Hidden under the hideous cover that lent him the French publishers Press Pocket, hides one of the biggest book of contemporary literature, whose only misfortune to have been wrongly attached by the French literary establishment, which the did not read, the genre of fantasy. Released in 1954 and regarded in England and the United States as a classic of contemporary literature, Lord of the Rings is the greatest mythological creation of the century. There is the breath of a époquée like no other, where poetry and verses of old English and Norse legends as Beowulf and the Eddas mingle with the most amazing linguistic creations and magic of a beautiful style -which unfortunately suffers from a woeful French translation. There are also echoes of the Battle of the Somme where Tolkien lost two of his most faithful friends, who never ceased to haunt him for the rest of his life when he became Emeritus Professor of Anglo-Saxon at University of Oxford. Is it because of this genesis that this epic is crossed by a permanent melancholy and that the sacrifice of Frodo to save our world (the novel is set in a past of our land reinvented) looks so real? For those who read this fascinating literary creation, these questions remain and are the wealth of a work to the evocative power unheard and whose reading levels are many. So forget the good French prejudices about Fantasy literature, do not be disassembled by the rather childish side of the first pages of the book and discover this work I class in the pantheon of contemporary literature alongside Trial of Kafka, and all that has been written Joyce and Thomas Mann. Finally, here is the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien summary: "This is a book about death and the temptation of immortality (or power) in humans." Not much to do with the summary of editing Press Pocket!