The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien by J.R.R. Tolkien
Published 1981 · 502 pages · 138,050 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism, Biography
How hard is The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien to read?
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien scores 47 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 52 out of 100
- Tolkien's philological range shows in Elvish names, archaic words and learned allusions, but the letters stay conversational. It is more demanding than a typical correspondence yet far plainer than his fiction's invented tongues.
- Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
- Tolkien writes long, qualified sentences in the explanatory letters, with parenthetical asides and self-corrections. Casual notes to family are brisk and clear.
- Abstraction: 58 out of 100
- The long letters on myth, mortality, sub-creation and Catholic theology are abstract, but many pieces deal with everyday matters like proofs, money and his sons' health.
- Information density: 62 out of 100
- Letters pack in Middle-earth lore, philology, publishing details and wartime history. The Waldman letter alone summarises an entire mythology.
How The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien is regarded
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien holds a literary regard score of 62 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.