Who were J.R.R. Tolkiens friends and what were the critics and publics response to the Return of the King book

Question

I'm doing an english project and I need to know the critic's response to The Return of the King BOOK . I also need to know the public's response to it. Also I need to know why J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit. Finally, I need to know who J.R.R. Tolkien's best friends were and what their influence on him was.

Answer 1

I can help you with part of that. JRR Tolkien was great friends with C.S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. I don't know if Lewis influenced him, what I DO know is that Tolkien actually converted Lewis from an Atheist to Christianity. Lewis and Tolkien had both written their trilogies/chronicles before meeting one another, so no one can say they copied each other; in fact, it was their similar storylines that made them friends.

I don't know what the critic's response was to RotK, but I would GUESS it probably wasn't good. However, I don't know. The public LOVED Tolkien's work, the LotR, and it was quoted in a paper, "There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who have read the LotR, and those who are going to." The public demanded answers to the histories and stuff of LotR, so Tolkien had to write other books, probably why he wrote the Hobbit, as well as the Silmarillion, etc. going into the History of Middle Earth. It was because the fans were so FANATIC about it they wanted to know the reasons for everything.

Tolkien set the standard for fantasy writing, and people have unsuccessfully tried to copy him since.

Answer 2

Look around on the internet. Here is a good place to start.

http://www.tolkien.co.uk/frame.asp