The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit is an enduringly famous fantasy novel by JRR Tolkien and was first published in 1937. This is a book I tried to read unsuccessfully a couple of times while at school and always found absolutely tedious for some reason. Chancing upon a copy a few weeks ago, I decided to give it another whirl and was surprised to rattle through it in about three days and enjoy the novel a great deal. The story concerns Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit ('little people about half our height') who loves the quiet life and the comforts of his house - which is quite literally built into the ground. 'It was a hobbit-hole,' writes Tolkien 'And that means comfort.' Bilbo's house is like ...  Read the complete review

Every story must have a beginning … and in his own words, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was marking examination papers when he found one in which the examinee had left a single blank page in the answer-book. On this leaf, he simply wrote, "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit". Nobody claims to know what inspired him! Published in 1937, “The Hobbit” is set in an imaginary world known as “Middle-Earth”, which is supposedly a pre-historic period and I believe the name derives from Middle English (Tolkien was a scholar of Old and Middle English). However, “The Hobbit” is so far removed ...  Read the complete review

There is clearly an art to enjoying The Hobbit, with the obvious thing being not to have read the Lord of the Rings first, because when you do so you will soon find that the Hobbit is little more than a fanciful fairytale of little people, little adventures, great danger and little point. The Hobbit is always cited as being a classic novel, one of the very best of the sword and sorcery genre, but having just read it for the first time in almost 30 years, I can honestly say it was a sad disappointment, even at less than four quid from my local Tesco. I was surprised and overjoyed when I found it at this bargain price, because my interest in Tolkien and all of ...  Read the complete review

What is a hobbit? The word rolls smoothly out of the tongue but who but the reader of this story by Prof. J.R.R. Tolkien would be able to answer this seemingly difficult and abstract question. From the off start the mystery that is what a hobbit actually is, is answered and the reader can read on without different illustrations forming in their own imaginations. This is critical, because although the main character of the story is the hobbit, the phenomenon of it is not what the story is about but rather its unusual actions. The hobbits are a race of small humble, food loving creatures. They live in the hillside and it is a rare occasion indeed for one of them to stray ...  Read the complete review

I guess I was pretty lucky as a child, I had parents that actively encouraged my love of reading and regularly bought me books that would stretch my abilities. One of the first "adult" books that was given to me was The Hobbit*, which was one of my first forays into the realms of fantasy and a book that I still love and read regularly today. In fact I love this book so much there are three copies in the house, one an colour-illustrated hardback which was a special edition and bought for me along with The Lord of The Rings nearly fifteen years ago and is safely stored away until my children have grown up and there's no chance of it getting damaged. The children ...  Read the complete review