The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Book Reviews of The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Book Review: Masterful Adaptation of Print to Audio
Summary: 5 Stars

I first read "The Hobbit" (and the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy)during finals week of my Freshman year in college. My grades suffered, and I remember almost nothing about the courses I took that semester, but thirty years later I still know the story of Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, and THE RING. Conan, Harry Potter, and multitudes of lesser fantasy heroes and heroines owe their inspiration to "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings." Read or audit the original and all else suffers in comparison.

One off-putting motif Tolkien employs is the ad nauseum setting forth of songs and poems (none very good) sung and recited by the characters. After suffering through a few poems, I began to skip them as I encountered them. The poetry almost persuaded me not to get the BBC radio play. I didn't think I could suffer through such an incessant cacaphony of subpar songs.

Thankfully, the BBC edited out almost all the songs. As to the play itself, the characters were well conceived and well executed. You couldn't have asked for a more convincing Bilbo. Almost all the major episodes remain in the play. The sound effects are great.

When I drive, I prefer dramatizations to the dry reading of prose, and such high quality dramatizations as this are almost on a par with reading the written word.

Summary of The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)

The hobbit-hole in question belongs to one Bilbo Baggins, an upstanding member of a "little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves." He is, like most of his kind, well off, well fed, and best pleased when sitting by his own fire with a pipe, a glass of good beer, and a meal to look forward to. Certainly this particular hobbit is the last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey; indeed, when Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, "looking for someone to share in an adventure," Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves have arrived on the hobbit's doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.

The dwarves' goal is to return to their ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains and reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they and their reluctant companion meet giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves--and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. It is from this life-or-death game in the dark that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, would eventually spring. Though The Hobbit is lighter in tone than the trilogy that follows, it has, like Bilbo Baggins himself, unexpected iron at its core. Don't be fooled by its fairy-tale demeanor; this is very much a story for adults, though older children will enjoy it, too. By the time Bilbo returns to his comfortable hobbit-hole, he is a different person altogether, well primed for the bigger adventures to come--and so is the reader. --Alix Wilber

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