The Hobbit: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Classic Adventure of Bilbo, the Dwarves and Smaug
Smaug seemed fast asleep when Bilbo peeped once more from the entrance. But was he really asleep, or was he watching the tunnel? Dragged out of his comfortable hobbit-hole by Gandalf and a band of dwarves, Bilbo suddenly finds himself in the middle of a plot to seize the treasure of Smaug the Magnificent, an enormous and very dangerous dragon.
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973), with his own drawings and maps
Title: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (1937)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 400 pages
Scope: Classic fantasy adventure; prelude to The Lord of the Rings
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0261102214 (ASIN 0261102214)
An Unexpected Journey
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than his pantry. But when the wizard Gandalf and a company of thirteen dwarves turn up on his doorstep, he is whisked away on an adventure that takes him through trolls’ camps, goblin caves and Mirkwood forest to the Lonely Mountain.
The Best of a Small Hero
This classic adventure brings out the best in the little hobbit at its centre: courage, loyalty, cunning and the nerve to stand up to friends blinded by greed so that he can help bring about peace. The audiobook version, read by Rob Inglis, is also excellent.
A Sentence on an Exam Paper
Tolkien, a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, later recalled that the book began while he was marking examination papers: on a blank page left by a student he wrote, almost without thinking, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." He developed the story as a tale for his own children. When the manuscript reached the publisher Stanley Unwin, he gave it to his ten-year-old son Rayner to judge, and the boy’s favourable report helped secure its publication by George Allen & Unwin in September 1937.
Riddles in the Dark
The book’s most famous chapter takes place deep under the Misty Mountains, where Bilbo, lost and alone, meets the slimy, whispering Gollum and wins a game of riddles, along with a magic ring that makes its wearer invisible. In 1937 the ring was simply a useful gift. When Tolkien began The Lord of the Rings, he realised it was the One Ring of Sauron, and he revised this chapter for the 1951 edition so that Gollum’s behaviour fitted the later story. Readers who know the sequel will notice the darker undertone.
The Company and the Dragon
Thorin Oakenshield and his twelve dwarves want to reclaim their ancestral home under the Lonely Mountain. On the way, Bilbo outwits trolls, escapes giant spiders in Mirkwood, frees the dwarves from the Elvenking’s dungeons in barrels and finally talks with Smaug himself. The ending surprises first-time readers: the dragon is killed not by the hero but by Bard the Bowman of Lake-town, and the climax is a quarrel over treasure, settled only when Bilbo gives away the Arkenstone to force peace, before the Battle of Five Armies.
A Children’s Book That Grew
The Hobbit is lighter and funnier than The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), with a narrator who speaks directly to the reader. Peter Jackson’s three films (2012–2014) stretched it into an epic; the book itself can be read in a few evenings, and Tolkien’s own drawings and maps, reproduced in this edition, are part of its charm.
What Others Have Said
C.S. Lewis welcomed the book when it first appeared, writing that it would take its place among the books that can be read and reread by adults, and reviewers have called Tolkien a storyteller of genius. Nearly ninety years later, it remains the perfect entry point to Middle-earth.
As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases.
Part of the reading recommendations featured on books.sapiensverbum.com.
