Preview of Tehanu Summary:

Since Tehanu is the last volume of a four-book series, some attention must be given to the earlier books, and the reasons why, after nearly twenty years, Le Guin returned to her fantasy series.

In 1967, the publisher of Parnassus Press asked Le Guin to write a book for an adolescent audience, and she chose to do a fantasy about coming of age, a central concern of adolescents. Each of the first three volumes of the Earthsea series is a rite of passage story: in A Wizard of Earthsea the rite of passage is Ged's, the character who ties the whole series together, who learns the limits of his power as a magician; in The Tombs of Atuan the rite of passage focuses on Tenar, a character, like Ged, who is featured in Tehanu but who learns about life and death in Tombs; and in The Farthest Shore the...