The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's three-volume epic, is set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth -- home to many strange beings, and most notably hobbits, a peace-loving "little people," cheerful and shy. Since its original British publication in 1954-55, the saga has entranced readers of all ages. It is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale. Critic Michael Straight has hailed it as one of the "very few works of genius in recent literature." Middle-earth is a world receptive to poets, scholars, children, and all other people of good will. Donald Barr has described it as "a scrubbed morning world, and a ringing nightmare world...especially sunlit, and shadowed by perils very fundamental, of a peculiarly uncompounded darkness." The story of this world is one of high and heroic adventure. Barr compared it to Beowulf, C.S. Lewis to Orlando Furioso, W.H. Auden to The Thirty-nine Steps. In fact the saga is sui generis -- a triumph of imagination which springs to life within its own framework and on its own terms. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892年1月3日－1973年9月2日)，英国作家、诗人、语言学家及大学教授。1915年毕业于牛津大学，研习盎格鲁—撒克逊历史和语言，显示出令人瞩目的语言学天才。随后从军，参与一战，一年后因病就医转文职至终战，奇幻写作生涯在此期间发端。1925-1959年于牛津担任教授，同时展开一系列神话故事的创作，认为撰写和阅读神话是对生命中至高真理的沉思。他最脍炙人口的作品有《霍比特人》（1937）和《魔戒》（1954—1955），被誉为现代史诗奇幻作品的鼻祖，影响深远。