Abstract

Mark Doyle's Utopian and Dystopian Themes in Tolkien's Legendarium reads Tolkien's work through the history of utopian and dystopian thought. The aim of this new study is not to prove that Tolkien set out to write dystopian fiction or create a blueprint for a utopian society, but that utopian and dystopian societies and settings crucially inform his legendarium. By placing his study outside of its usual fantasy context, Doyle gives us a valuable societally focused and historicized contribution to both Tolkien and utopian studies respectively, yet one occasionally marred by the author's own unexamined value judgments.The book examines several aspects of Tolkien's legendarium, from its utopian and dystopian literary...