NP "the formerly colonised coming back to haunt us"

[Dave Monroe]

Matthew Hodgart
Kicking the Hobbit
May 4, 1967
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/12093

Although I like reading epics, medieval romances, and
folktales, for many years I could not get beyond the
barrier of that first all-too-Hobbit sentence: "When
Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would
shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday
with a party of special magnificence, there was much
talk and excitement in Hobbiton." When I forced myself
inside I began to read with growing speed and
excitement; then went back to The Hobbit (which is a
very good children's book); then read most of the
Rings
for a second time, at first enjoying Tolkien's
learning and craftsmanship, but ending up
disenchanted.


Does Frodo Live?
By Janet Adam Smith
December 14, 1972
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/9988

Long meditated and worked over, The Lord of the Rings
appeared in 1954 (Vol. I) and 1955 (Vols. II and III).
Tolkien was no longer talking specially to children,
but he had taken a good deal over from his earlier
tale. The reluctant hero is again a hobbit, Bilbo's
heir Frodo; but the world he is launched into is far
more complex and mysterious.


The Hobbit Habit
By Robert M. Adams
November 24, 1977
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8321

The siege of Isengard is very like the siege of
Gondor; again and again the heroes are called on to
crawl through dark and perilous underground passages
to which Agnew's wisdom applies -- when you've
seen one tunnel, you've seen 'em all. And the hobbits
take an inordinate number of forced marches
cross-country, which exhaust not only the little
creatures but the reader. Still, it is a world in
which one can be caught up, with surprises and
suspense to atone for
the occasional longueurs, and a reassuring sense over
all that Good is always good to its supporters and
will certainly prevail.


Goblin Market
By Louis Menand
January 17, 2002
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15101

I read The Lord of the Rings in 1963, when I was
eleven, two years before the American paperback
edition became a cult book on college campuses. ... I
had a superior attitude toward the paperback and
toward the Tolkien craze when they came along, like a
person who has been summering in the Hamptons since
the days when they were mostly potato fields. I felt
pleased to have read the book before it was a book
everyone read. It's a feeling one does not necessarily outgrow.

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