The hobbit and lord of the rings book box set

Editions of J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between and , The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling novels ever written , with over million copies sold. The title of the novel refers to the story's main antagonist , the Dark Lord Sauron , [a] who had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire , a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, most notably the hobbits Frodo Baggins , Sam , Merry and Pippin. Although generally known to readers as a trilogy, the work was initially intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion , but this idea was dismissed by his publisher. Structurally, the novel is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with several appendices of background material included at the end.