classic," because it lacks "humanity"—the realistic detail of great works like the Arabian Nights, where characters "do not merely kiss and declaim and posture." However, J. Max Patrick, also reviewing the Xanadu paperback, dismissed the novel as "a pseudo-Ossianic epic, adolescent in tone and pretentiously archaic", although commenting that "Eddison sometimes achieves the splendid prose and gorgeous artifice appropriate to his sagas." In 1973, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote about the beauty of the language, and the consistency of the archaic style Eddison employed. She writes that one of the goals of fantasy is to create a sense of distance from the ordinary and that “The archaic manner is indeed a perfect distancer, but you have to do it perfectly. It is a high wire: one slip spoils all. The man who did it perfectly of course was Eddison... If you love language for its own sake he is irresistible." Le Guin continues, "The prose, in spite of or because of its anachronism, is good prose: exact, clear, powerful. Visually it is precise and vivid; musically – that is, in the sound of the words, the movement of the syntax, the rhythm of the sentences – it is subtle and very strong." Karl Edward Wagner was influenced by The Worm Ouroboros as a teenager. Michael Swanwick quotes from Ouroboros in The Dragons of Babel. In 1983, E. F. Bleiler praised The Worm Ouroboros as "still the finest heroic fantasy." American herpetologist Emmett Reid Dunn named a species of South American lizard Morunasaurus groi, after the character Lord Gro. Publication history 1922: Original publication in London by Jonathan Cape with illustrations by Keith Henderson 1924: "New and Cheaper Edition", Jonathan Cape (actually the remaindered copies of the first edition with an inserted cancel page which lists the publishing details of this 'edition') 1926: American hardcover issued by Albert & Charles Boni 1952: Hardcover publication from E. P. Dutton, featuring illustrations by Keith Henderson and an introduction by Orville Prescott 1962: Trade paperback publication in the Xanadu Fantasy Library (including the Keith Henderson illustrations) 1967: Paperback edition from Ballantine Books (following the success of The Lord of the Rings), with several printings in different years (incorporated into the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series) 1999: Paperback reissue in Replica Books of Bridgewater, New Jersey 2000: A UK paperback edition in the Fantasy Masterworks series 2006: American trade softcover edition by Barnes & Noble, .