Book cover of The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays

Book description

Essays on medieval language and literature including a fascinating piece on invented languages.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I loved this book because it’s as close as we can get to a Tolkien “Guide to Fantasy.” It contains two of the best essays I’ve ever read: the cauldron of stories described in “On Fairy-stories” changed the way I understand art and tradition, and Tolkien’s defense of the Beowulf poet as a literary craftsman made me want to learn Old English and helped me understand what he was trying to build in Middle-earth. 

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