Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2022 in Books
• Published on: 1993-03-19
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Poor Bilbo Baggins! An unassuming and rather plump hobbit (as most of these small, furry-footed people tend to be ), Baggins finds himself unwittingly drawn into adventure by a wizard named Gandalf and 13 dwarves bound for the Lonely Mountain, where a dragon named Smaug hordes a stolen treasure. Before he knows what is happening, Baggins finds himself on the road to danger. Wizards, dwarves and dragons may seem the stuff of children's fairy tales, but The Hobbit is in a class of its own--light-hearted enough for younger readers, yet with a dark edge guaranteed to intrigue an older audience. In the best tradition of the archetypal hero's quest, Bilbo Baggins sets out on his fateful journey a callow, untested soul and returns--tempered by hardship, danger and loss--a better man--er, hobbit.

This book is the predecessor to Tolkien's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, and though that trilogy can be thoroughly enjoyed without first reading The Hobbit, much that happens in the later novels is foreshadowed here. A word of caution, however: as Bilbo discovers early on, travel and adventure are addictive things; embark on this journey to the Lonely Mountain with Tolkien's reluctant hero, and you might not be able to stop there. And the road taken to the distant mountains of Mordor in the ensuing trilogy is an even more perilous one.

Sunday Times
'The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and those who are going to read them.'

The Observer
'A finely written saga of dwarves and elves, fearsome goblins and trolls… an exciting epic of travel and magical adventure'

Customer Reviews

A good story for children and grown-ups, too
"The Hobbit" was published in 1937 for the first time, and it was because of it that "The Lord of the Rings" came into existence. It's funny and entertaining, and it shows Bilbo Baggins' most important adventure of his life in an appealing manner. One should clearly understand that this book was at first intended for Tolkien's own children, and only later was published. One should therefore not expect the powerful and often deadly serious narrative of "LotR". As a trivial example, Sauron is not named in "The Hobbit", but appears under the name "the Necromancer", and is of no importance other than keeping Gandalf away from the party of Dwarves for a while, thus allowing for more breath-taking adventures.

I recommend this book if you are parents of young children (Rayner Unwin, the first reviewer, was 10 when he approved for it and convinced his father to print it), since it is an easy reading, that can develop a taste for Tolkien and deeper novels, such as "LotR" or "The Silmarillion". Also, if you've read "LotR", give "The Hobbit" a try - it's not at all a bad story.

a nice suprise
I bought this book having loved the Lord of The Rings Trilogy films. I had attempted to read Tolkiens LOTR novel years ago, before the films , and found I couldnt get into it at all. Being a 43 year old male who loves action/adventure,crime/thrillers etc.. I bought this book with some trepidation but since I loved the films so much, I thought Id give it a go.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.Yes it is a childrens book, but like the Harry Potter series(which I also suprisingly enjoyed), I found it very entertaining and fairly timeless.I would recommend it to anyone.

Ridiculous

After writing LotR Tolkien should have hunted all of his Hobbit books and burnt them in a giant bonfire.
This book tells about the adventure of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and a number of Dwarves (I can't remember the actual number, because all the dwarves were so similar).

This book is so silly, juvenile and ridiculously written that it is completely unprecedented.

People are defending this book by saying that it's a childrens' book unlike LotR. Well here's some news for you. There are some actually good childrens' books out there.

Not all would doom this 1 star, but no way would this book be receiving so many 5 star reviews unless it was written by Tolkien.

I'm not saying someone couldn't like it, but from any sane point of view it just isn't *good*. Period.