It took 11 years to write, is about 1,000 pages long and has been translated into 40 different languages.
American film critics have given the first Lord Of The Rings film glowing reviews.
The Fellowship Of The Ring will be released in the UK on December 19.
Critics who have seen it have described it as masterful and a cult classic. According to www.hollywoodreporter.com the film is "quite masterfully paced and one of those rewarding movies that seems to get better and better as it progresses".
Emmanuel Levy in www.screendaily.co.uk says The Fellowship Of The Ring is "a must-see event movie, easily crossing age and national boundaries, before becoming a cult classic, subject to repeat viewing by the book's most ardent devotees".
Todd McCarthy, writing in www.variety.com, says: "There is little doubt that those who grab the Rings at the start will anxiously await Frodo's trip into ever more perilous territory a year hence."
The Fellowship Of The Ring is the first of the three films which have been made by director Peter Jackson.
It stars Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett.

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