LotR, an Edwardian Adventure Story?

[davem]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I think you both are "hitting good targets". Which makes it all the more intriguing that Tolkien would use (at least aspects of) a mode the use of which had come and gone; the use of which, but not the popularity.

I think Tolkien was influenced subconsciously by the books he had read - at first at least. So its not so much that he was deliberately copying the late Victorian/Edwardian novel but that, to him, that was the novelistic style. Its interesting that he breaks away from that style so quickly. Whether that was because LotR took on a life of its own, or whether it was due to the change in style that came about in the post Edwardian period is another question.