9780395282656

Tolkien's "The Hobbit," which first appeared on the literary scene in 1937, sets the stage for the epic trilogy that Tolkien was to write in the coming years. Unabridged. 4 CDs.

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and a Fellow of Pembroke College from 1925 to 1945, and Professor of English Language and Literature and a Fellow of Merton College from 1945 to his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was in the literary and linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, especially Beowulf, the Ancrene Wisse, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but even as he studied these classics he was creating a set of his own. The Hobbit -- published in 1937 by the venerable British firm of Allen and Unwin on the advice of ten-year-old Rayner Unwin -- catapulted him to fame and gave rise to other major works, including The Lord of the Rings. To date, Professor Tolkien's work has been translated into twenty-five languages; it has reached -- and entranced -- some twelve million readers.

An Unexpected Party	p. 11
Roast Mutton	p. 32
A Short Rest	p. 46
Over Hill and Under Hill	p. 54
Riddles in the Dark	p. 65
Riddles in the Dark	p. 65
Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire	p. 83
Queer Lodgings	p. 100
Flies and Spiders	p. 123
Barrels Out of Bond	p. 147
A Warm Welcome	p. 162
On the Doorstep	p. 173
Inside Information	p. 182
Not at Home	p. 199
Fire and Water	p. 209
The Gathering of the Clouds	p. 217
A Thief in the Night	p. 226
The Clouds Burst	p. 232
The Return Journey	p. 242
The Last Stage	p. 249
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

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Chapter I AN UNEXPECTED PARTY IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats-the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill-The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it-and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours'respect, but he gained-well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end. The mother of our particular hobbit-what is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). Now you know enough to go on with. As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit-of Bilbo Baggins, that is-was the famous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared, and the family hushed it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses, though they were undoubtedly richer. Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins. Bungo, that was Bilbo's father, built the most lu

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The Hobbit; Or There and Back Again

The Hobbit; Or There and Back Again

0395282659

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Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

The Hobbit; Or There and Back Again

The Hobbit; Or There and Back Again

9780395282656

0395282659

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Excerpts

Write a Review

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