[Lalwendë]

Those characteristics of the 'Edwardian Adventure Story' could equally apply to the genre of Magic Realism, so I although they are applicable to the former genre, I think they can also be applied to others, and so maybe it is appropriate to discover what they too may be before classifying Tolkien in that genre.

I think where the 'Edwardian' moniker often springs from is that Tolkien's work at face value alone is like those well-known adventure stories, but as we know, it goes much deeper than being a simple adventure. At heart, Tolkien's work gives out some fundamentally modern messages - pessimism that the world will ever be free of war, the abuse of power, how the humblest members of society can play an important part, how Kings must 'earn' their respect, etc.... I think Tolkien also suffers somewhat because some cannot see beyond his religious beliefs and they cannot accept a writer who is religious as 'modern'.

I also think that in contrast to the list the writer has presented us with, Tolkien's work is much less didactic - witness the huge amount of arguments we have on here about characters, motivations and messages. You just could not have that level of argument about say RL Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling.

So, I think Tolkien's work does display some of those characteristics, and so it does share something with the Edwardian adventure story, but it is very different and much, much deeper.