A Secret Vice

A Secret Vice

2016 critical edition cover
Editors	Dimitra Fimi Andrew Higgins
Author	J.R.R. Tolkien
Language	English
Subjects	Conlanging, Linguistics, Philology
Published	7 April 2016
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Hardback
Pages	300
ISBN	978-0-00-813139-5

"A Secret Vice", also known as "A Hobby for The Home", is a lecture first presented by English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien in 1931. The lecture concerns Tolkien's relations with and view on constructed languages, in particular on artistic languages. In the talk, Tolkien discusses the human desire to make languages, and his criteria to create a good language – these include phonoaesthetics (the beauty of sounds) and the presence of a mythology to accompany the language. Tolkien's presentation was the first instance of him openly exhibiting his hobby of conlanging, and includes examples of several of his languages.

The talk was first published in essay form in 1983, in an anthology of Tolkien's previously unpublished works edited by his son, Christopher. In 2016, an extended edition was published, with material missing from earlier versions, new manuscript material, and a collection of essays concerning Tolkien and constructed languages. This version was edited by Dimitra Fimi and Andrew Higgins, receiving largely positive reviews from both Tolkien scholarship and the fandom.