Product Description

Sumptuous, oversized hardback edition of the beloved children's classic, fully illustrated with over 60 watercolour and pencil illustrations by award-winning artist, Alan Lee. J.R.R. Tolkien's great classic work, The Hobbit, celebrated its 60th year of publication (1937) with a gorgeous illustrated edition by artist Alan Lee, winner of the Kate Greenaway medal for illustration, and creator of the fabulously successful Centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings. Containing 22 full colour illustrations depicting key scenes from this all-time classic (scenes such as Gollum and Bilbo, The Wargs, Smaug the Dragon and The Battle of the Five Armies), this beautifully designed volume also includes a wealth of integrated pencil drawings which demonstrate perfectly Alan's genius at work. Alan Lee's work on this book, as well as the illustrated Lord of the Rings, led to him being approached by Peter Jackson to join the film trilogy as Conceptual Artist. The same artistic vision, present in his beautiful paintings and drawings, played a major role in the look of the films, and his work received the ultimate accolade with an Academy Award for Best Art Direction on The Return of the King.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7841 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-15
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
'A finely written saga of dwarves and elves, fearsome goblins and trolls! an exciting epic of travel and magical adventure, all working up to a devastating climax' Observer 'A flawless masterpiece' The Times

About the Author
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 35 languages and have sold many millions of copies world wide. Alan Lee is the creator of the highly successful illustrated edition of The Lord of the Rings, and winner of the 1994 Kate Greenaway Medal for Children's Book Illustration. He won an Oscar for his work on Peter Jackson's Return of the King.

Customer Reviews

Beautifully illustrated
I decided to invest in this classic but I wasn't sure which edition to buy; the boxed set or the one book. I love hardback books, especially slightly oversized and I'm glad I decided to buy this one. The dust cover advertises the beautiful illustrations inside. It also has embossed gold foil writing and at the top and bottom the foil backed Runes. The bottle green hardback is gold embossed on the spine, and depicts in gold the Smaug (dragon) on the front. Inside you will find at the front Thror's map and at the back a map of Wilderland, to guide you through the journey of the heroes, whilst reading the book.

The pages are generously sized, clear and beautifully illustrated with Alan Lee's drawings in pencil and full colour throughout (I wish it had the old tissue paper covering the illustrations of bygone days!). There is also a Lord of the Rings edition in the same format. It is beneficial to read the Hobbit before the Lord of the Rings.

The Hobbit describes the adventures of a friendly, roughly 3 foot 6 hobbit called Bilbo. He is volunteered into an adventure beyond the scope of most hobbit's lives by a kindly old family friend, Gandalf the wizard. His journey is also initiated and accompanied by fourteen dwarves. Bilbo's contract is to steal the treasure back for the dwarves, stolen and held by Smaug the Magnificent. Smaug is a large and very perilous dragon. Bilbo even surprises himself by becoming a hero, despite his slight size. This is an enchanting book; Tolkien has a rare gift in creating books which capture the imagination of any age. It is beautifully written, comical, imagination stretching but with the skillfulness of convincing the reader that the story is factual and passing over a great empathy, tugging at the reader's heartstrings over the adventure's endearing characters. A must read book.

Superb illustrated edition of 'THE HOBBIT
Arguably the world's best work of fiction, and this truly is a stunning edition with 22 full colour original illustrations and 38 delicate pencil drawings, to bring the story to life.

Definitely a must for the bookshelf to fans of Tolkien and a great version to start with if new to this area of reading.

'Gandalf - with his 'Good Morning' analysis in response to Bilbo is absolutely superb, and so true to life if you think about the phrase:-

'What do you mean?' he said. 'Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not, or that you feel good this morning, or that it is a morning to be good
on?............'

The most amazing adventure story
At the age of 31 I thought that it was about time for me to read Tolkien's classic "The Hobbit" and I was not disappointed. I love to escape into a fantasy world now and again and "The Hobbit" gave me every opportunity to do this. Beautifully illustrated, the story actually comes to life and throughout the book the reader continues to picture the famous hobbit, little Bilbo Baggins with his pot belly and his hairy feet! This is the most amazing tale of an adventure beyond your wildest dreams and is almost like a pantomime at times making you want to boo and hiss at the wicked goblins and wolves and cheer when one of the 'good guys' overcomes adversity. The illustrations throughout the book allow you to see the forests and the dwarves and the great wizard 'Gandalf' and of course the mighty dragon 'Smaug'.

If you're a reader of modern day adventure stories like 'Harry Potter' (which I am) - you'll love this. Read it and enjoy it, then treasure it to read to your children and your grandchildren. This is truly a classic and will never go out of fashion.