Customer Reviews

On the Lines of Morris' Romances: Two Books that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien-The Wood Beyond the World and The Well at the World's End

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was lucky enough to stumble across this book before the holidays, and promptly ordered it along with several other books that were influences to Tolkien. This book is the one I started with. It contains two stories, both of which are wonderfully written. They are written using an older form of English, but once you get used to the dialect you will become fully immersed in the story.

I gave this review 5-stars only because of how great the stories are. The formatting of this book is horrible. It is the size of a textbook with 2 columns per page. I think it would have been better using a standard paperback format, but this seems to be the only available edition out, so look past this and enjoy the amazing stories!

The Well Beyond The World's End is usually published in 2 volumes, so this edition includes the text of 3 books that would normally cost you about $42 if purchased separately.

The text is printed in two columns, as in a magazine. It's very readable and aesthetically pleasing (don't judge by the unfortunate cover). The only downside is that Morris originally published his books in an elaborate illuminated manuscript style (like [...]). Unfortunately no modern printing of Morris seems to include his gorgeous original format. On the plus side, this edition is definitely more readable.

As for the stories themselves, I think it's fair to say Tolkien (and to a degree C.S. Lewis) retained every innovation Morris made, more or less replacing him. It's likely that only hardcore Tolkien/Lewis fans will find these books worth reading. Compare Tolkien's Gandalf and his horse Shadowfax to 'The Well at the World's End' character Gandolf and the horse Silverfax.

The text is widely available free online (though it's not fun to read on a screen), so you might test a few pages before committing to a purchase: [...]