Tolkien’s Secret
8th June 2024
Why do we like Tolkien’s stories? This question has puzzled many authors who have dedicated books, studies, and essays to Middle-earth. Even some of the critics who have downplayed the value of the British author, considering him an unserious writer who invented escapist fairy tales for adults, could not suppress their curiosity when The Lord of the Rings trilogy was declared by Waterstones to be the most read novel of the 20th century. “How is this possible?” they wondered. “A storyteller, even if he is an Oxford professor, became the most influential author of the 20th century? Surely Hesse, Joyce, Kafka, Hemingway, Marquez, and many others were the most read, the most beloved citizens of the Republic of Letters. Why do readers like Tolkien’s stories?”
If you have to ask, you’ll never understand the answer.