Tales from the Perilous Realm Cover Revealed (01.07.08 by Pieter Collier) - Comments

To say it in David Brawn's words, "the flagship book this year will be The Tales from the Perilous Realm, planned to be the definitive reading edition of Roverandom (10 years since publication), Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf By Niggle, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Smith of Wootton Major".

Available for the first time in A-format on 1 september 2008, this is the definitive collection of tolkien's five acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tales in the vein of 'The Hobbit'.

Roverandom and the four other tales are written with the same skill, quality and hallmarks that made tolkien's Hobbit a classic. In the past they were largely overlooked because of their short lengths, but will now be finally together in a new volume which reaffirms tolkien's place as a master storyteller for readers young and old.

Tales from the Perilous Realmwas first released by Harper Collins in January 1997 and featured a cover by Roger Garland and included Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf By Niggle, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Smith of Wootton Major.

Since then there was a paperback edition in 1998 and the very popular black A-format paperback edition in 2002.

A similar collection, The Tolkien Reader, contains a slightly different (but overlapping) assortment of material.

Now in 2008 this book will include one extra story namely Roverandom. This year the tale celebrates it's tenth year since publication!

This new collection is fully illustrated throughout by Oscar-winning artist, Alan Lee, who provides a wealth of pencil drawings to bring the stories to life as he did so memorably for The Hobbit and The Children of Húrin. Alan also provides an Afterword, in which he opens the door into illustrating tolkien's world.

The 2008 edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm: Roverandom and Other Classic Faery Stories will be released as a hardback edition and a deluxe edition similar to the current Deluxe Editions.

I am very pleased to announce that it will now also include a special introduction written by the world-renowned Tolkien scholar and writer, Tom Shippey. World-renowned Tolkien author and expert, Tom Shippey, takes the reader through the hidden links in the tales to tolkien's Middle-earth in his Introduction, and recounts their history and themes.

Lastly, included as an appendix is tolkien's most famous essay, "On fairy-stories", in which he brilliantly discusses fairy-stories and their relationship to fantasy.

Taken together, this rich collection of new and unknown work from the author of The Children of Húrin will provide the reader with a fascinating journey into lands as wild and strange as Middle-earth.

It was my pleasure to find out, from David Brawn, that the Deluxe Edition will be limited to 2500 copies only and that it will match the other Deluxe Editions recently published. It will be released in December and will have a 'green' color. The first 500 copies will be signed by Alan Lee and will be sold, probably from early November, through tolkien.co.uk. It will be just regular copies of the Deluxe Edition and will be sold at the normal price as well. The only difference will be that they are signed by Alan Lee. There are no plans so far to release a super deluxe edition.

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