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Effectronica posted:So the Silmarillion as seen in bookstores is without a central narrative and without much benefit of drafting and rewriting to make it consistent. It is instead basically a set of author's notes packaged into roughly narrative form. Bear that in mind while reading it- you're not reading anything that would have ever been seriously published were it not for the Tolkien craze of the time. It's also doubtful that Tolkien would have chosen to publish the Silmarillion in a recognizable form, for as he noted one of the critical elements of Lord of the Rings is the use of an assumed history, in which unexplained and mysterious elements create the semblance of life and draw the reader in with the desire to know more. The Silmarillion as originally conceived and eventually published lacks those elements almost entirely, though this is unsurprising. I originally read The Hobbit when I was eight, and the Lord of the Rings when I was about ten. I got the softcover Silmarillion while on a family vacation when I was about twelve, and although it was difficult to keep up with some of what was going on, I read it, and then read it again a year or so later. It's probably my favorite of the Tolkien books in spite of what you mention above. For whatever reason, Lost Tales has always been more difficult for me to try and get through, and I have yet to finish the first book. Millions posted:My dad has this edition. It's compiled and bound in red leather with the Tree of Gondor on it. I don't think I'll ever actually read from it, I'm afraid of messing it up: I got this edition for Christmas several years ago. I also have a similar green-cover edition of the Hobbit. They are beautiful books. I have them as shelf decorations as I feel the same way. I would never want to mess them up by reading them, so I have paperback copies for that. I also acquired a black hardback cover of the Hobbit at some point that came in a collector's box with a CD of Tolkien reading a chapter of the book.
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Feb 14, 2013 14:57
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 22:34 |
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