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... Book Review: Dancing With Mrs. Dalloway - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Most readers will be aware that "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" began its life as a tale invented to amuse the three Liddell girls during a boat trip, but it may come as a revelation—or not, depending on your taste—to hear that J.R.R. Tolkien had to force-feed his children nightly installments of "The Hobbit." Tolkien's later claim that he wrote the book purely for the enjoyment of his offspring was a little disingenuous. One is reminded of the unmannerly exclamation, sometimes attributed to C.S. Lewis, that interrupted one of Tolkien's readings of "The Lord of the Rings" to his Oxford colleagues: "Oh no, not another f---ing elf!"