Reviews

Lettres by Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter

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briandemarco_97's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

About as close to an autobiography as we shall ever get from Tolkien. Many more casual readers, simply interested in more information about his work, will be tempted to skip most of the letters and focus only on the ones where he discusses his writings. That's certainly a valid way of reading the book, but I think they will be missing out on a lot of interesting information.

If you are at all interested in the deeper, perhaps more philosophically inclined questions about Tolkien (who was he? Why did he write what he did and why did he write it the way that he did? Where did it all come from?), this book is an invaluable resource, a window into the mind of one of the most remarkable figures in 20th century literature

brocodywatson's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective slow-paced

5.0

rain_of_tacos's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

First time reading this type of book, and it’s very interesting. It can be a bit of a challenge to go through some letters, but overall it was a very insightful book and I enjoyed reading it

sherwoodreads's review against another edition

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One of my favorite rereads.

Not only does one catch a glimpse of Tolkien's personality, life, and times, but deep in this book are buried letter-essays that provide the kernels of his ideas "On Fairy Stories" and the poem Mythopoeisis.