What can you say about this book that has not already been said? What a huge creative power Tolkien had, that he could create such beautiful worlds (especially the Elves and the Ents are sublime). Basically, of course, it's about the classic struggle between good and evil, about real friendship and sacrifice, perseverance and courage. But it remains well-balanced and beautifully laced with a layer of sophisticated humor and introspection, a blissful panoramic epic that in many ways is reminiscent of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but with its own, slightly medieval references.

Some minor critical comments?: 1. the many songs of course are specific to those imaginative worlds, but unfortunately "work" not so well in ours; 2. women hardly come into the picture and if they do, they hardly transcend the archetype of the virtuous courtly Lady; only in the annexes Tolkien corrects this image slightly.

Ultimately, it is the diversity in the world of the Ring that most enchanted me: all those kinds of people, elves, hobbits, orcs, wizards, etc. with their own language, customs and history, their great and small flaws and defects. It's a rich variety which engenders wonder and interest. The most hopeful message the book gives is that Tolkien illustrates that even those different types beings can find "common ground" and make life more livable. What a glorious performance!

"As for any inner meaning or ‘message,’ it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical…. I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence." — J.R.R. Tolkien (Foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings).

Which is also why he despised the ham-fisted Chronicles of Narnia.

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In sum, the books do not represent the Boomer counter culture, WW I, or the Christian End Times. They are just stories drawing from the author's favorite mythology.

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Interesting little background piece on how LOTR found success years after the books were released....

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...

As I’ve mentioned, I am a huge fan of both fantasy in general and the films specifically. My first read through the series occurred during my high school years and, I’m sad to say, was not very enjoyable. I saw the movies before reading the series and I think this did much to set my expectations up for an entirely different type of story-telling. In the last few months my husband and I played through Lego Lord of the Rings and it got me to thinking that maybe now, after getting both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English literature, I’d be ready to read through the series again with an open mind.

Thank You for these amazing films

"The Lord of the Rings" is the sequel to J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic, The Hobbit. While it is generaly sold in three book sets (The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings), it is actually one epic tale.

More adult oriented concepts are included than in The Hobbit, and there are refferences to the pre-history Tolkien was developing and published in various "Middle Earth" books, making this a more challenging read (I always have trouble getting through the first part of The Two Towers).

The story picks up some years after Bilbo Baggins returns from the adventure told in The Hobbit. Now older, Bilbo is ready to leave his beloved home in the Shire, passing most of his possessions (including the Magic Ring he aquired in The Hobbit) to his nephew Frodo. Gandolf, the wizzard, has doubts about the Ring that are soon proven correct and a great quest is set before the young Hobbit and his group of friends.

This is an epic tale, with many story lines running concurrently. This has it all, Monsters, Wizards, Battles, Treason, Love, Self Sacrifice and much more!

Highly recommended!

This Box set of Lord of the Rings is great I love this book and this set is great I have never been happier with a book set.

Was a christmas present for the other half, pleased to say she was happy with the gift!

Nice movies. It is In cinemascope format and sound is not 5.1but stereo format hindi. Each movie is more than 3 hours. Worth the money. I have purchased this set at 239₹ only from this link.

http://amzn.to/2yNOA9K

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Perfect.

I bought this set and had it sent to an inmate in a correctional facility in Florida.  It apparently never arrived.  This may have to do with prison policies on used books, but I never received any notice that the books had been returned or any reimbursement.

Super

I have come late to Tolkien's works, despite (or rather because of) the fact that they were cult reading when I was at school. One of my classmates, then aged about sixteen, proudly boasted that he had read the entire work about fifty times, and ever since I have tended to associate Tolkien with obsessive fanatics. I was, however, eventually persuaded to read the books by Peter Jackson's excellent trilogy of films.
The plot of "Lord of the Rings", a novel of well over 1,000 pages, is too complex to be summarised here in any depth. At its centre is a magic ring (a motif Tolkien seems to have borrowed from Wagner). This ring can give its owner immense power, but can only be used for evil purposes. At the beginning of the work the ring is owned by the elderly hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who acquired it many years before (the story of how he did so is told in "The Hobbit") and has no idea of its power. He is warned, however, by the wizard Gandalf that the evil Dark Lord Sauron, who originally forged the ring, is trying to regain it in order to enslave Middle-Earth (the imagined world in which the story is set).
The story has two interlocking themes. Firstly, there is the journey of Bilbo's nephew Frodo to destroy the ring, something that can only be achieved by casting it into Mount Doom, the volcano in which it was eventually forged. (During the early part of his journey, Frodo has a number of companions- the "Fellowship of the Ring"- but only one of these, his faithful servant Sam, stays with him to the end). The second is the war that is waged by Sauron and his allies against the peoples of Middle Earth- humans, hobbits, elves, dwarves and ents (walking trees)- and of their courageous resistance.
The book is much more than a fantasy adventure. Many have tried to read hidden meanings into it, both religious and political, even though Tolkien explicitly stated that it was not an allegory. Certainly, it is not an allegory in the sense of "The Pilgrim's Progress" or "Animal Farm"- a book where every detail has a symbolic meaning or can be related to an actual historical event. (Sauron, for example is not simply another name for the Devil or a disguised portrait of Hitler). This does not, however, mean that there is no symbolism in "Lord of the Rings". The main symbol is the ring itself, which represents evil and its power to corrupt the human spirit. The heroes such as Gandalf and Frodo do not dare to use the ring against Sauron because they fear that if they do they will be corrupted by its power and become as evil as he is. The various races who people Middle Earth also have symbolic functions, especially the Elves and the Orcs. The former, in Tolkien's world, are not small fairy-like creatures but an ancient race, beautiful, wise and noble who represent the higher, spiritual side of human nature. The brutal and aggressive Orcs, by contrast, represent its lower, bestial side.
The theme of good versus evil is one that is capable of either a religious or a secular interpretation, but Tolkien himself was a devout Christian, and some of the themes of the book seem to be directly related to Christian ideas. There is no single Christ-figure, but three of the heroes have Christ-like attributes. Frodo, the ring-bearer, symbolically bears the sin of the world. Gandalf the wise and benevolent sage rises from the dead after dying in a struggle with an evil adversary. The final part of the book is entitled "The Return of the King"; this relates to the reappearance of Aragorn, the lost heir to the throne of the kingdom of Gondor, but can also be taken as a reference to the Second Coming.
So far, I have discussed the work in largely abstract terms, but it is not principally a book about abstractions. What sets it apart from many other fantasy works is that Middle-Earth is brilliantly imagined in all its concrete reality. It is a world that is in some respects a familiar one. Its geography, climate, flora and fauna are closely based on those of Europe. The hobbits, for all their small stature, hairy feet and habit of living in holes, are also reassuringly familiar; conservative and phlegmatic by temperament, they seem like the Middle-Earth equivalent of tweedy, pipe-smoking Englishmen. In other respects, Tolkien's world is highly exotic one. He spent many years of his life developing his ideas about the races who inhabit it, working out full details of their cultures, their histories, their mythologies and (most important from his point of view as he was an academic philologist) their languages. Many of these details are set out in the Appendices which, although they do not form part of the main story, are nevertheless a fascinating part of the work.
Against this background, Tolkien creates a cast of characters who, even when they have a symbolic function, also come to life as individuals. (Something else that sets him apart from many other fantasy writers). Besides those mentioned above, I should also mention Sam, Frodo's loyal and steadfast servant, Saruman, a former colleague of Gandalf who was tempted by cynicism and self-interest to throw in his lot with Sauron, and especially Gollum. Gollum is the mysterious creature from whom Bilbo originally won the ring, and whose life is dominated by the desire to recapture it. He is vicious and treacherous, and yet at the same time capable of arousing pity. He both desires the ring and fears its power; at the end he will play an ironic yet vital role in its destruction. From evil, good can sometimes spring.
Having read the work, I can now understand why it has such a fascination for many people, even if I have no immediate plans to read it another forty-nine times. In some literary and academic circles there may be a prejudice against the heroic fantasy genre, which is regarded (with some justification) as tending to produce shallow, one-dimensional works. The miracle of "The Lord of the Rings" is that Tolkien has taken this unfashionable genre and used it to produce a rich, multi-layered work, one which has taken its rightful place among the masterpieces of twentieth-century English literature.