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A review by gregorso
The Book of Lost Tales Part 1 by J.R.R. Tolkien
4.0
The Book of Lost Tales does not only show us Tolkien's world in its early stages of development. It does much more: The text is accompanied by a very deliberate commentary by Christopher Tolkien who put great effort into presenting and explaining the various traces of thought by his father as good as possible.
For the regular reader who seeks regular Tolkien literature this is a difficult text to read at times: The commentaries disrupt the stories' flow and distance the reader from it by means of their meta-work. On the other hand do the Silmarillions contents appear much more connected here, for J.R.R. Tolkien framed them with a contextual story in which the "old tales" were embedded.
I recommend this book to everyone who
1. seeks to dive into the depths and history of Tolkien's creative work.
2. wants to experience an earlier version of the Silmarillion with many (discarded?) details that aren't present in the published form
For the regular reader who seeks regular Tolkien literature this is a difficult text to read at times: The commentaries disrupt the stories' flow and distance the reader from it by means of their meta-work. On the other hand do the Silmarillions contents appear much more connected here, for J.R.R. Tolkien framed them with a contextual story in which the "old tales" were embedded.
I recommend this book to everyone who
1. seeks to dive into the depths and history of Tolkien's creative work.
2. wants to experience an earlier version of the Silmarillion with many (discarded?) details that aren't present in the published form