Tolkien on Fairy-Stories (Book Review)

TOLKIEN ON FAIRY-STORIES. J.R.R. Tolkien. Expanded edition, with Commentary and Notes by Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-0007244669. Hardcover. 320pp. 16.99 [pounds sterling]. WITHIN THE PAGES OF ANY JOURNAL CONCERNED WITH J.R.R. TOLKIEN, it should go without saying that "On Fairy-Stories" is one of his most important works, yet one of the least read outside of scholarly circles. We might therefore expect a variorum edition, with detailed discussion of the textual history of the essay, copious notes and commentary, contemporary reports, and two bibliographies to be read even more closely by scholars and serious students, but even less so by everybody else. That being said, I must direct the remainder of my evaluation toward that small minority, or else abandon my task. I do this with high hopes that Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson's Tolkien On FairyStories will find a larger audience than I have reason to expect, because the book is a treasure trove, and one not to be hoarded, but shared.