The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set: The Classic Bestselling Fantasy Novel Hardcover – Special Edition, 19 Jun. 2014

Beautiful hardcover books, it really like them and they feel quality - Just a word of note for people purchasing. This does NOT contain the hobbit book as it contains the 3 LOTR books and a readers companion. Saying that, all the information from the hobbit you need for reading these books is told in the prologue so it is possible to read without.

This set is a wonderful collection for Tolkien fans, I own nearly all easily available editions of this collection other than original first editions and I can honestly say this is one of the best sets there is. The paper is of fine quality and the hardback of the book is of solid make. The dust jackets have beautiful original illustration's that give off a real vintage and classical look if the newer illustrated more elaborate editions are not your cup of tea. The print and font is pleasing to the eye and reading it is very comfortable. Together they look fantastic and sit snuggly in their collective box.At this price it is a steal for the quality of books you are getting so I highly recommend.One small concession I would point out is that Amazon or whoever is delivering these really could do with giving a little more care with transporting these, the box requires more protection on the inside as if handled improperly these items would most certainly get badly damaged, luckily mine arrived fine.

Best edition I’ve owned. The quality of the text editing, paper, print setting, and binding are all excellent. At last all the printers’ errors are gone. Includes all the appendices. I can see it getting very well thumbed.

Beautiful collection. Love the quality. Kinda wish it was just the trilogy and didn't include the companion book so it would be a a nice set of the three books. Arrived in perfect condition.

I own many editions of LOTR (I’m like that!) and this set has much to recommend it.What I love about this particular edition is that we have, for the first time, the LOTR as Tolkien originally intended it. It has Tolkien’s original cover designs for the first edition ( which George Allen and Unwin rejected on cost grounds), it incorporates the leaves from the Book of Mazabul (also originally rejected on cost grounds) it has red text in the map of the Shire and for the Ring Tengwar as Tolkien originally wished and, most importantly, the text is fully corrected so all the inconsistencies and errors which crept in over the years (and which infuriated Tolkien) are finally laid to rest.I much prefer these to the illustrated editions. Howe, Lee and Naismith are of course excellent visual interpreters of Tolkien’s world, but their illustrations are not Tolkien’s and who knows what he would have thought of them?Much has been said about these current editions being printed in China. I have the first prints which were printed in Italy but I had them bound by the Chelsea Bindery into one glorious volume. I wanted the original separate volumes again as well (as I said, I’m like that) so I acquired these later Chinese printed versions. I am not at all dissatisfied. Yes, the paper quality was marginally better on the editions printed in Italy (it was more off-white) , but not significantly so. The Chinese prints are still very nice, tightly bound, laying flat and on good quality paper. They are much nicer than the poor quality hardbacks usually put out by British publishers today. Some have reported problems with the covers but mine are fine and you can rely on Amazon’s replacement policy if you happen to get a poor set.The one difference is with the excellent Reader’s Companion by Hammond and Scull. This printing is much thicker than my original volume and not as attractive. I have kept my original printing of the Companion and given this one away. I have also discarded the slip case - I originally wanted the three books as separate volumes not in the slipcase with the Companion but this set was actually cheaper to buy.

Oh gosh, what to say of this edition. It is such a hodgepodge of good and strange and wrong... I'm not going to talk about the story, everybody who even looks at reviews of LOTR knows that they are looking at an amazing feat of fantasy, so that is not necessary.The books themselves then, as items of paper, cardboard and ink. The covers are great, although slightly pixelated, something that wouldn't have happened even in the '70s. Tolkien knew exactly what he wanted for the story he knew so well, and it's wonderful to see it the way he wanted it. However, the paper inside is thin to the point where you can, just, see the lines on the next page through them. The maps are OK to have. However, they are half or smaller than the original size. I have a set of hardback copies from 1970, the maps in which don't just fold out sideways but also up. And the map in The Return of the King is very different than the maps in books 1 & 2. It shows Rohan, Gondor and Mordor only and much larger than in the earlier two maps. In this edition the maps in all 3 books are the same.Considering the thin and very modern paper, it is odd - but delightful - to see that the books are actually printed and bound in signatures. That doesn't happen much anymore. However, they are also heavily glued, much like the way paperbacks are. Such a strange combination!All in all quite acceptable for the price - I bought it in the Black Friday sale - and nice to have a completely corrected version. Christopher Tolkien did an amazing job on his father's work and I can only recommend this work from that point of view. It can't have been easy, because a lot of material - also of these books, even though they were printed in JRR Tolkien's lifetime - was written on scraps of paper and in no particular order. So hat off to the son who made his father's work the work of his own lifetime!The only reason for the 4 stars, rather than 5, is the quality of the paper, the size of the maps and the fact that all the maps are the same, which is not the way it originally was.