The classic bestseller behind this year's epic second instalment The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, now in a perfectly-sized pocket hardback. This new film tie-in edition features the complete story of Bilbo Baggins' adventures in Middle-earth, with a striking cover image from Peter Jackson's film trilogy and drawings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an unexpected journey 'there and back again'. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon...The prelude to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit has sold many millions of copies since its publication in 1937, establishing itself as one of the most beloved and influential books of the twentieth century.
'One of the best loved characters in English fiction... a marvellous fantasy adventure' Daily Mail
'Finely written saga of dwarves and elves, fearsome goblins and trolls... an exciting epic of travel, magical adventure, working up to a devastating climax' The Observer
'A flawless masterpiece' The Times
Author
About J. R. R. Tolkien
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 50 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on the 3rd January, 1892 at Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, but at the age of four he and his brother were taken back to England by their mother. After his father's death the family moved to Sarehole, on the south-eastern edge of Birmingham. In 1920 Tolkien was appointed Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds which was the beginning of a distinguished academic career culminating with his election as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. Meanwhile Tolkien wrote for his children and told them the story of The Hobbit.
