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A review by emnello
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
5.0
[Reread 14/01/24] “Well, I’m back.”
This is my favourite novel, and it has been for the last fifteen years. I love it deeply and there is likely nothing I can say that someone else hasn’t already said more intelligently and articulately.
That being said, I would urge anyone who has finished this book and hasn’t read Tolkien’s poem ‘The Sea Bell’ to give that a read too. It has the subtitle ‘Frodo’s Dreme’, which does the job of explaining exactly why you should; Frodo is so distant by the end of this book that getting this small glimpse into his headspace is so deeply sad. This novel is deeply sad!
There is a sense of grief at the core of this story that is never fully captured in any of its adaptations. But simultaneously, it’s so bittersweet that I have lump in my throat and an ache in my chest by the time I turn the last page. Whole and hollow at the same time. Contradictory, maybe, but to me, it’s never been a story so much about good vs evil as it is about hope and despair, intermingled.
So less a review and more of an observation I suppose. Again, read The Sea Bell. I love this book.
This is my favourite novel, and it has been for the last fifteen years. I love it deeply and there is likely nothing I can say that someone else hasn’t already said more intelligently and articulately.
That being said, I would urge anyone who has finished this book and hasn’t read Tolkien’s poem ‘The Sea Bell’ to give that a read too. It has the subtitle ‘Frodo’s Dreme’, which does the job of explaining exactly why you should; Frodo is so distant by the end of this book that getting this small glimpse into his headspace is so deeply sad. This novel is deeply sad!
There is a sense of grief at the core of this story that is never fully captured in any of its adaptations. But simultaneously, it’s so bittersweet that I have lump in my throat and an ache in my chest by the time I turn the last page. Whole and hollow at the same time. Contradictory, maybe, but to me, it’s never been a story so much about good vs evil as it is about hope and despair, intermingled.
So less a review and more of an observation I suppose. Again, read The Sea Bell. I love this book.