LotR, an Edwardian Adventure Story?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Hah! So ya wanna open up that little can of creepy crawlies?

Is there a "boarding school" tradition of literature in England? I think there is.

It seems only with Book VI does Harry finally embark on the "Quest Proper". At least in LotR the Quest is begun "proper" at the beginning of Book 2 (of 6). Does this perhaps indicate the relative points at which the respective authors (JRRT & JKR) departed from the safety nets of their literary forebears?

There most definitely is a tradition of Boarding School stories! There were Enid Blyton's St Clare's and Mallory Towers series (where the slightly priggish yet bad tempered Darrell always won out over the whinging Gwendolyn), the Chalet School series, and you always find plenty of amusing and much older boarding school novels in second hand bookshops. They have certain features they all seem to share - the terrifying French teacher, the midnight feast, the younger child winning out over the bully...

JK Rowling follows in a great (and very popular) tradition, even bringing in elements of that British kids' TV classic, Grange Hill, in the form of a wider range of races and classes of child, and more 'modern' behaviour. I'm sure someone will have written about this somewhere, as there are so many interesting parallels to be drawn.

I often think she may have begun with the idea of where she wanted to go, but began to write cautiously, aiming to gain her audience by following in the 'school story' tradition. As the books took off, she may have been able to gain more and more space for developing the depth of the tales - I notice that around Book 3 (Azkhaban) they seem to take on a new depth and darkness, and that cannot simply be due to Harry's getting older.

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

The first few HP books, at least, strike me as having more of a mystery structure than anything else.

Good point. I'd not really considered this, but these books also have strong elements of mystery stories. I think they have a lot more 'teeth' than the Famous Five or Secret Seven, but especially in the first two books, the plotting takes that kind of structure, with a 'reveal' at the end. I think this is still there in the later books, but this is slightly more 'buried' and there is certainly less of the 'Scooby Doo, Pesky Kids' style ending of the second book!

Comparing Tolkien to Rowling, here are two particular areas in which they diverge as writers - good grist to the mill for those who wish to defend Rowling from accusations of plagiarism of Tolkien's work! Tolkien did not have the 'safety' nor the enclosure (the start and end of school years and the confines of the school itself) provided by following a 'school story' - his work was exceptionally open-ended and explored a wider world rather than diving into the minutiae of an enclosed space like Hogwarts. Tolkien also did not have the formal structure of a mystery story - the essential mystery of the story was exposed at the beginning as we are told what the Ring was about. Maybe this is why the event at the Crack of Doom was so much more shocking when it came?