J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was first published in complete three-volume form in 1955.
The three volumes were The Fellowship of the Ring, released in 1954, The Two Towers, also released in 1954, and The Return of the King, published in 1955. George Allen & Unwin issued the British editions, and the work was presented as a sequel to The Hobbit.
The trilogy's structure can be misleading because Tolkien regarded the work as one continuous novel rather than three separate novels. The individual volumes were published separately for practical and financial reasons. The story follows the attempt to destroy the One Ring and defeat Sauron, but its appendices also provide extensive history, languages, and genealogies.