J.R.R. Tolkien
The Making of a Legend
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Narrated by:
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Simon Vance
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By:
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Colin Duriez
About this listen
Long before the successful The Lord of the Rings films, J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters had captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth? Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbade him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the First World War. An intensely private and brilliant scholar, he spent over 50 years working on the languages, history, peoples, and geography of Middle-earth, with a consistent mythology and body of legends inspired by a formidable knowledge of early northern European history and culture. J.R.R. Tolkien became a legend by creating an imaginary world that has enthralled and delighted generations. This delightful and accessible biography brings him to life.
Colin Duriez has appeared as a commentator on DVDs of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, and BBC television's The Worlds of Fantasy. He is also the author of The Inklings Handbook (with the late David Porter), J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Story of Their Friendship, and Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, and has contributed to definitive reference works, The Tolkien Encyclopedia, and a number of other tomes relating to Tolkien.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2012 Colin Duriez (P)2020 Oasis AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Ted Hughes
- The Unauthorized Life
- By: Jonathan Bate
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Ted Hughes, poet laureate, was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. With an equal gift for poetry and prose, and with a soul as capacious as any poet in history, he was also a prolific children's writer and has been hailed as the greatest English letter writer since John Keats. His magnetic personality and insatiable appetite for friendship, love, and life also attracted more scandal than any poet since Lord Byron.
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Phenomenal thanks to narrator!
- By equinox14 on 06-26-16
By: Jonathan Bate
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The Mark on the Wall
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Teresa Gallagher
- Length: 21 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a story from the Classic Women's Short Stories collection.
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The best story ever written
- By Deanna Salles-Freeman on 10-12-24
By: Virginia Woolf
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Origins of The Wheel of Time
- The Legends and Mythologies That Inspired Robert Jordan
- By: Michael Livingston, Harriet McDougal - contributor, Robert Jordan
- Narrated by: Harriet McDougal, Kate Reading, Michael Kramer, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Take a deep dive into the real-world history and mythology that inspired the world of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time®. This companion to the internationally bestselling series will delve into the creation of Jordan’s masterpiece, drawing from interviews and an unprecedented examination of his unpublished notes. Michael Livingston tells the behind-the-scenes story of who Jordan was, how he worked, and why he holds such an important place in modern literature. Origins of The Wheel of Time will provide exciting knowledge and insights to both new and longtime fans.
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Agenda driven ideological bend.
- By Maxwell on 06-19-23
By: Michael Livingston, and others
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Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely
- By: Andrew S. Curran
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Denis Diderot is often associated with the decades-long battle to bring the world's first comprehensive Encyclopedie into existence. But his most daring writing took place in the shadows. Thrown into prison for his atheism in 1749, Diderot decided to reserve his best books for posterity - for us, in fact. In the astonishing cache of unpublished writings left behind after his death, Diderot challenged virtually all of his century's accepted truths, from the sanctity of monarchy, to the racial justification of the slave trade, to the norms of human sexuality.
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lifelong coverage of his life.
- By Michael Daly on 03-22-21
By: Andrew S. Curran
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Tolkien and the Great War
- The Threshold of Middle-earth
- By: John Garth
- Narrated by: John Garth
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life.
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Excellent Text Frustratingly Recorded
- By Timothy Ortopan on 05-09-18
By: John Garth
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Emerson
- The Mind on Fire
- By: Robert D. Richardson
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 26 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord.
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Finally!
- By Douglas on 08-15-14
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Prince Albert
- The Man Who Saved the Monarchy
- By: A. N. Wilson
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawn from the Royal archives, including Prince Albert’s voluminous correspondence, this brilliant and ambitious book offers fascinating never-before-known details about the man and his time. A superb match of biographer and subject, Prince Albert, at last, gives this important historical figure the reverence and recognition that is long overdue.
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Excellent Bio!
- By Nancy on 04-24-24
By: A. N. Wilson
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Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
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A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
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Beatrix Potter
- A Life in Nature
- By: Linda Lear
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Linda Lear offers the astonishing portrait of an extraordinary woman who gave us some of the most beloved children's books of all time. Beatrix Potter found freedom from her conventional Victorian upbringing in the countryside. Nature inspired her imagination as an artist and scientific illustrator, but "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" brought her fame, financial success, and the promise of happiness when she fell in love with her editor, Norman Warne. After his tragic and untimely death, Potter embraced a new life as the owner of Hill Top Farm in the English Lake District.
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Narration is difficult!
- By Grateful Listener SME on 11-12-19
By: Linda Lear
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Philosopher of the Heart
- The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
- By: Clare Carlisle
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most passionate and challenging of all modern philosophers, and is often regarded as the founder of existentialism. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen pursuing the question of existence - how to be a human being in the world? - while exploring the possibilities of Christianity and confronting the failures of its institutional manifestation around him.
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Fatally flawed
- By Citizen M on 02-26-23
By: Clare Carlisle
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Tony Hillerman
- A Life
- By: James McGrath Morris
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The author of 18 spellbinding detective novels set on the Navajo Nation, Tony Hillerman simultaneously transformed a traditional genre and unlocked the mysteries of the Navajo culture to an audience of millions. His best-selling novels added Navajo Tribal Police detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee to the pantheon of American fictional detectives.
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Well written biography of an American legend.
- By Kevin McFarlane on 02-05-22
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Nazi Literature in the Americas
- By: Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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A tour de force of black humor and imaginary erudition, Nazi Literature in the Americas presents itself as a biographical dictionary of writers who espoused extreme right-wing ideologies in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Eerie and fascinating
- By Jikai Zenshin on 03-19-21
By: Roberto Bolaño, and others
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- The Threshold of Middle-earth
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- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
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Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life.
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Excellent Text Frustratingly Recorded
- By Timothy Ortopan on 05-09-18
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The Oxford Inklings
- Lewis, Tolkien and Their Circle
- By: Colin Duriez
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
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The Oxford Inklings tells the story of the friendships, mutual influence, and common purpose of the Inklings - the literary circle which congregated around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Meeting in pubs or Lewis' college rooms, they included an influential array of literary figures. They were, claimed poet and novelist John Wain, bent on 'the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life'. Tolkien and Lewis expert Colin Duriez unpacks the Inklings' origins, relationships, and the nature of their collaboration.
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Great insights into the Inklings
- By Michael W Plunket on 08-12-24
By: Colin Duriez
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Anything You Can Imagine
- Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth
- By: Ian Nathan, Andy Serkis - foreword
- Narrated by: Tristram Wymark
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The definitive history of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth saga, Anything You Can Imagine takes us on a cinematic journey across all six films, featuring brand-new interviews with Peter, his cast and his crew. From the early days of daring to dream it could be done, through the highs and lows of making the films, to fan adoration and, finally, Oscar glory.
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A journey to Middle Earth and Back Again
- By John Bridges on 01-27-19
By: Ian Nathan, and others
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The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
- Revised and Expanded edition
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter - editor, Christopher Tolkien - editor
- Narrated by: Samuel West, Mike Grady, Chris Smith
- Length: 29 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The comprehensive collection of letters spanning the adult life of one of the world’s greatest storytellers, now revised and expanded to include more than 150 previously unseen letters, with revealing new insights into The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.
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For Tolkien fans who can't get enough (Like me)!
- By Ross on 02-29-24
By: J. R. R. Tolkien, and others
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The Fall of Gondolin
- By: Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable, is central to the enmity of two of the greatest powers in the world. Morgoth of the uttermost evil seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city of his Elven enemies, while the gods in Valinor refuse to support Ulmo Lord of Waters' designs to protect it. Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, and guided unseen by Ulmo he sets out on the fearful journey to Gondolin to warn them of their coming doom.
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Feels like a research paper
- By D. Limback on 03-18-20
By: Christopher Tolkien, and others
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The Fall of Númenor
- And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-Earth
- By: J.R.R. Tolkien, Brian Sibley - editor
- Narrated by: Samuel West, Brian Sibley
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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J.R.R. Tolkien famously described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a ‘dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) told’. And for many years readers would need to be content with the tantalizing glimpses of it found within the pages of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, including the forging of the Rings of Power, the building of the Barad-dûr and the rise of Sauron.
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A dry compilation of old material, minus images
- By SC on 11-12-22
By: J.R.R. Tolkien, and others
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Tolkien and the Great War
- The Threshold of Middle-earth
- By: John Garth
- Narrated by: John Garth
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life.
-
-
Excellent Text Frustratingly Recorded
- By Timothy Ortopan on 05-09-18
By: John Garth
-
The Oxford Inklings
- Lewis, Tolkien and Their Circle
- By: Colin Duriez
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Oxford Inklings tells the story of the friendships, mutual influence, and common purpose of the Inklings - the literary circle which congregated around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Meeting in pubs or Lewis' college rooms, they included an influential array of literary figures. They were, claimed poet and novelist John Wain, bent on 'the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life'. Tolkien and Lewis expert Colin Duriez unpacks the Inklings' origins, relationships, and the nature of their collaboration.
-
-
Great insights into the Inklings
- By Michael W Plunket on 08-12-24
By: Colin Duriez
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Anything You Can Imagine
- Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth
- By: Ian Nathan, Andy Serkis - foreword
- Narrated by: Tristram Wymark
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The definitive history of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth saga, Anything You Can Imagine takes us on a cinematic journey across all six films, featuring brand-new interviews with Peter, his cast and his crew. From the early days of daring to dream it could be done, through the highs and lows of making the films, to fan adoration and, finally, Oscar glory.
-
-
A journey to Middle Earth and Back Again
- By John Bridges on 01-27-19
By: Ian Nathan, and others
-
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
- Revised and Expanded edition
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter - editor, Christopher Tolkien - editor
- Narrated by: Samuel West, Mike Grady, Chris Smith
- Length: 29 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The comprehensive collection of letters spanning the adult life of one of the world’s greatest storytellers, now revised and expanded to include more than 150 previously unseen letters, with revealing new insights into The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.
-
-
For Tolkien fans who can't get enough (Like me)!
- By Ross on 02-29-24
By: J. R. R. Tolkien, and others
-
The Fall of Gondolin
- By: Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable, is central to the enmity of two of the greatest powers in the world. Morgoth of the uttermost evil seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city of his Elven enemies, while the gods in Valinor refuse to support Ulmo Lord of Waters' designs to protect it. Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, and guided unseen by Ulmo he sets out on the fearful journey to Gondolin to warn them of their coming doom.
-
-
Feels like a research paper
- By D. Limback on 03-18-20
By: Christopher Tolkien, and others
-
The Fall of Númenor
- And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-Earth
- By: J.R.R. Tolkien, Brian Sibley - editor
- Narrated by: Samuel West, Brian Sibley
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
J.R.R. Tolkien famously described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a ‘dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) told’. And for many years readers would need to be content with the tantalizing glimpses of it found within the pages of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, including the forging of the Rings of Power, the building of the Barad-dûr and the rise of Sauron.
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-
A dry compilation of old material, minus images
- By SC on 11-12-22
By: J.R.R. Tolkien, and others
What listeners say about J.R.R. Tolkien
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-09-20
Perfect Length — Perfect Telling
This is my third Tolkien biography audiobook. I always love Simon Vance’s narration. The story moves along at a good pace and was overall a good length. Some interesting details not found in other Tolkien bios. Highly recommended.
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- Luke B.
- 10-27-20
Very insightful
While there may be other biographies that are better I found this one very helpful and insightful. Tolkein as the philologist was new to me and yet not. Having read his stories and experienced his mind, it was known but not realized. The biography gave depth to many key areas of his writings. There is certainly a sense that what he wrote was him. I cant say that it kept me spellbound but it was very good.
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- D M BOYCE
- 09-02-22
Essential for any Tolkien student
Well written easy to hear back story for a life well lived. Nice addition as an overview.
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- Timothy Sherman
- 02-02-23
Lord of the Rings
This book has great detail of Tolkiens life. And the way it is written makes the book interesting to all. (Even those who don’t care much for biographies).
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