THE HOBBIT by JRR Tolkien
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath. ‘I will give you a name,’ he said to it, ‘and I shall call you Sting.’”
TITLE—The Hobbit
SERIES—the prequel to THE LORD OF THE RINGS
AUTHOR—JRR Tolkien
PUBLISHED—orig. 1937; read ed. 2014
PUBLISHER—orig. George Allen & Unwin; read ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
GENRE—fantasy
SETTING—Middle-earth
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—adventures, friendship, dwarves, hobbits, wizards, elves, goblins, & dragons, fantasy worldbuilding, whimsical writing style & lighthearted narrative voice, the evil of gold & greed, the great heroism of small deeds and smaller folk
WRITING STYLE—★ ★ ★ ★ ★
CHARACTERS—★ ★ ★ ★ ★
STORY/PLOT—★ ★ ★ ★ ★
BONUS ELEMENT/S—Being able to read this in community with the Fellowship of the Readers bookclub in 2023 was such a special experience!
PHILOSOPHY—★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“‘Bother burgling and everything to do with it! I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!’ It was not the last time that he wished that!”
My thoughts:
This is my favorite of all of Tolkien’s books. It features two of my absolute favorite characters from the legendarium (Gandalf & Bilbo) being sassy besties. It has the most fairy tale vibes of all of Tolkien’s Middle-earth works (except maybe Beren & Lúthien but that’s on a slightly different part of the spectrum). And it was the first book by Tolkien I ever read. In fact, I have a very distinct memory of checking out the illustrated edition from my middle school library & reading it in art class/homeroom (it was a very small school & these two classes were the same for me) with my knees tucked up against the table & the book open on my lap.
I have since read this book countess times—almost yearly, in fact. Some times I’ll just take it down to flip through looking for a quote or something & literally end up just rereading the whole thing over again.
On my previous reread I particularly enjoyed reading about Bilbo’s time with the elves in Rivendell & in Mirkwood. Especially after having so recently reread both THE SILMARILLION & UNFINISHED TALES, & gaining a refreshed understand of & appreciation for Tolkien’s elven peoples, it was fun to experience their roles in this most lighthearted of Tokien’s Middle-earth-set books with their intricate, dramatic, & extensive history fresh in my mind.
On this most recent reread I actually listened to the audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis while reading along with my Swedish language edition translated by Erik Anderrson. I really enjoyed listening to the book this way & will almost definitely, & quite easily I’m sure, make this a yearly tradition.
(Read more about why I love Tolkien’s writing here.)
I would recommend this book to everyone! It’s fun! This book is best enjoyed, as is any adventure, in the company of friends.
Final note: And yes I do love THE HOBBIT trilogy films. I think they’re practically perfect excepting only 1) the choice to make Legolas’s face CGI & 2) the inclusion of the character of Alfred who I just find incredibly annoying. But otherwise I love everything about them—especially Martin Freeman as Bilbo, Lee Pace as Thranduil, the inclusion of the Tauriel & Legolas storyline, the songs (but they should have had more! where were my tra-la-lally-in’ elves?!), the opening sequence in Hobbiton, the Riddles in the Dark scene, the barrels out of bondage scene, the worldbuilding of Laketown, Luke Evans ( 🥵 but ok they could have written him better, less hokey dialogue), all the white council scenes & the Necromancer storyline, & I also thought that John Bell as Bain did a fantastic job.
Absolutely blessed & forever grateful to PJ for taking on those films even when he reallyyy didn’t want to & doing an incredible job with them. [And then we’re getting a fantastic sort of fan-fiction-esque “origin story” for Gandalf & his affinity for Hobbits in ROP (yes I love ROP* too 😁)?? 😚👌🏻 I can *literally* die happy now.]
*which I understand as basically being big-budget fan fiction
“There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Season: Springtime
Music pairing:
Further Reading—
THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT by John D Rateliff
TALES FROM THE PERILOUS REALM by JRR Tolkien
In recommended (though not strictly necessary) reading order, after starting with THE HOBBIT:
THE LORD OF THE RINGS, by JRR Tolkien
See my post on Tolkien’s works here for even more reading suggestions related to the legendarium.
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