The Hobbit: an Underwhelming Journey

The Hobbit (1937)- J.R.R. Tolkien (317 pages)

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien surrounds the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, as he ventures into the unknown with a group of dwarves. The tale starts in Bilbo’s own home as the crew of dwarves slowly make their way in before Gandalf, a wizard, reveals their adventure. The crew then travels across many mountains and treacherous forests as they seek the Lonely Mountain where the dwarves, and Thorin, their leader, attempt to take back their old home. Lastly, while the Hobbit has been made into a movie, and I have seen it, I would say it is a loose interpretation of the book at its best and oftentimes an entirely different story at its worst.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing style is relatively easy to read. Between the fast-paced nature of the novel and relatively few complex words or sentence structures, the readability is high. The only readability aspect that is fairly unique to The Hobbit is the number of songs that are interspersed in the dialogue, they are not difficult to read but rather merely a change of pace for the reader.

This tale is relatively rich in themes, but I will focus on two: the maturation and growth that anyone can achieve, and greed. Bilbo begins the story as one kind of person and ends with a wholly new level of his character. Through the trials and tribulations of this adventure, his character develops, and he becomes more self-confident in his own abilities. His growth is also especially interesting in contrast to the dwarves. Secondly, greed and contrastingly selflessness is a crucial aspect. I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot, but at a crucial point in the narrative greed nearly conquers Thorin and the dwarves but Bilbo’s selflessness and willingness to put himself at risk for the benefit of others saves the outcome of the story. Without the selflessness that Bilbo exemplifies their whole adventure would have likely been for not.

This was an enjoyable, easy to read, adventure but I felt like it was lacking in substance. I’ve always heard of Tolkien’s Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings as fantastic, awe-inspiring books, I did not find that to be the case for the Hobbit and I will reserve judgment on the Lord of the Rings for now. The adventure was interesting but nothing as fascinating or quite as much of a page-turner as I thought it would be.

Overall, the Hobbit is an enjoyable, quick read, and one that I can recommend although it’s not my favorite adventure. If you want a tale of adventure, I might suggest Robinson Crusoe or the Count of Monte Cristo although those are very different genres. If I seem a little tentative in my review, it’s because I don’t want to fully pass judgment on this book without reading the Lord of the Rings as well. It would be like reading the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia and feeling like I have the information to rate the whole Chronicles. Suffice it to say, the Hobbit is an entertaining book and one that I withhold final judgment on until I read the Lord of the Rings, hopefully in a couple of months but we will see.

As always, my scoring breakdown is below. Thanks for reading!

Overall: 7.0, a high score overall propped up with a strong readability score.

Readability: 8, a very easy read with few difficult passages.

Thematic Questions: 6, a strong discourse on growth and greed.

Enjoyment: 7, an entertaining adventure but one that left me grasping for more.