Also, on Thursday my best friend, known as the Senator on this blog, left to go back to his college, meaning that I was spending every bit of my free time (as if I ever have free time) with him before he left. So, basically, this was a very long week. But hey, I’m updating on time! So at least there’s that. And as soon as I post this, I’m heading off to the final concert of the Symphony this week. (Admittedly, I’m looking quite forward to it. Our featured soloist, Conrad Tao, is mind-blowingly incredible. Google him and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.)
But onto the reason you probably clicked on this post in the first place. This is, in fact, the long-awaited third segment of my seven part series, My Favorite Books! If you’re fairly new to the blog, here’s a handy link to the first two posts, which detail the Honorable Mention stars and the beloved Harry Potter series.
And again, I’m cheating. Because this time, in addition to being a series instead of just a single book, I also included a novel that is both a prequel but also a complete stand-alone compared to the series. If you read the title of this post, I’m of course talking about the epic known as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and it’s wonderful prequel, the Hobbit, all written by the genius that is J.R.R. Tolkien.
Much Needed Disclaimer: I do not claim to be the expert on all things Tolkien. While I love these novels, I am far from the ultimate Tolkien devotee. I say this because I have two friends who are indeed quite the experts: the maille-crafting Artisan and the destruction-loving, film-aspiring Director. These two have an encompassing knowledge of Tolkien’s entire body of works, and what they have forgotten about his writings is probably more than I actually know, which is saying a lot considering my love of literature and these books in particular. Basically, these people are on an entirely different plane of understanding than I am, and so keep that in mind when reading this review. I may get details wrong; don’t be too angry! Okay, disclaimer over; back to the review!
Now, many of you are probably familiar with these novels because of the incredible successful movies of the same name by Peter Jackson, including this winter’s release of The Hobbit, Part 1 of 3. (I’ll get to my opinion of that a little further on.) But my first experience with these novels did not stem from the movies; that is, not entirely.
Like any good little bibliophile (a term that seems a bit creepy if you don’t know what it means), I read these before the movies came out. Or rather, just like with the Harry Potter series, my father read them to me as per our nightly ritual. And of course, we started with the Hobbit. Back then, there was no upcoming Hobbit movie to inspire us, and it was a perfect place to start as it is, in all honesty, a children’s novel.
Now, Tolkien’s writing, even in the Hobbit, is exceptionally savory. He meanders along (especially in the trilogy), and there is the occasional tedious passage(a travesty of a statement, I know; I just can’t always sit through three pages of description of flowers characters pass), but most of the time, there’s the perfect amount of wandering that lets you see the leaves in the forest, smell the smoke near Mount Doom, and taste Second Breakfast. You travel through the words as the heroes travel on their journey. It’s incredible, the way Tolkien writes. That being said, his writing style is not for everyone. The Senator expressed interest this past summer in reading the books (I was incredibly shocked; considering that I haven’t been able to get him to read Harry Potter yet, the fact that he brought LotR up all on his own nearly floored me) and I recommended that, considering he doesn’t always have a lot of time just to read for pleasure, he might enjoy the movies more. But to the person who wants to spend a good time getting through these stories, and has the time to do so, I whole-heartedly recommend the books. And start with the Hobbit.
The Hobbit is a bit less meandering than the trilogy, mostly because it is meant for children, even with its advanced text. The story itself is fully entertaining, and it has a type of pacing quite a bit sped up compared to the trilogy, designed to keep even the most wavering attention span glued to the page. Nearly every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger, only to get resolved before plunging the heroes into an even graver situation. And of course, there’s the occasional deus ex machina but even those can be appreciated for their sheer awesomeness. (The mental image of the eagles is one of my clearest memories of the Hobbit, even though it’s been quite a few years since I last read it.) All together, it is one of my favorite novels, especially of those read during my childhood.
And then following the Hobbit comes the Lord of the Rings, a vast epic both darker and more mature in tone than its light, amusing prequel. But what a set of novels. If you know anything about these stories, you know of the rich, complex narrative that focuses on what amounts to the classic quest archetype. But what begins as a small journey of simple Hobbits becomes a twisting landscape that explores love, power, death, betrayal, deceit, and loyalty. The richness of the characters and their complexity is only rivaled by the beauty and detail of the world Tolkien builds, that of Middle Earth and the beings who inhabit it.
Earlier, I mentioned that my love of these did not begin with the movie, but there was some connection with them. Because we’d already read the Hobbit, my dad and I decided to begin the trilogy, although it seemed a daunting task. In order to focus on other stories as well, we decided we’d read one of the novels each year, timed so that we’d finish it before each movie came out. As you may recall, the trilogy was filmed as a single unit but each volume was released a year apart, meaning there was plenty of time to get through the expansive novels but with enough resting time between each to recover from the daunting text. This started out well; we stuck to the plan for the first novel and then waited until we’d seen the first movie to begin the second.
However, we had no idea that the second novel ended on one of the most frustrating, terrifying, and maddening cliff-hangers I’ve ever experienced. Most authors don’t have the courage to end their novels on a complete cliff-hanger, although some have tried and basically wimped out (I’m looking at you, Suzanne Collins; the ending of Catching Fire was supposed to be shocking but was mainly unclear and honestly not all that thrilling in the way a cliff-hanger should be). But the ending of the Two Towers was both wonderful and awful at the same time; I knew I couldn’t wait a year before starting the final book of the trilogy.
One of my main disappointments with the movies is that Peter Jackson didn’t have the balls to end the second movie precisely where the second book ends. While yes, those final chapters of the second book do make up a decent portion of the final movie, and they would have made the second film interminably long unless they cut down the battle scene (which in the second book was literally only a chapter long but takes up most of the second movie, despite being pretty awesome visually), I was hoping that every movie-goer who had not read the novels would experience that gut-wrenching frustration leaving the theater, realizing that they wouldn’t find out the outcome for an entire year. Can you imagine how great the ticket sales for the final movie would have been? (Or book sales, if people realized they could find out exactly what would happened if they read the final novel?) Win win, honestly.
But my frustrations aside, back to my anecdote. We began reading the third book almost immediately, and I had no regrets about that. The third book met and exceeded every expectation I had for the conclusion of the story. Something you may want to know about both the books and the movie, however, is that once the quest is actually completed, there are still about sixty pages (and a good 30 minutes of the movie) remaining, and there are about twenty different places where both the book and movie could have ended. However, I still enjoy reading and watching all of those different endings, because they each add something touching to the end of an epic experience.
Of course, I wound up reading these novels over and over, trying to read at least one every Thanksgiving and Christmas on the long car-rides and weekends visiting my Grandparents. Thus, I’ve read each one of these stories (including the Hobbit) many, many times, to the point that my copies are coming unglued at the seams. (I probably should invest in a nice, collectible, beautiful edition at some point.) But I haven’t read them in quite a while, something I should definitely remedy in the next few years. Because at the core, these novels (like the Harry Potter books) are glorious escapism. Middle Earth is a much more exciting, adventurous place - what I wouldn’t give to meet Gandalf, or eat in Bilbo’s kitchen, or visit Rivendell - than the normal world, and every time I visit it, I find new, beautiful details I missed on previous readings.
And of course, the characters are truly my favorite part of the books. But there is one character in particular that stands out in my mind, making my list of top five favorite literary characters of all time. My favorite is not the powerful wizard Gandalf, who is admittedly awesome, or the protagonist Frodo, but as the often-overlooked sidekick. In this novel, Frodo’s sidekick takes the form of Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s gardener and best friend. Over the course of this series, Sam goes from being just a fellow companion to the sole person who cares for Frodo and carries the quest above all other things. He is the best literary example I can think of that demonstrates the power of loyalty. Sam provides, in addition to all of his aid to Frodo, the very heart of the trilogy. Sam is literally the perfect best friend, and his steadfast devotion is what makes these novels so touching in addition to being fantastic.
Of course, I would be remiss to leave out my second favorite character: Aragorn, son of Arathorn. (One of the most amusing things of the novel is how often characters are referred to in this style; Aragorn in particular is given this name nearly every other time he is mentioned. It’s quite amusing.) Mostly, I love him because he’s ridiculously cool. But also, I love him because he’s incredibly sexy in the movies. (Thanks for being really awesome, Viggo Mortensen.) Don’t judge me…I love the dashing hero type. Who doesn’t?
Anyway, please go read the books. And watch the movies (extended editions, obviously. There’s no other way.) Having watched the movies each twice in the last year, they’re absolutely excellent. And take some time on the Hobbit; it’s a great little novel about the third of the length of the trilogy. However, if you’re wanting to see the new movie, be warned - the Hobbit is being split into three separate movies, so you’ll only get to see about a third of the actual story right now. There’s a lot that’s been said about this directorial choice, and while I love seeing Middle Earth nearly as much as reading about it (so I’ll go see all three movies in theaters for sure), I’m not entirely happy that they split it into anything more than two parts. I did enjoy the first Hobbit movie (The riddle scene, in particular, is even better than I could have hoped for, being one of my favorite scenes in the book. Andy Serkis as Gollum is an absolute delight in both the Hobbit and the LotR movies.) but I’m hoping that a short novel being stretched so far won’t seem like scenes are being stretched past their quality. We’ll see in a year if the second Hobbit movie has as much magic as the other Middle Earth films. But I encourage you, despite any doubts you have, to read, watch, and love these incredible stories. There’s a reason Tolkien is lauded as a writer.
Anyway, that brings this post to a close. Only four more posts to go in this seven part series! But don’t worry, the next one will be posted in mid-to-late February, so you have only a month to go! But you’ll see me back in a fortnight, or sooner; I promise.
Until then,
Julia
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