Lord of the Rings, The

Lord of the Rings, The, LOTR, p.n. a novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, published in trilogy form in 1954 and 1955. The three volumes are The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1954), and The Return of the King (1955). The trilogy was originally conceived as a sequel to The Hobbit (1937); a prequel, The Silmarillion, was published posthumously in 1977. [GJ1] Several other books related to the series have been published posthumously since thanks to the workings of Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R.'s son, with The Children of Húrin (2007) the most recently published so far.
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Addendum: LOTR is just your typical "boy inherits ring from 'uncle,' boy is conned into walking a thousand miles with his 'manservant' to throw ring into volcano by wizard who is really a minor god in disguise, boy has finger bitten off by troglodytic alter-ego, boy takes boat ride to fairy-land, boy never meets girl because he doesn't swing that way anyway (see 'uncle' and 'manservant')" story. See "pulling a Tolkien." [GJ1]
Addendum #2: From a web review of the Trilogy: "A Christian can almost be forgiven for not reading the Bible, but there's no salvation for a fantasy fan who hasn't read the gospel of the genre, J.R.R. Tolkien's definitive three-book epic, The Lord of the Rings (encompassing The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King), and its charming precursor, The Hobbit. That many (if not most) fantasy works are in some way derivative of Tolkien is understood, but the influence of The Lord of the Rings is so universal that everybody from George Lucas to Led Zeppelin has appropriated it for one purpose or another. Not just revolutionary because it was groundbreaking, The Lord of the Rings is timeless because it's the product of a truly top-shelf mind. Tolkien was a distinguished linguist and Oxford scholar of dead languages, with strong ideas about the importance of myth and story and a deep appreciation of nature. His epic, 10 years in the making, recounts the Great War of the Ring and the closing of Middle-Earth's Third Age, a time when magic begins to fade from the world and men rise to dominance. Tolkien carefully details this transition with tremendous skill and love, creating in The Lord of the Rings a universal and all-embracing tale, a justly celebrated classic. -- Paul Hughes" [GJ1]
Addendum #3: As mentioned in the web review, the Trilogy is the groundwork for many of modern fantasy and gaming in general (though Gygax claimed he "never read it". The Oscar-winning movies in 2001-03 helped to repopularize the works in modern times, though they weren't the first adaptations of the Trilogy.