Book Review.

Joseph Pearce, Tolkien: Man and Myth (San Francisco, CA: 1998) 242 pp. $24.95 hard cover. ISBN 0-89870-711-0

This book raises a question that intrigues Catholics and incenses the opposition: Did a Catholic family man write the greatest book of the 20th century?

In a British poll of more than 25,000 people, conducted in 1997, readers of Waterstone's and viewers of Channel 4 voted Tolkien's Lord of the Rings the "greatest book of the century." The critical response to this singular honour, however, was strikingly at variance with such popular acclaim. It is precisely this anomaly, a fact that is congruent with the controversies that dogged Tolkien throughout his literary life, that motivated Joseph Pearce to explore the man whose critical opprobrium stood in such stark contrast with his public approbation.

In a nutshell, as the author informs us with a lisping pun, Tolkien is misunderstood because he is mythunderstood. For the author of Lord of the Rings, a myth is not a leap from reality but a leap into reality. Modern critics, according to Pearce, regard myth as a synonym for a lie. For Tolkien, it was the only way that certain transcendent truths could be expressed in intelligible form. Rev. James V. Schall, for one, would agree. In his essay "On the Reality of Fantasy", the Georgetown University scholar asserts that "the unsuspecting reader who thinks he is only reading 'fantasy' in reading Tolkien will suddenly find himself pondering the state of his soul because he recognizes his own soul in each fairy-tale" (Crisis, March 1992).

Tolkien's popular acclaim should not be surprising. After all, his books have sold more than fifty million copies worldwide and sales show no sign of abating. What is surprising, even astonishing, is the vitriol directed at Tolkien's works by the literati. As one writer in the Guardian states, "[The Lord of the Rings] must be by any reckoning one of the worst books ever written." The great question then: Who is living in a world of fantasy, Tolkien's readers or his critics?

In order to understand the myth, Pearce first seeks to understand the man. He presents a biographical sketch of the man, placing special emphasis on Tolkien's relationship with C.S. Lewis and other members of the Inklings. Thus he unfolds the man behind the myth. But there is also the myth behind the man. This myth--the "True Myth"--is Catholic Christianity, which relates to Tolkien's work as God's Creation relates to the author's "subcreation". The two geneses, therefore, do not contradict each other. Good is original good, while evil is the perversion of what is good. As Tolkien writes, "What we call bad things are good things perverted....This perversion arises when a conscious creature becomes more interested in itself than in God...the sin of Pride."

Joseph Pearce has provided us with a readable, informative, and insightful account of his subject. He has also regarded us with his gift for giving contrasting opposites both an economy of expression and a wealth of thought. Let me offer but three examples: "Whereas Star Trek expresses the desire to leave home and explore the universe, The Lord of the Rings expresses the desire to find home and discover the universals." "To many of Tolkien's millions of readers, Christian and otherwise, the myth he subcreated is not a flight from reality but an escape to reality."

"For Tolkien, Catholicism was not an opinion to which one subscribed but a reality to which one submitted."

Tolkien: Man and Myth itself is a story, one that would have greatly amused its creator. It represents another instance of the triumph of Christian light over pretentious egoism; more specifically, the spectacular and unparalleled success of Lord of the Rings over what Professor Jeffrey Richards has described as the "sneering chorus of intellectual snobs" who fail to see its merit.

Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome's College, University of Waterloo, ON, and the author of several books.