“Tolkien's Lost Chaucer uncovers
the story of an unpublished and previously unknown book by the author of The
Lord of the Rings. Tolkien worked between 1922 and 1928 on his Clarendon edition Selections from Chaucer's Poetry and Prose, and though
never completed, its 160 pages of commentary reveals much of his thinking about language and storytelling when he was still
at the threshold of his career as an epoch-making writer of fantasy literature.
Drawing upon other new materials such as his edition of the Reeve's
Tale and his Oxford lectures on the Pardoner's Tale, this
book reveals Chaucer as a major influence upon Tolkien's literary imagination.” – Amazon.
- “Reveals
the story of J. R. Tolkien's unpublished and previously unknown book
hidden in the Oxford University Press archives
- “Explores
Tolkien's annotated proofs and accompanying notes for the 'Clarendon
Chaucer' edition that he abandoned in 1951 after almost 30 years of work
- “Draws
upon a number of previously unpublished writings by Tolkien including
unpublished letters and lectures
- “Shows Tolkien as a brilliant, insightful thinker about Chaucer's language and storytelling and shows the ways that his decades-long work on Chaucer inspired key episodes in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.” - Oxford University Press.
As yet, I have only had a chance to dabble around a bit in this book, but it promises to be a meaty, serious read. I expect when I’m done with it, I will not just have added insights into Tolkien but will understand much more about Chaucer as well. And speaking of Tolkien's academic work, isn't it time they reprinted "The Old English 'Exodus' Text" in an affordable edition? Perhaps combined with more of his essays and lectures on philology and older English works?
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