The Lord of the Rings 3-Book Paperback Box Set

"The Lord of the Rings" is usually found in a single volume, or in three volumes: 1) "The Fellowship of the Ring", 2) "The Two Towers", and 3) "The Return of the King". My recommended reading age is 13+ years old, and I recommend reading "The Hobbit" first. When I was 15 years old in high school, I had to read "The Hobbit" for an English class. After reading that book, the teacher then let us borrow "The Lord of the Rings". Before I had started "The Return of the King", I had bought my own set of books. After I had read both books, I actually liked "The Hobbit" better than "The Lord of the Rings" at first - because the "The Hobbit" was brighter: a fun, grand adventure with more humor, whereas "The Lord of the Rings" was darker: a serious, grim life and death struggle for world survival. But by the time I was about 16, the historical significance of "The Lord of the Rings" began to appeal more to me. This is especially true if you read Appendices A and B of "The Lord of the Rings", and also read the "The Silmarillion". You begin to understand the rich history of Tolkien's Middle-Earth/ Beleriand creation. How the "The Silmarillion" brings out the significant events of the First and Second Ages, while the events in "The Lord of the Rings" are the culmination of the Third Age...each Age lasting thousands of years and ending with an immensely significant event. It was 25 years before I read "The Lord of the Rings" again, but Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel, Legolas, Gimli, and many more had become household names! I had matured over those years, and my tastes changed. I was no longer a big fantasy/science-fiction reader: instead I was reading military history. I didn't expect to still love "The Lord of the Rings" the way I did as a teenager. I was happily wrong! This is still an exciting book, but I discovered what I really love...it is allegory-type stories. J. R. R. Tolkien himself has said that "The Lord of the Rings" is not allegory, because he hated allegory where he felt the author is dictating to the reader what is in their story...and that any other interpretation is incorrect. Tolkien wanted a reader to apply their own experiences and tastes to influence what they were reading. OK, but in real history one can still get allegory if their own experiences and tastes allow it. How many can learn about World War II and not apply the basic allegorical interpretation that good triumphs over evil? I've heard of, and can understand, several allegorical interpretations of "The Lord of the Rings". Frodo is like Jesus Christ: bearing the greatest of burdens for world salvation while being tempted to stray from his purpose, and the weight of the ring is similar to Christ's cross . The One Ring is like the atomic bomb: the ultimate weapon that corrupts whoever uses it, despite even good intentions, into a power-hungry creature of evil. There's an ecological message with the Ents trying to protect trees; and also the natural beauty of various places throughout Middle-Earth, while evil beings try to destroy it all (including the use of mechanical and polluting progress). I also get out of "The Lord of the Rings" a sense of a military mission: that Frodo & Sam are behind enemy lines on a mission that could end a war, and that Frodo realizes that getting back home or even staying alive doesn't matter - just completion of the mission...that's also sacrifice, perseverance, & camaraderie so prevalent in the military history I've read. There's prejudice with years of animosity between elves and dwarves, and how small, kind gestures can begin to erase all those blighted years...also, how people or races can put aside differences to solve a common problem. There's the recognition of the small, common people (citizen soldiers) that perform the greatest, toughest, and most necessary duty in any war. There's world peace in peril and that something needs to be done before it's too late. There's avoiding the easier way out, and facing one's problems and seeing them through to a conclusion despite severe hardships. I feel that Tolkien saw a little bit of himself in many of the good races of his world. The hobbits are like Tolkien because they love food, company, and talking about family. The ents are like Tolkien because of their unbounded love of trees. Gandalf the wizard is like Tolkien because of his exceptional intelligence and purpose of guiding others along the right path. Some men are like Tolkien because of their inner strength and gallantry, while other men show weakness by succumbing to evil...very realistic. But I believe he saw the beauty and enchantment of the elves in his wife, and why he loved both most dearly: that's why on their gravestone Luthien appears after his wife's name, and Beren appears after his name. The dwarves don't seem to resemble Tolkien, but they are present in much folklore, which is linked to his personal love of medieval languages. "The Lord of the Rings" is a masterpiece in my opinion, and it's size (over 1000 pages in any printed format) is pretty daunting, but give it a shot! It'll be time well spent. And get ready for adventure, terror, excitement, love, treachery, devotion, monumental historic events, unforgettable battles, military strategy, exotic languages & culture, etc. See what you get out of the book! I think most people will enjoy it and/or be moved by it. And who knows, maybe it'll become your favorite book too!

Very high quality printing and art work. The binding is silver foil, not leather, and the cover is fabric. The pictures are kinda pasted onto the front. It's a vintage style and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Would prefer full leather but personal preference. As far as the book itself, it's beautiful. The pages are very high quality and thick. The printing is clear and crisp on cream paper with red accents that is very pleasing on the eye. The illustrations themselves are printed on a special white gloss paper. The main difference that this deluxe version has over the standard Alan Lee illustrated version (besides the obvious cover), is the lack of map on the inside cover. Instead they have a fully detached map that comes in each book. The deluxe version also has more detailed and delicate artwork for the chapter headings, and better border-art around the illustrations themselves.

Absolutely beautiful and high quality collection of the greatest stories ever told. The art is beautiful. This equally looks great on the shelf as part of your collection but also feels great to read with as well. Cherish these for decades to come!

Very good trade paperback set. I got the version shown in the picture. This review is about the physical books not the content as we all know LotR is renowned as a classic all time great story. I have always wanted to read LotR and never got around to it so that's why I bought this set. I am 3 weeks into reading them and 415 pages into Fellowship of the Ring at the time of writing this review so almost done with the first of the three books. These are trade paperback size so larger than mass paperback size and the text font size is good, it's very comfortably sized, it is not small. The books' binding is moderately loose. You don't have to fight too much to keep them open though not completely floppy either. The covers are matte and feel nice to hold, though I do have concerns about their longevity. The matte cover on my copy of Fellowship of the Ring is starting to peel slightly at the edges and corners from having handled it for a few weeks. I like all the cover artwork for the 3 books for the most part. Though Fellowship of the Ring as pictured I would have preferred a cozier art choice such as a drawing of the Shire or Rivendell and not a scary ring wraith but that's personal taste. The artwork, font and gold signature of Tolkein are all very well done. The spine of Fellowship is not cracking with use over the past 3 weeks of daily reading. No worries here about the pages falling out. The page thickness is just ok. Not to an extreme degree so but the text does show a bit on the other size under light. I can sometimes get slightly distracted by seeing the text on the other side of the page. But it's not a big concern. There are very little in terms of illustrations, which is too bad, but expected for a budget set. Same goes for no pull out map. There is a map at the back, but it's not fold out. Really would have been nice to have a fold out map along side me while reading as the geography of the world gets referenced constantly. The page numbers don't reset with each of the 3 volumes, it continues from the previous, which is a nice touch. Overall for $26 I'm very happy for the price. My biggest gripe is the cover starting to peel but for $26 hard to take off a star just for that. I think if you just want to read the books this is a no brainer over the smaller mass paperback set on Amazon which costs about as much since you will get a bigger book with bigger font size. Though that set includes the Hobbit and this does not. You should definitely read the Hobbit first before reading LotR as there's a lot of references to it and story continuations from it. So if you get this and haven't read the Hobbit you'll have to purchase the Hobbit separately.

The greatest fantasy novel of all time. Seriously. The timelessness of this grand trilogy can never be higly stated enough. In the age of social media, text speak and entitled people, this trilogy is a masterpiece. No AI assistance just raw vivid imagination that tells an epuc story akin to David and Goliath. With roots in grand storytelling, myths and legends, lessons about rhe value and importance if friendship - its a triloogy that gives you moreceach time you read it. And for some one who has read it at least 43 times in my 52 years, I think im allowed to make such bold claims. Turn yiur phone and laptop off. Make some snacks and a drink and allow yourself to be taken be taken on a classic adventure, across Middle Earth and eventually through the Gates of Sammath Naur on Mount Doom, in thecland of Mordor, where the shadows lie....

The product is in fantastic condidtion, good size of a font ;) very beautiful covers

Excelentes ediciones para leer una de las mejores obras de fantasía en la historia.

Wunderschön gearbeitet, auch im Detail absolut fantastisch - ein tolles und extrem hochwertiges Produkt. Die Bücher sind fein gebunden, ohne jeden Makel, alles passt wunderbar auch mit der Box. Die Illustrationen sind fantastisch und Druck und Papier vom Allerfeinsten. Wer das Non-Plus-Ultra der Buchmacherkunst sucht der ist hier genau richtig. Preis-Leistung stimmte hier bei 160 Euro.

The book came even before the time stated by Amazon ( to be expected from amazon for sure), the book is original no doubt, great and amazing new cover