Bilbo Baggins lives a respectable, uneventful life in his hobbit-hole at Bag End until the wizard Gandalf arrives with thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield. They plan to reclaim their ancestral home under the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug, and Gandalf has decided Bilbo will be their burglar, whether he likes it or not.
The journey east takes them through troll-infested woods, the elvish refuge of Rivendell, goblin tunnels under the Misty Mountains and the dark, spider-haunted forest of Mirkwood. Along the way Bilbo finds a mysterious ring in a cave and wins a riddle contest with the creature Gollum, gradually discovering resourcefulness and courage he never knew he had.
Tolkien wrote the book for his own children, and its warm, chatty narrator makes it more playful than The Lord of the Rings, which grew out of it. Drawing on Norse myth and Old English literature, it helped define modern fantasy. It has never gone out of print and was adapted into a trilogy of films by Peter Jackson.
Book details
| Author | J. R. R. Tolkien |
|---|---|
| First published | 1937 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 310 |
| Setting | Middle-earth, from the Shire to the Lonely Mountain |
Themes
- Adventure
- Courage
- Greed
- Home
- Personal growth
Who should read it
Children and adults looking for a classic adventure and an easy entry point into Middle-earth.