The Hobbit

Tolkien's 1937 children's novel: Bilbo, thirteen dwarves and a dragon.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, is Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel, the book whose success led its publisher to ask for the sequel that became The Lord of the Rings.

Quick Facts

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Genre: High fantasy; Children's fantasy
Set in: Middle-earth
Publisher: George Allen & Unwin (UK)
Released: 21 September 1937
Pages: 310 (first edition)

Facts from the source article.

Background

Published to wide acclaim, it was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, won a New York Herald Tribune prize for juvenile fiction, has never been out of print and has sold more than 100 million copies. The home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins joins the wizard Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves of Thorin's Company to win back the dwarves' home and treasure under the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug, leaving his quiet countryside for ever more sinister lands.

The tale unfolds as an episodic quest, each chapter bringing a new monster or threat, until the Battle of Five Armies gathers the earlier characters and creatures in one clash. Bilbo grows in maturity, competence and wisdom by embracing the adventurous side of his nature, and critics see personal growth, heroism and warfare, coloured by Tolkien's First World War service, as its central themes, alongside his knowledge of Germanic philology, mythology and the adventure fiction of William Morris.

When Tolkien went on to write The Lord of the Rings he revised The Hobbit to fit, with the changes folded into the second edition and later ones. It has been adapted for stage, screen, radio, board games and video games.