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The Hobbit
7.5J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien's 1937 children's novel, the prelude to The Lord of the Rings and the book that established many of modern fantasy's defining conventions.
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ISBN 9780345235121Summary & Critical Assessment (Score: 7.5/10)
As the precursor to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit laid the foundation for modern fantasy literature and established many of the genre's continuing conventions. Tolkien's richly imagined Middle-earth, with its detailed languages, histories, and mythology, transformed what had been a children's adventure story into a gateway to a influential fictional universes ever created.
Completed during interwar Britain, The Hobbit emerged from Tolkien's scholarly expertise in Old English and Norse mythology, channeling the anxieties and pastoral nostalgia of a nation between two devastating wars. The novel's enormous success as a children's classic eventually led to Peter Jackson's blockbuster film adaptations, introducing Tolkien's world to new generations of readers and viewers.
Europe on the Brink, 1937-1939
The last years of peace. Tolkien publishes The Hobbit. Joyce publishes Finnegans Wake. Hitler annexes Austria and Czechoslovakia. Kristallnacht. The Nazi-Soviet Pact. WWII begins September 1, 1939. 70-85 million will die.
Awards & Adaptations
Jackson films. Children's classic.
Recommended Edition
First ed. (1937)
