"“for width of imagination,” The Lord of the Rings “almost beggars parallel.”"
"“No previous writer,” the poet remarked in a New York Times review, “has, to my knowledge, created an imaginary world and a feigned history in such detail.”"
"“Mr. Auden is apparently quite insensitive - through lack of interest in the other department,” wrote Wilson, “to the fact that Tolkien's prose is just as bad. Prose and verse are on the same level of professorial amateurishness.”"
"Five years later, the Nobel prize jury would make the same judgement when they excluded Tolkien's books from consideration. Tolkien's prose, wrote jury mem&s"
The Lord of the Rings appeared in the mid-1950s and received mixed reviews from adult readers. Some reviewers emphasized the breadth of imagination and the detailed creation of an imaginary world and feigned history. Comparisons were made to earlier English epic traditions, including Edmund Spenser and medieval Arthurian material. W. H. Auden praised the world-building detail but criticized Tolkien’s poetry. Edmund Wilson extended criticism by arguing that Tolkien’s prose was also poor, placing prose and verse on the same level of amateurishness. Later, the Nobel prize jury excluded Tolkien’s books from consideration, repeating a similar judgment about the work’s quality.
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