J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is made up of three volumes.
The volumes are The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Although the story is commonly called a trilogy, Tolkien conceived it as one continuous novel rather than three independent works.
The publisher released the books separately because the manuscript was long and postwar paper shortages affected production. The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in 1954, followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King in 1955.
A frequent source of confusion is that The Lord of the Rings contains six internal books, plus appendices, while its standard publication form has three volumes. The six-book structure reflects Tolkien’s organization of the narrative, whereas the three-volume structure reflects its publication history.