Excellent. Although I come from a class of reader who actively avoids the biographies of beloved authors, nevertheless I feel that this book has enriched my understanding of Tolkien for the better. I feel like I was given a rare glimpse into a group of friends whose idealism was tragically shattered. Their story, and Tolkien's story, moved me.

This books offers something for Lord of the Rings and history geeks alike with its comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of Tolkien in and around World War I. The story of four friends on the edge of adulthood being dramatically entwined in the events of their time is very interesting by itself but the weaving of Tolkien's early writing, the epically horrific events of the Great War, and the communications among the friends framing it all makes for a wonderful narrative. The author stretches to make some connections and I felt that the early part of the book overplayed the impact and influence of the four friends but he pulls it all back in later in the book to make the case that the early friends were critically formative in Tolkien's development as an author and a man.

Garth's Epilogue, pulling elements from Tolkien's broader writings and drawing parallels among characters, the era of the Great War, and the author's world view are, by themselves, worth the book. I was enthralled by his characterization of Tolkien's rejection of the despair evoked by dark trench memoirs written after WWI and the general shift toward modernism in the era's writings. Garth concludes that Tolkien held tightly to a nobler view of man and mankind as well as tradition. I think the following excerpt says it best:

“Tolkien’s protagonists are heroes not because of their successes, which are often limited, but because of their courage and tenacity in trying. By implication, worth cannot be measured by results alone, but is intrinsic. His stories depict the struggle to uphold inherited, instinctive, or inspirational values – matters of intrinsic and immeasurable worth – against the forces of chaos and destruction.”

Excerpt From: John Garth. “Tolkien and the Great War.” Apple Books. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/tolk...

Com ja apunten altres comentaris, es tracta d'una recerca biogràfica molt completa de la vida i escriptura de Tolkien i els seus amics de la TCBS que en ocasions, sobretot durant els anàlisis de l'origen i relació entre diferents escrits es pot fer una mica pesat de llegir. Tanmateix, una lectura recomanada per situar de forma molt més exacta la influència que va deixar en Tolkien la primera guerra mundial. Aquells que espereu constants referències a el Hobbit, el Senyor dels Anells o el Silmarilion segurament en sortireu decebuts, doncs són obres posteriors i només el Hobbit té una certa rellevància en aquesta obra.

John Garth has given us a work of the greatest value on several levels. Fans and scholars of Tolkien, students and scholars of the First World War, and literary critics in general will all find much of interest and many a lesson here.

Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth is among the foremost scholarly works on the intersection of any author's life and his work. All too often writers investigating such a connection go overboard, finding the details of an author's life encoded in every character and every event in a novel. Not so John Garth. With a studious eye for detail and the wit to sift what is relevant from what is not, Garth is as sensible in his claims as he is persuasive. His passion for his subject is clear, but it enlightens his judgement rather than clouding it.

The result is an outstanding, fascinating, and useful study of all the elements his title so succinctly conveys.

I guess I'm not a big World War I fan, some of the history information bored me. But I really enjoyed learning about the bond between Tolkien and his closest friends at the time he began writing his mythology. The Inklings are the group who history would remember but it was the TCSB that sparked the imagination which Tolkien would use. These friendships were embedded in his life forever and they were in some ways the strongest. John Garth does an excellent job of weaving Tolkien's personal, scholarly, and military lives together. It made me appreciate Tolkien's work even more than I already did.

This is a necessary book - worth reading not just for the inside dope on Tolkien's mythology (which frankly I'm not that interested in, but the book was compelling anyway). This book is also a thoughtful, sensitive, well-written consideration of the WWI generation, and how the pre-War world and the War itself formed Tolkien and his fellowship of four friends. It is the best kind of cultural-literary criticism, especially when Garth talks about how the accepted narrative of WWI became the pessimistic Graves/Sassoon/Owen poetry. (Fussell does this a bit, but, as Garth correctly points out, he is clearly on the side of the pessimists.) This book also explains Tolkien's personal literary theory more clearly than any book I've read so far, including Carpenter's biography. It was easier for me to understand why Tolkien insisted LOTR was not allegory, i.e. Sauron was not Hitler/Stalin dressed up in a funny medieval hat. Also, clearly one reason Tolkien had such a problem with Lewis's Narnia series wasn't just the mixing together of Christian myths and Santa Claus, but the straight-up allegory of Aslan = Christ. Tolkien wasn't that happy about the modern literary critical technique of mapping personal experience to artwork, either, but I like to think he would have liked this dignified and respectful approach to how his own searing personal battles influenced the mythic ones he wrote out.

***

Supplemental reading from John Garth's website:

Chronology of Tolkien in the Battle of the Somme

Corrections and clarifications

Tolkien, Exeter College and the Great War (supplementary chapter)

Article: "Tolkien fantasy was born in the trenches"

Interview

‘As under a green sea’: visions of war in the Dead Marshes, in The Ring Goes Ever On: Proceedings of the 2005 Tolkien Conference, ed. Sarah Wells (Tolkien Society, 2008), and (in slightly expanded form) in Myth and Magic: Art according to the Inklings, ed. Eduardo Segura and Thomas Honegger (Zürich: Walking Tree, 2007).

Frodo and the Great War, in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder, ed. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2006). Presented at Marquette University, 2004. Revised version forthcoming in the proceedings of the Hungarian Tolkien Society’s Budapest 2012 conference.

A magnificent book! If you are a Tolkien fan (like me:)) you have to read it. You will find out the real story of four friends that are up to change the world. Thought it IS a sad book, it showed me that peole who lived like one century ago had such an inteligent sense of humor!
We are soooo luky thet we had Tolkien, we were on the limit to lose him in WW1, but it was imposible for me not to think about the ones who didn't survived (like Rob and Smith) who probably had a story to tell. Like Tolkien did.
Enjoy reading

Behold now Tinwelint the king rode forth a-hunting, and more glorious was his array than ever aforetime, and the helm of gold was above his flowing locks... .
The book is resplendent with geek references, and guides readers to the wellspring of modern high fantasy. Those inclined to immersion, without perspective, will be in thrall over the highly detailed explanations of Tolkien's ideas and acedemic inspiration. In my view the book is too detailed - at times getting lost in the trees, as it were.
Yet, this is a great book - an exceptional history of the Great War that chronicles the lives of four friends swept up in the tragedy of their time. Only two return, but then fundamently effected by their own experiences and trauma, and forever missing their friends. Tolkien's prewar relationships are remarkable in their intimacy and trust - the four always referring to themselves as a unit - the TCBS.
The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings had many sources and inspirations. This book makes a compelling case that foremost amongst these was the friendship, collegiality and critical input of a unique group of friends, and a worldview informed by experience and painful loss at war.

C.S. Lewis, when reviewing The Lord of the Rings, called it a work that was a “recall from facile optimism and wailing pessimism alike,” resting instead “at that cool middle point between illusion and disillusion.” After reading Garth’s book, it is easy to see how the most formative event of the modern world (at the time, at least) — a war that began with blind cheers and ended with debilitating despair — shaped and crystallized Tolkien’s entire approach to life as a friend, a scholar, and as a writer. His own biography reads much like his books — a hit parade of tragic losses and painful endurances that nonetheless fail to quench the hope in his heart of “joy beyond the walls of the world.”

Very detailed and focused, covering Tolkien’s school and university days, as well as his wartime experiences. Garth bravely attempts what Tolkien himself disliked (biographical analysis and exploration of personal sources), but provides a good look into the development of Tolkien’s early poetic efforts and mythology.

Not as engaging as other biographies, due to the minute detail, but Garth’s knowledge of WWI and his ability to piece together geographic, historical, and intellectual movements is on full display.

Garth’s knowledge of Tolkien’s writings leads at times to an overwhelming focus on the minutiae of his invented languages and mythology. The strictly biographical aspects are more accessible, giving a good sense of (educated) life pre- and during the First World War.

Very interesting look at Tolkien and his friends' lives in the years leading up to WWI, and day to day accounts of Tolkien's four months on the front, including his reaction to the deaths of several of his close friends. It is well-written and compelling.

I found Garth's Epilogue on Tolkien's immediate post-War, invalid-status writings, especially the poetry, Cottage of Lost Play, and Book of Lost Tales to be especially relevant to the course I'm currently taking.* Been reading the same stories in The Silmarillion that Garth covers in discussing some of Tolkien's early drafts and themes.

* Verlyn Flieger's course on "Tolkien's World of Middle-Earth" at Mythgard Institute.