Editing The Lord of the Rings (section)

== Reception ==

{{Main|Literary reception of The Lord of the Rings|l1=Literary reception of ''The Lord of the Rings''}}

=== 1950s ===

Early [[Reception of J. R. R. Tolkien|reviews of the work were mixed]]. The initial review in the ''[[Sunday Telegraph]]'' described it as "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century".<ref name=Box>{{cite web |url=http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Boxed-Set/J-R-R-Tolkien/e/9780618260584#TABS |title=The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set (Lord of the Rings Trilogy Series) section: Editorial reviews |access-date=4 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210071507/http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Boxed-Set/J-R-R-Tolkien/e/9780618260584/#TABS |archive-date=10 December 2010 }}</ref> The ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|Sunday Times]]'' echoed this sentiment, stating that "the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'' and those who are going to read them."<ref name=Box/> The ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' appeared to predict the books' popularity, writing in its review that they were "destined to outlast our time".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&ean=9780345339706&displayonly=REV |title=From the Critics |access-date=30 May 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929155414/http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&ean=9780345339706&displayonly=REV |archive-date=29 September 2007}}</ref> [[W. H. Auden]], a former pupil of Tolkien's and an admirer of his writings, regarded ''The Lord of the Rings'' as a "masterpiece", further stating that in some cases it outdid the achievement of [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/01/22/books/tolkien-king.html |last=Auden |first=W. H. |author-link=W. H. Auden |title=At the End of the Quest, Victory |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=22 January 1956 |access-date=4 December 2010|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110220002634/http://www.nytimes.com/1956/01/22/books/tolkien-king.html |archive-date=20 February 2011}}</ref> Kenneth F. Slater wrote in [[Nebula Science Fiction]], April 1955, "... if you don't read it, you have missed one of the finest books of its type ever to appear".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fancyclopedia.org/ken-slater |access-date=19 November 2019 |title=Ken Slater |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030144502/http://fancyclopedia.org/ken-slater |archive-date=30 October 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.ws/linwood/SF/Nebula/KFS12.htm |access-date=19 November 2019 |title=Something to Read NSF 12}}</ref> On the other hand, in 1955, the Scottish poet [[Edwin Muir]] attacked ''[[The Return of the King]]'', writing that "All the characters are boys masquerading as adult heroes ... and will never come to puberty ... Hardly one of them knows anything about women", causing Tolkien to complain angrily to his publisher.<ref name="Lobdell 2013 in Drout">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2013 |title=Criticism of Tolkien, Twentieth Century |encyclopedia=[[J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |last=Lobdell |first=Jared |author-link=Jared Lobdell |orig-year=2007 |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |pages=109–110 |isbn=978-0-415-96942-0}}</ref> In 1956, the [[literary critic]] [[Edmund Wilson]] wrote a review entitled "Oo, Those Awful Orcs!", calling Tolkien's work "juvenile trash", and saying "Dr. Tolkien has little skill at narrative and no instinct for literary form."<ref name="Wilson 1956">{{Cite web |last=Wilson |first=Edmund |author-link=Edmund Wilson |date=14 April 1956 |title=Oo, Those Awful Orcs! A review of The Fellowship of the Ring |work=[[The Nation]] |url=http://jrrvf.com/sda/critiques/The_Nation.html |access-date=1 September 2012}}</ref>

Within Tolkien's literary group, [[The Inklings]], the work had a mixed reception. [[Hugo Dyson]] complained loudly at its readings,<ref>{{cite video |people=Derek Bailey (Director) and [[Judi Dench]] (Narrator) |title=A Film Portrait of J. R. R. Tolkien |medium=Television documentary |publisher=Visual Corporation |year=1992}}</ref>{{efn|Dyson's actual comment, [[bowdlerized]] in the TV version, was "Not another fucking Elf!" {{cite web |last=Grovier |first=Kelly |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/29/jrrtolkien.fiction |title=In the Name of the Father |work=[[The Observer]] |date=29 April 2007 |access-date=4 December 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002212305/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/29/jrrtolkien.fiction |archive-date=2 October 2013}} }} whereas [[C. S. Lewis]] had very different feelings, writing, "here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart."<ref name="Doughan 2006"/> Lewis observed that the writing is rich, in that some of the 'good' characters have darker sides, and likewise some of the villains have "good impulses".<ref>C. S. Lewis, quoted in [[Christina Scull]] & [[Wayne G. Hammond|Wayne Hammond]] (2006), ''[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide]]'', HarperCollins, article 'The Lord of the Rings', § Reviews, p. 549; {{ISBN|978-0-618-39113-4}}</ref> Despite the mixed reviews and the lack of a paperback until the 1960s, ''The Lord of the Rings'' initially sold well in hardback.<ref name="Doughan 2006"/>

=== Later ===

{{further|Tolkien's prose style|Literary hostility to J. R. R. Tolkien}}

Judith Shulevitz, writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'', criticized the "pedantry" of [[Tolkien's style|Tolkien's literary style]], saying that he "formulated a high-minded belief in the importance of his mission as a literary preservationist, which turns out to be death to literature itself".<ref>{{cite news |last=Shulevitz |first=Judith |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/22/bookend/bookend.html |title=Hobbits in Hollywood |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=22 April 2001 |access-date=13 May 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090409163022/http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/22/bookend/bookend.html |archive-date=9 April 2009}}</ref> The critic Richard Jenkyns, writing in ''[[The New Republic]]'', criticized the work for a lack of psychological depth. Both the characters and the work itself were, according to Jenkyns, "anemic, and lacking in fibre".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Jenkyns |first=Richard |title=Bored of the Rings |magazine=[[The New Republic]] |date=28 January 2002 |url=http://www.tnr.com/article/bored-the-rings |access-date=13 February 2011}}</ref> The science fiction author [[David Brin]] interprets the work as holding unquestioning devotion to a traditional hierarchical social structure.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brin |first=David |url=http://www.davidbrin.com/tolkienarticle1.html |title=We Hobbits are a Merry Folk: an incautious and heretical re-appraisal of J. R. R. Tolkien |magazine=[[Salon Magazine]] |date=December 2002 |access-date=9 January 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060323053147/http://www.davidbrin.com/tolkienarticle1.html |archive-date=23 March 2006}}</ref> In his essay "[[Epic Pooh]]", fantasy author [[Michael Moorcock]] critiques the world-view displayed by the book as deeply conservative, in both the "[[paternalism]]" of the narrative voice and the [[power structure]]s in the narrative.<ref>{{cite web |last=Moorcock |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Moorcock |url=http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.php?id=953 |title=Epic Pooh |access-date=27 January 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080324100956/http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.php?id=953 |archive-date=24 March 2008}}</ref> [[Tom Shippey]], like Tolkien an English philologist, notes the wide gulf between Tolkien's supporters, both popular and academic, and his literary detractors, and attempts to explain in detail both why the literary establishment disliked ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the work's subtlety, themes, and merits, including the [[Impression of depth in The Lord of the Rings|impression of depth]] that it conveys.<ref name="Shippey 2005 critics">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=The Road to Middle-earth |date=2005 |edition=Third |orig-year=1982 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-261-10275-0 |pages=1–6, 260–261, and passim}}</ref> The scholar of humanities [[Brian Rosebury]] analysed Tolkien's prose style in detail, showing that it was generally quite plain, varying to suit the voices of the different characters, and rising to a heroic register for special moments.<ref name="Rosebury 2003">{{cite book |last=Rosebury |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Rosebury |title=[[Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon]] |date=2003 |orig-year=1992 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1403-91263-3 |pages=71–88}}</ref> The critic [[Patrick Curry]] cited the work's first publisher, [[Rayner Unwin]]'s "pithy and accurate" assessment of the novel: "a very great book in its own curious way".<ref name="Curry 2020">{{cite book |last=Curry |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Curry |chapter=The Critical Response to Tolkien's Fiction |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Stuart D. |editor-link=Stuart D. Lee |title=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |date=2020 |orig-date=2014 |publisher=[[Wiley Blackwell]] |isbn=978-1-11965-602-9 |pages=369–388 |url=http://www.patrickcurry.co.uk/papers/THE%20CRITICAL%20RESPONSE%20TO%20TOLKIEN.pdf<!--author's own page-->}}</ref>

=== Awards ===

In 1957, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was awarded the [[International Fantasy Award]]. Despite its numerous detractors, the publication of the [[Ace Books]] and [[Ballantine Books|Ballantine]] paperbacks helped ''The Lord of the Rings'' become immensely popular in the United States in the 1960s. The book has remained so ever since, ranking as the<!--Walker lists 5 different surveys, same result each time, top<ref name="Walker 2009"/>--> most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by all of three different measures: sales, library borrowings, and reader surveys.<ref>{{cite news |last=Seiler |first=Andy |date=16 December 2003 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2003-12-12-lotr-main_x.htm |title='Rings' comes full circle |newspaper=USA Today |access-date=12 March 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212081213/http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2003-12-12-lotr-main_x.htm |archive-date=12 February 2006 }}</ref><ref name="Walker 2009">{{cite book |last=Walker |first=Steve |title=The Power of Tolkien's Prose: Middle-Earth's Magical Style |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |publication-place=New York |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-230-61992-0 |page=1}}</ref> In the 2003 "[[Big Read]]" survey conducted in Britain by the BBC, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was found to be the "Nation's best-loved book". In similar 2004 polls both Germany<ref>{{cite web |last=Diver |first=Krysia |date=5 October 2004 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/04/1096871805007.html?from=storyrhs |title=A lord for Germany |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=12 March 2006|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060328084516/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/04/1096871805007.html?from=storyrhs |archive-date=28 March 2006 }}</ref> and Australia<ref>{{cite web |date=6 December 2004 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-12-06/australians-pick-lord-of-the-rings-as-top-book/597612 |title=Australians pick 'Lord of the Rings' as top book |work=ABC News Online |access-date=16 March 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027185624/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-12-06/australians-pick-lord-of-the-rings-as-top-book/597612 |archive-date=27 October 2016}}</ref> chose ''The Lord of the Rings'' as their favourite book. In a 1999 poll of [[Amazon.com]] customers, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium".<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Hehir |first=Andrew |date=4 June 2001 |url=http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/06/04/tolkien/ |title=The book of the century |work=[[Salon.com|Salon]] |access-date=12 March 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213000712/http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/06/04/tolkien/ |archive-date=13 February 2006 }}</ref> In 2019, the [[BBC News]] listed ''The Lord of the Rings'' on its [[BBC's 100 Most Inspiring Novels|list of the "100 most inspiring novels"]].<ref name=Bbc2019-11-05>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50302788 |title=100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=5 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108030557/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50302788 |archive-date=8 November 2019 |access-date=10 November 2019 |url-status=live |quote=The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature. }}</ref>