Eurytus,<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Don’t get me wrong, I love the book and it will always have a place in my heart for encouraging my interest in reading, but it is far from flawless. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>It is as near to flawless as I can see. The plot is perfect, the prose is beautiful, and the descriptions of the land are stunning. But also the atmosphere and heroics work superbly. <P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>But Tolkien is not so good at writing dialogue….<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Tolkien has given English literature some of the most quotable dialogue ever! I won’t even start as I’ll be here for a couple of hours writing it down!<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>…..and creating believable characters. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>What? Have you ever felt for any characters more in a book? I have not. (Please let me know and I’ll give those books a read!). Didn’t you cry for Sam, Frodo, Pippin and Merry? I’m not ashamed to say I did. Some characters where not so ‘3 dimensional’, but you’ve got a sweeping epic here. One of Tolkien’s points in the prologue was that the book was not long enough. If it was longer, we may well have seen more of (say Legolas’s) character.<P>His superb characterisation can best be seen in Book 4, (the best book in the whole LOTR), where we see Frodo Sam and Gollum trek towards Mordor. Stunning.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Now some of his dialogue is great but much of it does not sound like someone really talking. It actually sounds like a Shakespearean actor emoting to an audience. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Maeglin has already answered this. All I can say is that the language is beautiful, and works well with the story.
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