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Teresa Edgerton · 5th October 2007, 10:22 PM

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?

5th October 2007, 10:22 PM	#4 (permalink)
Teresa Edgerton Ink-stained Wretch Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: California Posts: 4,619	Re: The Hobbit at 70 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?