An original review of the Fellowship...

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

It's interesting that such a profound fallacy is followed up by a brilliantly simple summary. The prose is more than sound, but the imagination is certainly rare. I prefer this more balanced approach to the lavish praise and condemnation of other reviewers (you know who I mean). It's more useful to the new reader considering that first Tolkien purchase, although I'm not sure that this review would persuade me to part with twenty-one shillings. It's fascinating to see The Fellowship of the Ring being received as just another book in a long line of 1954's publications, since I doubt it will be reviewed in that context again in my lifetime.

If the average weekly wage in 1954 would be around £13 (and averages in terms of wages usually mean that the majority earned much less while some earned much, much more) then that would be a whole morning's pay on one book. So, you might have gone to the local library!

If the Alfred Duggan who reviewed it is the same as the one in the Wikipedia link then he sounds like he was part of the fashionable set, being friendly with Evelyn Waugh. And he was also a novelist. At odds with Tolkien's preferences and potentially a rival writer, but he still gave a very fair review.