金的戰時故事，也包括如何度過戰爭時期、以及戰爭對他造成了什麼影響。

托爾金在第一次世界大戰中的索姆河戰役擔任信號官，在戰爭的期間，他所體驗的恐懼和所見的英雄主義、失去好友的傷痛，在這本傳記中都可詳知一二。

作者John Garth認為托爾金在一戰中的經驗，是建構《魔戒》小說中「中土世界」的基礎，他使用驚人想像力的目的並不是為了要逃離現實，而是反映、轉變他生長的年代中的殘忍，他所創造的中土世界至今都還能透過《魔戒》系列的作品，引起偌大的迴響。

* TOLKIEN * Now a major motion picture *

Acclaimed as ‘the best book about Tolkien’, this award-winning biography explores J.R.R. Tolkien’s wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

“To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 … by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.”

So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War. Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life. It shows how, after two of these brilliant young men were killed, Tolkien pursued the dream they had all shared by launching his epic of good and evil.

John Garth argues that the foundation of tragic experience in the First World War is the key to Middle-earth’s enduring power. Tolkien used his mythic imagination not to escape from reality but to reflect and transform the cataclysm of his generatuion. While his contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day.

This is the first substantially new biography of Tolkien since 1977, meticulously researched and distilled from his personal wartime papers and a multitude of other sources.