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theseventhl's review against another edition
5.0
A brilliant, absorbing, and detailed look at Tolkien's life with of course most emphasis on his life during World War One. A must read for anyone interested in the background of the man behind Middle-earth.
minas_elessar's review against another edition
5.0
An insightful and interesting comprehensive look at Tolkien's life and the impact his experiences had on his creative work. This is essential for aspiring Tolkien scholars.
bones_jackson's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
3.0
O início da história é bem enrolado, focando demais na origem do interesse do Tolkien em filologia e o final parece um ctrl c ctrl v de silmarillion. O meio do livro, quando fala das experiências de Tolkien durante a guerra é muito interessante
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Death, Violence, and Grief
ilikemandos's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
Excellent biography, focused on the war years, though John Garth also does a good job of contextualising the 1914-1918 period and walking the reader (or listener— the audiobook is very well produced, read by the author himself!) through Tolkien’s creation and the history of Middle-Earth, as it relates to Tolkien’s life.
ancexx's review against another edition
4.0
Karš, miers un viena dzīve.
Tolkīns zaudē draugus, zaudē jaunības naivumu, atrod veiksmi, lielo laimestu - pārnākt mājās no elles. Karš ir tikai apstāklis viņa radošajā ceļā, īstais pamats ir T.C.B.S., Tea Club and Barrovian Society, tāda draudzība, kas dzen uz priekšu, izaicina, norāda uz talantiem, neļauj tos atstāt novārtā. Skarbākie kritiķi un jūsmīgākie Tolkīna pirmie lasītāji bija šie zēni, bez kuriem mums nebūtu vērušies vārti uz fantāzijas pasaulēm. Izstaigāt līdzi viņiem visiem šo ceļu no skolas sola līdz Viduszemei bija liels prieks.
Tolkīns zaudē draugus, zaudē jaunības naivumu, atrod veiksmi, lielo laimestu - pārnākt mājās no elles. Karš ir tikai apstāklis viņa radošajā ceļā, īstais pamats ir T.C.B.S., Tea Club and Barrovian Society, tāda draudzība, kas dzen uz priekšu, izaicina, norāda uz talantiem, neļauj tos atstāt novārtā. Skarbākie kritiķi un jūsmīgākie Tolkīna pirmie lasītāji bija šie zēni, bez kuriem mums nebūtu vērušies vārti uz fantāzijas pasaulēm. Izstaigāt līdzi viņiem visiem šo ceļu no skolas sola līdz Viduszemei bija liels prieks.
tsharris's review against another edition
3.0
In the end, pretty disappointing. The chapters on his early life were informative, but Garth basically leaves the most interesting question unanswered save for a brief postscript, namely how did Tolkein's wartime experiences affect the stories he told? The wartime chapters were almost painfully boring, mostly just an account of where he was when.
ashkitty93's review against another edition
4.0
A bit dry in spots, and where it took its time early on, things felt rushed by the end. The postscript is sheer brilliance, however, to the point that it gained a fourth star all on its own. Read very well by the author.
neilrcoulter's review against another edition
5.0
I read Tolkien and the Great War as part of a group read with the Tolkien group on Goodreads, and I'm so glad I did. I've read a lot of books about Tolkien, and this is one of the very best. Garth delves into the biographical details of Tolkien's youth and young adulthood, looking especially at Tolkien's friendship with three other schoolmates: G. B. Smith, Rob Gilson, and Christopher Wiseman. Together, these four formed the Tea Club and Barrovian Society (TCBS), a brotherhood dedicated to rekindling the enchantment of the world through their creative output (especially prose and poetry). The TCBS began as a group for conversation and clever pranks, but as these four men grew up together the TCBS became a refuge, a place of hope in the midst of a world at war. All four members eventually enlisted and served in the Great War, and as the grueling tedium and horror of trench warfare (and naval warfare, in Wiseman's case) took their toll, the men's letters to one another display a poignant yearning for even a brief time togehter, that the hope of the TCBS might enable them to endure through the war and dream of a better world after.
Gilson and Smith died in the war, which effectively ended the TCBS. Wiseman became a school headmaster, and Tolkien . . . well, of course we know what he did after the war. This story is significant because it was during these years that Tolkien began creating the Elvish languages and the history that goes with them. The encouragement of the other TCBS members helped give Tolkien the motivation to pursue his poetry and prose, and the dreams he shared with the TCBS--that beauty in writing might re-enchant the world, opening people's eyes to the "faerie" all around us--obviously resonated within him for the rest of his life.
John Garth's telling of this story is even and well reasoned. He presents the details as he has put them together, drawing from letters, wartime documents, other literature of the time, and other scholarship on Tolkien. There is surely a temptation for the biographer to make many presumptions, drawing connections between Tolkien's life experiences and his writings, and much of this would seem reasonable. However, Garth generally restricts himself to simply presenting the facts, and the book is stronger because of this. Throughout the book, he suggests that Tolkien's experiences may possibly be visible here and there in his fiction, only rarely in an obvious or direct way, but he respects Tolkien's own disdain for bringing the author's biography into his works.
For me the most fascinating parts of Tolkien and the Great War are Garth's Epilogue and Postscript, which are really distinct essays considering Tolkien's work as a whole, from a critical standpoint. Garth shares some wonderful insights into Middle-Earth: for example, the interesting parallel between Melkor's destruction of the Two Trees, using the shadowy cover of Ungoliant, and Beren's theft of the Silmaril, using the shadowy cover of Luthien's enchantment. How many times have I read The Silmarillion and yet not made that connection! Probably the greatest part of Garth's book is the Postscript, in which he defends Tolkien's writing against the attacks of critics, showing how Tolkien's archaic, seemingly backward-looking epic-creating is every bit as valid and appropriate a response to World War I as the trench memoir and poetry of disillusionment and disenchantment. Garth proposes that the literature of disillusionment in the decade following the war in many ways hijacked the actual feelings of the returning soldiers, giving the war in hindsight an emotional color that might not be entirely accurate. Tolkien, in contrast, created a literature that acknowledges the horrors and confusion, while still affirming that every act of heroism and bravery is valuable in itself, regardless whether the ultimate outcome seems to make any sense. The Beren/Luthien and Turin stories act as pictures of two ends of a spectrum of understanding war. In the story of Beren and Luthien, heroism and bravery result in victory, as well as the maturity of the heroic characters (though even in that story, the ending is tainted by the evils of war, greed, and selfishness). In Turin's story, the hero is ennobled through his dogged pursuit of justice and righteousness, even though he is also often rash and his decisions are fated to go awry to the very end; but the confusion and darkness that results from the hero's actions don't make his actions the less noble.
Garth's Postscript ought to be required reading for any Tolkien fan, and I highly recommend the whole book especially for readers who have spent some time with The Book of Lost Tales, the History of Middle-Earth series, or even just The Silmarillion. Tolkien and the Great War is simply a fantastic Tolkien book.
Gilson and Smith died in the war, which effectively ended the TCBS. Wiseman became a school headmaster, and Tolkien . . . well, of course we know what he did after the war. This story is significant because it was during these years that Tolkien began creating the Elvish languages and the history that goes with them. The encouragement of the other TCBS members helped give Tolkien the motivation to pursue his poetry and prose, and the dreams he shared with the TCBS--that beauty in writing might re-enchant the world, opening people's eyes to the "faerie" all around us--obviously resonated within him for the rest of his life.
John Garth's telling of this story is even and well reasoned. He presents the details as he has put them together, drawing from letters, wartime documents, other literature of the time, and other scholarship on Tolkien. There is surely a temptation for the biographer to make many presumptions, drawing connections between Tolkien's life experiences and his writings, and much of this would seem reasonable. However, Garth generally restricts himself to simply presenting the facts, and the book is stronger because of this. Throughout the book, he suggests that Tolkien's experiences may possibly be visible here and there in his fiction, only rarely in an obvious or direct way, but he respects Tolkien's own disdain for bringing the author's biography into his works.
For me the most fascinating parts of Tolkien and the Great War are Garth's Epilogue and Postscript, which are really distinct essays considering Tolkien's work as a whole, from a critical standpoint. Garth shares some wonderful insights into Middle-Earth: for example, the interesting parallel between Melkor's destruction of the Two Trees, using the shadowy cover of Ungoliant, and Beren's theft of the Silmaril, using the shadowy cover of Luthien's enchantment. How many times have I read The Silmarillion and yet not made that connection! Probably the greatest part of Garth's book is the Postscript, in which he defends Tolkien's writing against the attacks of critics, showing how Tolkien's archaic, seemingly backward-looking epic-creating is every bit as valid and appropriate a response to World War I as the trench memoir and poetry of disillusionment and disenchantment. Garth proposes that the literature of disillusionment in the decade following the war in many ways hijacked the actual feelings of the returning soldiers, giving the war in hindsight an emotional color that might not be entirely accurate. Tolkien, in contrast, created a literature that acknowledges the horrors and confusion, while still affirming that every act of heroism and bravery is valuable in itself, regardless whether the ultimate outcome seems to make any sense. The Beren/Luthien and Turin stories act as pictures of two ends of a spectrum of understanding war. In the story of Beren and Luthien, heroism and bravery result in victory, as well as the maturity of the heroic characters (though even in that story, the ending is tainted by the evils of war, greed, and selfishness). In Turin's story, the hero is ennobled through his dogged pursuit of justice and righteousness, even though he is also often rash and his decisions are fated to go awry to the very end; but the confusion and darkness that results from the hero's actions don't make his actions the less noble.
Garth's Postscript ought to be required reading for any Tolkien fan, and I highly recommend the whole book especially for readers who have spent some time with The Book of Lost Tales, the History of Middle-Earth series, or even just The Silmarillion. Tolkien and the Great War is simply a fantastic Tolkien book.