FW: archives at nybooks: Kicking the Hobbit

Sun Dec 22 21:30:11 CST 2002

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From: web at nybooks.com (The New York Review of Books)
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 18:23:44 -0500
To: archives at nybooks.com
Subject: archives at nybooks: Kicking the Hobbit

With the release of the second part of "The Lord of the Rings" in
theaters this week, and a break in the Review's regular publishing
schedule, we thought it would be appropriate to call your attention
to several articles in the archives on Tolkien's fictional world.

But first, a Christmas story by Vladimir Nabokov.

Happy holidays.

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archives at nybooks
December 19, 2002

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The Christmas Story
By Vladimir Nabokov
November 16, 1995
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1722

Silence fell. Pitilessly illuminated by the lamplight, young and
plump-faced, wearing a side-buttoned Russian blouse under his black
jacket, his eyes tensely downcast, Anton Goliy began gathering the
manuscript pages that he had discarded helter-skelter during his
reading. His mentor, the critic from Red Reality, stared at the
floor as he patted his pockets in search of some matches. The writer
Novodvortsev was silent too, but his was a different, venerable,
silence. Wearing a substantial pince-nez, exceptionally large of
forehead, two strands of his sparse dark hair pulled across his bald
pate, gray streaks on his close-cropped temples, he sat with closed
eyes as if he were still listening, his heavy legs crossed and one
hand compressed between a kneecap and a hamstring. This was not the
first time he had been subjected to such glum, earnest rustic
fictionists.

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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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