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Format:
Book
Title:
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis : the gift of friendship
ISBN:
9781587680267
Publication Information:
Mahwah, N.J. : HiddenSpring, ©2003.
Physical Description:
xii, 244 pages ; 23 cm
Contents:
The formative years (1892-1925) -- Meeting of minds and imaginations : "Tolkien and I were talking of dragons ..." (1926-1929) -- A story-shaped world : "Mythopoeia" (1929-1931) -- The thirties : the context of imaginative orthodoxy -- The Inklings begin : friendship shared? (1933-1939) -- Two journeys there and back again : The pilgrim's regress and The Hobbit (1930-1937) -- Space, time, and the "New Hobbit" (1936-1939) -- World War II and after : Charles Williams comes to Oxford (1939-1949) -- A professors's wardrobe and magic rings (1949-1954) -- Surprised by Cambridge and disappointed by Joy (1954-1963) -- A farewell to Shadowlands (1963-1973) -- The gift of friendship : "who could have deserved it?"
Summary:
Both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are known around the world as the creators of Middle-earth and Narnia. But few of their readers and fans know about the complex friendship between Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Without the persistent encouragement of his friend, Tolkien would never have completed The Lord of the Rings. This great tale, along with the connected matter of The Silmarillion, would have remained merely a private hobby. Likewise, all of Lewis' fiction, after the two met at Oxford University in 1926, bears the mark of Tolkien's influence, whether in names he used or in the creation of convincing fantasy worlds. They quickly discovered their affinity--a love of language and the imagination, a wide reading in northern myth and fairy tale, a desire to write stories themselves in both poetry and prose. The quality of their literary friendship invites comparisons with those of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Cowper and John Newton, and G.K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc. Both Tolkien and Lewis were central figures in the informal Oxford literary circle, the Inklings. This book explores their lives, unfolding the extraordinary story of their complex friendship that lasted, with its ups and downs, until Lewis's death in 1963. Despite their differences--differences of temperament, spiritual emphasis, and view of their storytelling art--what united them was much stronger, a shared vision that continues to inspire their millions of readers throughout the world.
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