Reviews

Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth by John Garth

brandypalmer's review

2.0

I feel slightly guilty giving this only two stars, but this isn’t a book for me. If you like Tolkien and want to learn more about him- give it a go! I was looking for more of a connection with WWI so I could discuss it with my history obsessed son. I didn’t find want I wanted and was bored due to my lack of personal interest.

skelterr1's review

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

 "May God bless you my dear John Ronald and may you say things I have tried to say long after I am not there to say them if such be my lot."

Vilket rent helvete det måste ha varit att leva genom det första världskriget, i dagens värld är svårt att tänka sig. Med skyttegravar, eldkastare och pansarvagnar som torterar den vanliga mannen som har blivit dit skickat mot sin vilja utan något hopp om överlevnad.

Boken demonstrerar Tolkiens upplevelse under första världskriget och hur han förlorade två av sina bästa vänner under sin tid i Frankrike. Även influenserna han har tagit med sina karaktärer angående kriget, där Samwise "Sam" Gamgee är den vanliga brittiska soldaten och Faramir är honom själv, fast utan modet som han själv påstod.

4/5 stjärnor.

pigeomita's review

dark informative slow-paced

4.0

abevigodless's review

5.0

Certainly the best book about Tolkien's work and creative development that I've read, but also right up there with The Guns of August as one of the best books about the First World War. The balance between history, biography, and criticism is finely kept throughout. The long Epilogue and Postscript, which carry on after the story of Tolkien's service is told, seem less well-balanced, but they are also where Garth makes his most thorough and trenchant arguments about how Tolkien's work should be seen as engagement with the War. He concludes, quoting CS Lewis, that unlike the jingoism of the propagandists or the bitter irony of Owen and Sassoon, Tolkien's work exists at "the cool middle point between illusion and disillusionment," portraying genuine heroism alongside horrible brutality in a way no other WWI literature does. But what really sticks with me is the detailed, sustained portrait of four bright young friends with the bad luck to be of enlistment age in 1914, and the one of them who had the good fortune to survive and tell their story draped in the cloak of epic fantasy. Their friendship is an indelibly immediate way in to understanding the experiences of those who fought in that war -- gut wrenching as the losses they suffer are, reading about them makes Tolkien's legendarium seem all the more extraordinary as a monument to the TCBS.

ivellon's review against another edition

4.0

This review is only concered with the audio book:
I enjoyed this audio book a lot. There is just one, big negative thing: You will easily fall asleep while listening, even if you are wide awake. Garth's voice is probably the calmest and most pleasant I have ever heard. Unfortunatly, it also works very well as a sleeping pill. But once you get used to the spell of his voice, you will learn a lot about Tolkien.
(The pronunciation of German names is quite good too.)

bibliophilecats's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

The first book by J.R.R. Tolkien I read was The Hobbit and to this day, I have reread it several times and really like it. However, I never could get into LotR and I did not even try with his other works, notably The Silmarillion. But I always appreciated and am fascinated by his working with language. Additionally, I am interested in WW1 (how did this all come to pass and the effect this major change in warfare brought about). 

John Garth is a very good narrator and - my problems with remembering names + personal details aside - it was easy to follow this account. And on top, it was also really intersting. Not having read more of Tolkien’s works, a lot of “oh!” moments were probably lost to me. But it was a fascinating account of his writing in relation to his experiences before and during the war and how he came to imagine his world(s). John Garth was able to paint me a picture of the person "J.R.R. Tolkien”.

yaburrow's review

5.0

This was recommended to me by Dave Llewellyn-Dodds, one of the small community of regular commenters on Brenton Dickieson’s blog, A Pilgrim in Narnia. It is an excellent and well written analysis of how Tolkien’s experiences just prior to, and during, the First World War, fed into his creative process. It does not try to claim that there is any direct allegory (as any serious fan of Tolkien knows, he hated allegory) but rather explores how his vision of Middle-Earth was deepened and expanded by his experiences of suffering and loss, and his encounters with new types of people. It definitely offers a new perspective on Tolkien’s legendarium, and will be an excellent complement to the film that is coming out soon, which also explores that period of his life.

This book will also make you realize what a senseless waste of lives the First World War was. Garth notes that A A Milne became a signaller because the chances of survival were higher. I can’t say I blame him. A similar (but less baldly stated) instinct underlay Tolkien’s choice of signalling as his contribution to the war effort. It’s chilling to think that Winnie-the-Pooh and The Lord of the Rings might not have existed if they had been killed. I also wonder what else Saki (H H Munro) and Wilfred Owen might have written, had they survived WW1. And what other geniuses were lost in that slaughter. Certainly Tolkien's friends Rob Q Gilson and Geoffrey Bache Smith.

js_warren's review

3.0

A good book, but not one that flowed particularly well (at least for me).
I'll be honest: I find Tolkien's writing to be difficult at times, and this book felt like it was written by Tolkien's literary brother. I read the book in fits and starts because it often felt like I was reading a textbook.
Despite this, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. I found it to be a thorough and informative look at Tolkien and the experiences that molded him and his mythology. And for history buffs, it offered a glimpse into England's past from a perspective not likely to be found elsewhere.
Definitely worth the read, but don't expect to blast through it.

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

3.0

This is a really insightful examination of Tolkien's experiences in World War I on the Somme. I read this as a source for a research essay and it was really helpful. The book details his early life, his school years, why he decided to join the war, and his harrowing experiences on the battlefields, leading him to write his wonderful books.

erinbrownsmc's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0