Lord of the Rings
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The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings
Genre: Fantasy
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Original language: English
Date of first publication: 1954 and 1955.
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Previous: The Hobbit
"The Lord of the Rings" (eng.
The Lord of the Rings is an epic novel by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, one of the most famous works of the fantasy genre.
"The Lord of the Rings" was written as a single book, but because of the volume at the first edition it was divided into three parts: "The Brotherhood of the Ring", "Two Fortresses" and "The Return of the King".
In the form of a trilogy, it is published to this day, although often in a single volume.
"The Lord of the Rings" is one of the most famous and popular books of the XX century.
It has been translated into at least 38 languages.
This book has had a huge impact on fantasy literature, on board and computer games, on cinema and on world culture in general.
The film adaptation of the book, created by director Peter Jackson, also enjoyed great success.
Content
1 History of creation 2 History of publications 2.1 First edition 2.2 Publication in the USA.
Tolkien's "boom" 2.3 Translations into other languages
3 Plot 3.1 The Brotherhood of the Ring 3.2 Two Fortresses 3.3 The Return of the King
4 Sources of inspiration 4.1 Author's views 4.2 Mythology 4.3 Modernity
5 Translations and retellings into Russian 5.1 Variants of the transfer of names and titles in various translations
6 "The Lord of the Rings" in cinema 6.1 Animated film adaptations 6.2 The Peter Jackson Trilogy
7 "The Lord of the Rings" in computer games 8 Interesting facts 9 Notes 10 References
Creation history[edit / edit wiki text]
Initially, Tolkien did not intend to write a sequel to The Hobbit (The Lord of the Rings novel is actually such a sequel).
However, on November 15, 1937, during a lunch with Stanley Unwin, the owner of the Allen publishing house & Unwin, who published The Hobbit, Tolkien received an offer to submit other works for consideration.
The reviewer of the publishing house rejected the sent "Silmarillion", although he spoke positively about it.
Encouraged by this, Tolkien began writing a sequel to The Hobbit and already on December 16, 1937, in a letter to the publisher, he announced the first chapter of the new book.
Tolkien's goal was to create an English epic.
Tolkien was an Oxford philologist who was well acquainted with the medieval myths of Northern Europe, such as the "Hervere Saga", "The Saga of the Velsungs", "Beowulf", as well as with other Old German, Old Norse, Old English and medieval English texts.
"The Lord of the Rings" was also inspired by other literary sources, for example, the legends of the Arthurian cycle and the Karelo Finnish epic "Kalevala".
According to Tolkien, the Anglo Saxons sorely lacked an epic of this scale, he considered the Arthurian myth an inappropriate substitute because of its obvious Celtic, not Anglo Saxon roots.
The creation of an English epic was often discussed at Tolkien's meetings with the Inklings (a literary discussion group at Oxford University, at weekly meetings of this group Icelandic myths and his own unpublished writings were discussed).
The creation of an English epic was often discussed at Tolkien's meetings with the Inklings (a literary discussion group at Oxford University, at weekly meetings of this group Icelandic myths and their own unpublished writings were discussed).
Tolkien agreed with one of the members of this group, Clive S. Lewis, that in the absence of an English epic, it was necessary to create it ourselves.
In parallel with these discussions, in December 1937, Tolkien began "a new 'Hobbit'".
After several unsuccessful attempts, the story began to gain momentum, turning from a simple continuation of The Hobbit into a continuation of the unpublished Silmarillion.
The idea of the first chapter appeared immediately in a ready made form, although the reasons for Bilbo's disappearance, the idea of the importance of the Ring of Omnipotence and the title of the novel became clear only by the spring of 1938.
At first Tolkien wanted to write another story in which Bilbo, having spent all his treasures, embarked on new adventures, but, remembering the ring and its power, decided to write about it instead.
In the beginning, the main character was Bilbo, but then the author decided that the story was too serious for such a comical and funny character.
Tolkien considered sending his son Bilbo on a trip, but questions arose: where was his wife?
How did Bilbo let his son go on such a dangerous journey?
As a result, Tolkien decided to continue the tradition of ancient Greek legends, in which the nephew of the main character receives an artifact with magical power.
This is how the Hobbit Frodo Baggins appeared.
Being a perfectionist, Tolkien wrote slowly.
His literary work was often interrupted by academic duties, in particular, Tolkien had to examine students (even the first phrase of "The Hobbit" - English "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit" - was written on a blank page of the examination paper of one of the students).
During most of 1943, Tolkien did not work on the text, but continued working in April 1944.
Tolkien sent chapters from the novel to his son Christopher, who served in Africa in the British Air Force, and Clive Lewis.
In 1948, the story was completed, but editing of the early parts of the Lord of the Rings continued until 1949.
Publication history[edit / edit wiki text]
First edition[edit / edit wiki text]
Tolkien offered "The Lord of the Rings" to Allen Publishing & Unwin.
According to Tolkien's plan, the Silmarillion should have been published simultaneously with The Lord of the Rings, but the publishing house did not go for it.
Then in 1950, Tolkien offered his work to the Collins publishing house, but an employee of the publishing house Milton Waldman said that the novel "urgently needs to be cut".
In 1952 Tolkien wrote again in Allen & Unwin.
In particular, he wrote: "I would be happy to consider publishing any part of the text."
The publisher agreed to publish the novel in its entirety and without "cuts".
According to the contract, the author did not receive anything, but after the costs of publishing the book were paid off, the author received a significant share of sales.
Due to the lack of paper in the post war period, the publishers asked Tolkien to divide the novel into 6 books that do not have titles.
Then, for convenience, they were combined in pairs by the publisher into three parts, which were called "The Brotherhood of the Ring" (Eng.
The Fellowship of the Ring; books 1 and 2), "Two Fortresses" (eng.
The Two Towers; books 3 and 4) and "The Return of the King" (eng.
The Return of the King; books 5 and 6, appendices).
Tolkien himself was against dividing his novel into these parts and agreed to this only when no publisher agreed to print the whole book.
The point here was both the lack of paper, and the reduction in the price of the first volume, and the assessment of the success of the series.
Due to delays in the creation of a map of Middle earth and applications, the novel was published only in 1954-1955.
The three parts were published in England on July 29, 1954, November 11, 1954 and October 20, 1955, and somewhat later in the United States.
The delay in the publication of the last part was caused, in particular, by disputes over its title.
Tolkien did not like "The Return of the King" and he suggested calling this part "The War of the Ring", but the publishers resisted and insisted on their own version.
Since then, the Lord of the Rings has been called a trilogy.
Tolkien himself used this term, although in other cases he said that it was wrong.
The novel was published by various publishers in one, two, three, six or seven volumes.
The book was received by the public in different ways.
In general, most of the reviews were positive, and Tolkien's colleagues at the Inklings Club were simply delighted.
John's friend, Clive S. Lewis, predicted that the book would outlive its time.
At the same time, many newspaper critics noted the conservatism and lack of depth of characters.
The critic Edmund Wilson noted that Tolkien's book would be better suited to a younger audience, rather than adults[1].
Publication in the USA.
Tolkien's "boom" [edit / edit wiki text]
In the early 1960s, Donald A. Wollheim, an editor from the fiction department of Ace Books, discovered that the novel was not protected by copyright in the United States.
The reason is that the first edition in the USA used pages printed in England for the English edition.
A new edition of The Lord of the Rings was published in the United States, without the author's permission and without paying him any remuneration.
Tolkien brought this story to the attention of his American readers.
Tolkien's fans were so outraged that the publishing house was forced to curtail the sale of books and pay the author a nominal remuneration (much less than he would have received with a normal publication of the book).
After that, The Lord of the Rings was released in the United States with Tolkien's permission by Ballantine Books and was a stunning commercial success.
Not least of all, the reason was the format of the publication: paperback and relatively cheap.
Thanks to this, the book was available to an audience of teenagers and young people.
"The Lord of the Rings" has fallen on fertile ground.
The youth of the 1960s, fascinated by the hippie movement and the ideas of peace and freedom, saw Tolkien as a like minded person[2].
In the mid 1960s, "The Lord of the Rings" causes a real "boom".
The author himself was dissatisfied with his "cult", although he admitted that such a success flattered him.
He even had to change his phone number because his fans were bothering him with calls.
For the second edition of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien provided the book with extensive appendices about the world of Middle earth, and also made a number of changes to the text, thanks to which it became copyrighted in the United States.
Translations into other languages[edit / edit wiki text]
The novel has been translated into dozens of languages, and Tolkien, an expert in philology, often checked the quality of the translation himself.
The Lord of the Rings was first translated into Russian in 1976 by the Perm linguist A. A. Gruzberg.
Now about seven different translations of the book have been published (this number does not include free retellings, incomplete translations and unpublished translations), the translation of A. A. Kistyakovsky and V. S. Muravyev is widely known, which, according to critics, has a very juicy, although somewhat vulgar language and a figurative and vivid translation of poetic lines.
However, among fans of the work and many philologists, there is an opinion that this translation is nothing more than" otsebyatina", very far from the spirit and letter of the original[3].
The book became widely known in the USSR in the late 1980s early 1990s.
Role playing games on the ground in the USSR also arose among Tolkienists.
Now the Tolkienist Union has a very widespread distribution both in Russia and abroad.
Plot[edit / edit wiki text]
The plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is tied to the events of The Hobbit story and is its continuation.
The Brotherhood of the Ring[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: The Brotherhood of the Ring
The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the main character of the story "The Hobbit", retires and leaves his nephew Frodo a magic ring that makes every wearer invisible.
Frodo learns from the magician Gandalf that he got not a simple ring, but the Ring of Omnipotence itself, the creation of the dark lord Sauron, the enemy of the free peoples of Middle Earth from the land of Mordor, created to subdue all other magic rings.
The ring has its own will and is able to prolong the life of the owner, at the same time enslaving him, distorting his thoughts and causing him to desire to possess the Ring.
With the help of the Ring, Sauron, who was defeated many years ago, can regain his lost power.
There is only one way to destroy the Ring — by dropping it into the mouth of the Fiery Mountain Orodruin in Mordor, where it was forged.
With his hobbit friends Sam, Merry and Pippin, Frodo goes to the abode of the elves — Rivendell, to get rid of a dangerous gift.
Thanks to the help of the forest wizard Tom Bombadil, the heroes get to the village of Prigorye, where a guide — tracker Aragorn, better known by the nickname the Wanderer, is waiting for them in the Prancing Pony tavern.
The Hobbits are pursued by the black riders of the Nazgul, the ghostly servants of Sauron, who sense the Ring at a distance.
The Hobbits and Aragorn reach the hill of Zaverti, where the leader of the Nazgul seriously wounds Frodo in the shoulder with a Morgul blade.
With great difficulty and with the help of the elf Glorfindel, whom they met on the road, the heroes manage to reach Rivendell, where the lord of the elves Elrond heals a wounded hobbit.
Representatives of different peoples and kingdoms (such as humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) come to Rivendell to discuss what to do with the Ring.
Gandalf tells about the betrayal of the head of the Istari Order, the white magician Saruman, enslaved by Sauron, who coveted the Ring for himself and entered into a secret alliance with Mordor.
Aragorn turns out to be a descendant of the kings of Arnor and Gondor, whose dynasty, according to the prophecy, should return to the throne.
Boromir, the eldest and most beloved son of the current ruler of Gondor — Denethor II, offers to use the power of the Ring against the enemy.
Gandalf convinces him that the Ring can only do evil and enslave the mind of the wearer.
The council decides to try to destroy the Ring in Orodruin, Frodo is called to complete this mission.
Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, the dwarf Gimli and the elf Legolas, as well as the other three Hobbits, undertake to accompany Frodo.
This is how the Brotherhood of the Ring is formed.
After an unsuccessful attempt to cross the pass through Karadras, the heroes decide to go through the dungeons of Moria, the ancient kingdom of the dwarves.
The dungeons are invaded by evil goblins, as well as the ancient demon of Morgoth, awakened centuries ago by the dwarves — balrog.
After wandering around Moria for a long time, the group entered the Chronicle Hall, where they were attacked by orcs.
The squad was able to get out, but a balrog overtakes them on the Kazad Duma bridge.
Having entered into a fight with a balrog, Gandalf falls into the abyss together with the enemy, leaving the squad without a leader, but Aragorn takes his place.
The Brotherhood finds shelter in Lothlorien, the forest kingdom of the elves.
Frodo offers the Ring to the elf queen Galadriel, but she manages to overcome the temptation of the Ring's charms.
The party sets off down the Anduin River.
After landing on the shore, Boromir tries to convince Frodo and his companions to go to Gondor and try to use the Ring against the enemy.
The ring drives him mad for a moment, and he tries to take it away from Frodo.
Frodo hides with the help of the ring and decides to continue the journey alone, so as not to expose his friends to temptation and danger any more, but Sam manages to follow him.
Two fortresses[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: Two fortresses
The remaining members of the Brotherhood are attacked by orcs and goblins, Boromir heroically dies in battle, and Merry and Pippin are captured by the enemies.
Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli decide to go in pursuit of the orcs to save the Hobbits, thereby leaving Frodo and Sam alone to go on a mission.
Orc squad, pohi there were a lot of hobbits, mixed: some goblins came from the north (apparently from Moria) to take revenge on the Brotherhood, some orcs serve Sauron, and some serve Saruman.
They are quarreling, deciding which of the lords to carry the prisoners to, and at this moment they are attacked by the riders of Rohan — Rohirrim.
In a skirmish with the riders, the orc squad is destroyed, and Merry and Pippin manage to escape to the Fangorn forest, where they meet the Ents and their leader Treebeard, the guardian of the forest.
The Hobbits manage to persuade him and the other Ents to oppose Saruman, who destroys the forest around his fortress of Isengard and prepares an attack on Rohan.
Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are following the tracks of the Orcs.
Having received unexpected help from the second seneschal of the Mark Eomer (who led the attack on the orcs), they reach the edge of Fangorn and unexpectedly meet Gandalf in the forest.
He says that he defeated the Balrog and on the verge of death received new powers from above and a mission to replace Saruman in saving Middle earth.
Now his name is Gandalf the White.
The heroes go to the King of Rohan, Theoden, in Edoras.
The king fell into apathy under the influence of Grima's adviser, Saruman's spy.
Gandalf manages to convince Theoden to expel the traitor, gather troops and give Saruman a fight.
The armies of Rohan and Isengard converge in the great battle of Helm's Pad, where Saruman's supporters are initially close to victory, but the reinforcements brought by Gandalf decide the outcome of the battle in favor of the Rohirrim.
Meanwhile, the Ents, directed by Merry and Pippin, flood Isengard, destroying its entire garrison.
Gandalf deprives the defeated Saruman of his magical powers, expels Istari from the Order and breaks his staff.
Saruman is in despair, and his servant Grima throws the palantir (with which Sauron enslaved Saruman) from Orthank into the water.
Pippin picks up the discarded palantir, but Gandalf takes it away.
At night, during a rest stop, Pippin looks into the palantir and sees Sauron.
A Nazgul flies over the squad.
Gandalf realizes that the offensive of Mordor will soon begin and leaves, taking Pippin with him and handing over the palantir to Aragorn.
Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam are advancing to Mordor.
Their unwitting guide becomes Gollum a slippery creature who was once a Hobbit, but after becoming the owner of the Ring, went mad under its influence.
He calls the Ring "my darling" and dreams of owning it again.
Frodo, who has felt the evil power of the Ring on himself, feels sorry for Gollum and protects him from Sam's attacks.
Gollum suffers from a split personality: one part of him believes in the good Frodo, the other wants to kill the Hobbits and take possession of the Ring.
After Frodo unwittingly gave Gollum to a group of Gondor pathfinders led by Faramir, the second one wins: the guide leads the Hobbits into a trap the cave of the giant spider Shelob, the last brainchild of Ungoliant.
Frodo falls victim to Shelob's poison, but Sam manages to defeat the creature.
Deciding that his friend is dead, Sam continues on his way with the Ring alone, but suddenly the orcs come to the place of the battle with Shelob, take Frodo and take him to the fortress of Kirit Ungol.
From the overheard conversation of the orcs, Sam learns that Frodo is actually alive.
The Return of the King[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: The Return of the King
Gandalf and Pippin go to Gondor to warn the inhabitants of Minas Tirith about the upcoming offensive of the troops of Mordor.
He finds the weak willed Denethor, the governor of Gondor, in mourning for Boromir.
Theoden leads the Rohan army to help Gondor, and Merry secretly goes with the army, violating the king's ban.
Aragorn, along with Legolas and Gimli, passes along a secret path and calls for the help of an Army of the Dead the ghosts of people who once broke their oath to Aragorn's ancestor Isildur and have not known peace since then.
Orcs from Mordor captured Osgiliat and began to storm Minas Tirith.
After Denethor's youngest son, Faramir, was seriously wounded while defending Osgiliat, he decided in a frenzy to commit self immolation with his son's body.
Gandalf, who was barely warned by Pippin, managed to pull Faramir out of the fire, but Denethor burns himself.
Gandalf takes over the leadership of the defense of the city; at the same time, the long awaited Rohan reinforcements of Theoden come to the walls of the city.
Theoden's troops come to the rescue, the king himself is killed in battle, but his niece Eowyn, who went to war in the guise of a simple soldier, along with Merry, kill the leader of the Nazgul.
Meanwhile, the Haradrim army is approaching.
Aragorn, having lifted the pirate blockade of southern Gondor with the help of the Army of the Dead and bringing new strong reinforcements to the ships recaptured from the pirates, completes the defeat of the orcs and southerners.
Minas Tirith held out.
At the military council, it was decided to send an army to the Gates of Mordor to distract Sauron's attention from Frodo.
At the Gate, Gandalf rejects Sauron's ultimatum, the army of the West is attacked by many times the superior forces of Mordor.
Meanwhile, the Orcs who captured Frodo quarreled over the loot and almost completely killed each other.
Taking advantage of this, Sam frees Frodo.
With the last of their strength, the Hobbits reach the volcano Orodruin.
The exhausted Frodo finally falls under the power of the Ring and declares that he will not destroy it, but wants to be its Lord himself.
Sam is powerless to stop his friend.
Gollum attacks Frodo, bites off his finger and takes possession of the Ring, but inadvertently falls into the mouth of the volcano along with the "charm", thereby unwittingly destroying it.
Sauron, who ruled the Orcs and Mordor, is disembodied forever this time, his strongholds are being destroyed, his troops are fleeing in fear.
Giant eagles rescue Frodo and Sam from the slopes of the erupting Orodruin.
Aragorn is proclaimed king of Gondor by Gandalf himself in Minas Tirith, Faramir, healed by Aragorn, transfers power to him and marries Eowyn.
Aragorn himself takes Elrond's daughter Arwen to wife.
The four Hobbits are honored as heroes.
Upon returning home, they find that their country has been invaded by robbers led by Saruman.
The heroes raise the Hobbit people to revolt and expel the invaders, Saruman dies at the hands of his own henchman Grima while trying to escape.
Frodo returns to a peaceful life and describes his adventures in the Scarlet Book.
Over the years, old wounds and longing take hold of him more often.
Frodo, along with Bilbo and the keepers of the three Elven rings Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel sail on a ship to the overseas country of the elves the Far West.
With them, miracles and magic go away.
The Fourth epoch begins, the epoch of mortal people.
Sources of inspiration[edit / edit wiki text]
Author's views[edit / edit wiki text]
In The Lord of the Rings, John Tolkien embodied his views on literature, expressed by him in his essay "On Fairy Tales".
So, in his essay, Tolkien defends the need for unexpected happy endings in fairy tales and fantasy, he considers them part of the" escape " that this literature gives[4].
Tolkien consciously resorts to the technique of deus ex machina (intervention from above, which saves the heroes from death), when the eagles save Frodo and Sam, and when Gandalf miraculously resurrects[5][6].
(He compared such miracles in fairy tales with the gospel miracles that are not subject to explanation).
Tolkien gives the reader feelings of " consolation "(English consolation)," escape "(English escape) and light sadness, which he considers the key elements of the"fairy tale".
The author's Christian views had a certain influence on the novel.
In one of the letters, John Tolkien says: "Of course, the Lord of the Rings is basically a religious and Catholic work; at first it happened unconsciously, but the processing was already quite conscious.
Therefore, I either did not invest, or resolutely eliminated from the fictional world almost all references to "religion", to cults and rituals.
After all, the religious element was absorbed by the plot and symbolism.
Nevertheless, all this is terribly clumsy, and it sounds much more self confident than I actually feel.
For, to be honest, on a conscious level, I planned very little; and mainly I should be grateful that I was brought up (from the age of eight) in the Faith that nurtured me and taught me the little that I know"[7].
Tolkien was deeply impressed by the First World War, as well as the industrialization of Great Britain, which, in his opinion, destroyed the England that he knew and loved.
Therefore," The Lord of the Rings " is characterized by passeism (longing for the past).
Mythology[edit / edit wiki text]
Arthur and Merlin (Gustave Dore)
The Lord of the Rings was significantly influenced by the ancient British Arthurian epic.
The image of Gandalf as a wise wizard and mentor almost exactly corresponds to the role of Merlin in the epics of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Thomas Malory.
Aragorn the heir to the royal throne, confirming his right with a magic sword received from the elves, healing with the imposition of hands — is very close to King Arthur[8][9][10].
Some also see in him the image of Jesus Christ, as the heir of an exhausted dynasty, whose place is occupied by temporary workers and whose appearance is predicted in prophecy.
Among other parallels, Galadriel is noted — a reference to the Lady of the Lake, and the final with the departure of the main character to Valinor — an analogue of Avalon[9].
Tolkien himself, when compared to Sir Thomas Malory, replied: "Too much honor for me"[11].
The novel also has a number of parallels with the German Scandinavian mythology.
In particular, the appearance of the good magician Gandalf (gray beard, wide brimmed hat and cloak) is similar to the appearance of the Scandinavian god Odin in his hypostasis of a cultural hero and god of the giver[12].
The negative hypostasis of Odin — "the sower of discord" - is represented in the novel by the image of the evil magician Saru mana.
And one of the nicknames of Odin in his negative hypostasis Grima ("Hidden") - is a secret servant of Saruman.
The image of a broken sword being forged anew (one of the basic storylines of the myth of Sigurd), as well as the image of a warrior maiden (Tolkien's Eowyn), wounded in battle and immersed in a magical dream (the image of the valkyrie Brunhild), refers to Scandinavian mythology.
The image of Boromir, especially the scene of his death, has much in common with the ancient Frankish epic about Roland[9].
The image of a ring that gives power over the world, for which it is necessary to give up love, is present in Richard Wagner's opera tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung".
However, Tolkien himself denied the connection between Wagner's works and the plot of the Lord of the Rings.
A characteristic difference between Tolkien's plot and Wagner's is that, according to Tolkien, the Ring is destroyed not by the hero (in Wagner Brunhild), but by a small hobbit (a fabulously fantastic version of the image of the" little man", common in realistic literature of the XIX XX centuries).
Nevertheless, Tolkien did not deny[the source is not specified 733 days] that the myth from which the Ring of the Nibelungs appeared had an impact on the VC.
One can draw parallels between Fafnir and Gollum: both killed their friend for the sake of possessing the ring, and both were greatly changed by this[12].
It is also possible to draw a parallel between the "Lord of the Rings" and the "Elder Edda", as well as the Saga of the Velsungs, where there is an image of a cursed ring stolen from the dwarf Andvari and bringing death to its owner.
Tolkien himself did not like this comparison, according to him, "both rings were round, and this is where the similarity ends"[13].
Modernity[edit / edit wiki text]
There are studies suggesting that The Lord of the Rings was also influenced by real events that took place during Tolkien's time.
A very popular version is that the War of the Ring is an allegory of the Second World War, and Mordor, thus, is Nazi Germany.
According to many authors, since The Lord of the Rings was written during the Second World War, this war could not but have an impact on Tolkien, even against his will and consciousness.
Tolkien himself denied any allegorical nature of his works, the duality of interpretations and hidden hints at real events, peoples and countries.
According to his preface to the revised edition of The Lord of the Rings, the main motive of the book was the telling of the story, not the subtext:
I have to add something about the many theories and guesses that I have heard or read about the motives and meaning of history.
The main motive was the desire of the narrator to try to write a really long story that can hold the attention of readers for a long time, entertain them, give pleasure or inspire them…
As for the various kinds of subtext embedded by the author: there is none.
The book is neither allegorical nor topical.
Many things can be thought out, according to the tastes of fans of allegories or references to real reality.
But I have, and have always had, a sincere dislike for allegory in all its manifestations — ever since I became old enough and attentive enough to notice it.
I am much more fond of history, real or fictional, despite the fact that it does not always correspond to the ideas and experience of readers[14].
The original text (English)
I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning the motives and meaning of the tale.
The prime motive was the desire of a tale teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or
