Illustrated by Pauline Baynes
by J. R. R. Tolkien
I have been reading J. R. R. Tolkien's books for a number of years, as you might guess from the fact that I've already reviewed two books on my blog (and I just started posting book reviews here at the end of last year).
Last year I started purchasing several more books that I'd heard about but didn't yet own, one of those was The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. While I have and continue to read other works by Tolkien I especially enjoy his works about Middle-earth, so what really drew me to this volume was that it is really an "in world" volume.
The present selection is taken from the older pieces, mainly concerned with legends and jests of the Shire at the end of the Third Age, that appear to have been made by Hobbits, especially by Bilbo and his friends, or their immediate descendants.... In the Red Book it is said that No. 5 was made by Bilbo, and No. 7 by Sam Gamgee. No. 8 is marked SG, and the ascription may be accepted. No. 12 is also marked SG, though at most Sam can only have touched up an older piece of the comic bestiary lore of which Hobbits appear to have been fond.
--from Preface by J. R. R. Tolkien
There are sixteen chapters in the book including such delightful stories as The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Man in the Moon stayed up Too Late, Oliphaut, Cat, and The Last Ship. You'll find stories that very obviously connect with the mythology of Middle-earth, and some that take a bit of work to discover where they fit.
The book includes many delightful illustrations by Pauline Baynes, Tolkien's preferred illustrator during his lifetime such as this one of Goldberry's daughter.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Summary: A collection of short tales and poems set within Tolkien's Middle-earth.
Technical: 64 pages, hardcover, published in Great Britain (ISBN 0048210196), seventh impression in 1973.
~Matt
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