The Hobbit at 70

[Werthead]

Someone else posted this over on Wotmania, but The Hobbit's 70th anniversary just passed. It was published on 21 September 1937. More here.

I first read The Hobbit in 1995, a few months after reading The Lord of the Rings. I was a bit older than its intended audience (I was 16 at the time) but quite enjoyed it. A bit like the Rings it starts off very jovial and gets a bit more serious (although never as serious as Rings) as it goes along. Thorin was a great character, the Bilbo/Gollum face-off was pretty tense and disturbing and the Elven king (later revealed to be Thranduil) was a bit of an arse.

Interesting if the film version ever gets made, although I'm not sure about Sam Raimi as the potential director.

[sarakoth]

Originally Posted by Werthead

Someone else posted this over on Wotmania, but The Hobbit's 70th anniversary just passed. It was published on 21 September 1937. More here.

I first read The Hobbit in 1995, a few months after reading The Lord of the Rings. I was a bit older than its intended audience (I was 16 at the time) but quite enjoyed it. A bit like the Rings it starts off very jovial and gets a bit more serious (although never as serious as Rings) as it goes along. Thorin was a great character, the Bilbo/Gollum face-off was pretty tense and disturbing and the Elven king (later revealed to be Thranduil) was a bit of an arse.

Interesting if the film version ever gets made, although I'm not sure about Sam Raimi as the potential director.

16 isn't older than the intended audience. Unless I'm wrong, it was written fo r people of all ages.

[sarakoth]

Originally Posted by Werthead

Someone else posted this over on Wotmania, but The Hobbit's 70th anniversary just passed. It was published on 21 September 1937. More here.

I first read The Hobbit in 1995, a few months after reading The Lord of the Rings. I was a bit older than its intended audience (I was 16 at the time) but quite enjoyed it. A bit like the Rings it starts off very jovial and gets a bit more serious (although never as serious as Rings) as it goes along. Thorin was a great character, the Bilbo/Gollum face-off was pretty tense and disturbing and the Elven king (later revealed to be Thranduil) was a bit of an arse.

Interesting if the film version ever gets made, although I'm not sure about Sam Raimi as the potential director.

The Hobbit was written for people of all ages.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I think like all really good children's books it has an appeal for readers of all ages (though some adult readers -- I'm not one of them -- find it a bit juvenile for their tastes), but from everything I've heard it was intended from the start as a children's book. Certainly it was first published as such, or why would Stanley Unwin have consulted his ten-year-old son before accepting it?

Tolkien himself came to deplore the facetious tone of the narration, feeling, I believe, that he was talking down to his young readers, but I've always enjoyed the narrative voice.

And I think he touched on some very important themes in this book, which he was to develop further and in greater complexity in LOTR.

But what are we to make of his reference to the Vanyar, the Noldor, and the Teleri going to live in "Faerie" in the West?

[paranoid marvin]

I agree that there appears to be a certain amount of condecension in the novel - but I think children don't mind it (in this instance), and adults are enamoured by it . I think it should be taken as a form of endearment , with the author acknowledging us as his children , in much the same way as the 'Just So' stories written by Kipling (and brilliantly narrated by Frankie Howerd)
In fact Howerd would have made a brilliant narrator of The Hobbit

Unfortunately the writing style used has meant that the unwary book browser has quite often mistaken The Hobbit for a children's book . Nothing could be farther from the truth. Tolkein describes the voyage of discovery of one narrow-minded , opinionated , lazy Hobbit , which transforms him into a riddle-telling, ring-wielding , dragon-bating , quick-witted hero , saving his friends on several occasions with selfless acts of bravery not even he thought possible

We are presented with themes of loyalty , honour , bravery , greed , selflessness and ultimately death - themes not always present in novels at the time The Hobbit was published

I consider The Hobbit to be written in a similar fashion to The Eyes Of The Dragon by Stephen King - as a tale being told FORchildren , but not necessarily to be read BY them

[j. d. worthington]

Well, Tolkien certainly intended it as a children's book, as it was created for his own children, as I understand it. In this, it's like Grahame's The Wind in the Willows... a book written for children that takes on something of a life of its own beyond the author's original intent. Unfortunately, that means that that tone originally adapted by the writer can come to be an irritant later, both to the writer and to many readers.

Personally, I find the tone of The Hobbit a bit off-putting at first (I always hated that sort of tone when I was a child -- it was too condescending; and I've not changed where that's concerned), and have to adjust to it each time I revisit it, though the story certainly carries one through. However, I will agree that Tolkien gave a viable explanation for the difference in the tone there (and later, in the opening chapters of LotR), as being very much the voice of the Hobbits (especially Bilbo) before they experience the sorts of trials and tribulations which get them to "grow up", as it were; and even The Hobbit takes on a sterner, darker tone toward the latter part of the novel, though returning to the lighter tone -- yet not quite as light -- at the very end.

Nonetheless, despite this fault (if you are one who considers it such), it is a very good book and, I think, a classic of modern fantasy....

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by paranoid marvin

We are presented with themes of loyalty , honour , bravery , greed , selflessness and ultimately death - themes not always present in novels at the time The Hobbit was published.

All quite suitable themes for children's books, as for books meant for adults.

[Sephiroth]

Funny, I don't get the condescension, at all.


His style of writing is somewhat archaic, yes, but I've never felt that.


It was warm, cosy; like being curled up beside a roaring fire.

[Fake Vencar]

I love the Hobbit. Tried to find it the other day to read; it was as sneaky as Bilbo. Picked up Star Wars instead

[Wayward Ho!]

As somebody else mentioned, I've always found the narrative in the Hobbit to be endearing rather than condescending. I first read the Hobbit when I was thirteen or so, and try to re-read it every year. It's a feel good book for me, just as good as LoTR, and worthy to be listed amongst the classics of children's literature.