The Hobbit

The Hobbit (1937) is the classic fantasy adventure story of an unsuspecting hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Ripped unexpectedly from his idle epicurean life by the wizard Gandalf, Bilbo finds himself on a journey to help a group of dwarves take back their stolen treasure from the jealous dragon Smaug. Along the way, he encounters trolls, elves, goblins, and spiders –⁠ plus a certain magic ring –⁠ and eventually finds that he had what it took to be a hero all along.

J. R. R. Tolkien was a writer, philologist, and professor of literature and Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford. His body of work includes a large collection of stories, poems, invented languages, and essays dealing with the fantasy world of Middle-Earth. The Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit are part of this collection, and their immense, enduring popularity has led many to name Tolkien the father of high fantasy.