Inside Language: Linguistic and Aesthetic Theory in Tolkien (Book Review‪)‬

INSIDE LANGUAGE: LINGUISTIC AND AESTHETIC THEORY IN TOLKIEN. Ross Smith. Berne and Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2007. ISBN 978-3905703061. Softcover. 154pp. $16.20. IN THIS SLIM VOLUME, ROSS SMITH intends to provide "the general reader [...] an informed introduction to Tolkien's views on language and their historical relevance" ([i]). Such an introduction must necessarily be slim, considering that Tolkien never produced any single cohesive account of those views--though he touched on them, often indirectly, at many points in his writings. Nevertheless, and in spite of the relatively meager vein he has to mine, Smith aims to "examine these relatively neglected areas of study and attempt to provide an allencompassing account [...] of Tolkien's ideas and theories in relation to language, linguistics and aesthetics" ([iv]).