J. R. R. Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring
Engraved after Gustave Doré
- 56 plates
- Gustave Doré
The book
A ring that should have been destroyed three thousand years ago is found in a hobbit's pocket, and nine walk south to take it back to the fire it came from. The company forms at Rivendell, crosses under a mountain instead of over it, loses its wizard in the dark, and comes apart on the riverbank.
Why Gustave Doré
Doré's Dante is the case for this. He spent years on descent — figures moving down through vaulted dark, always dwarfed, always lit from a source off-frame — and Moria is that same descent with the theology removed.
The Fellowship is also structurally a Doré book: a small band crossing enormous indifferent country, which is what nearly every plate he ever cut was already about.
What to look for
The river. The last stretch is a journey down water between cliffs, and Doré's engravers were unmatched at moving water under low light — the boats at Amon Hen are the plate the whole cycle was built toward.
