The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Rob Inglis Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Hobbit
Book Review: The Hobbit on CD
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderful CD. The narrator uses voices for all the characters. My students loved it.Book Review: The Hobbit was a wonderful adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased The Hobbit to help pass the time on a recent road trip with my family. My girls had seen the Lord of Ring Trilogy and loved it. They were very intrigued by the world Tolkein created and Rob Ingliss brought to life so brilliantly. We were on the edge of our seats the whole journey. We will always remember and cherish the adventure Bilbo shared with us.Book Review: The finding of THE RING which started it all!
Summary: 5 Stars
`The Hobbit' by J. R. R. Tolkien is often described as the prequel to the much longer `Lord of the Rings'. I often thought that designation simply does not do justice to the importance of this little `children's' book.
I have an almost reverential respect for the novel, having bought my first copy of this work on a cold February day in 1965 in the Lehigh University bookstore. I began reading it on the bus on the way home from my college classes at about 1:00 PM, and simply could not put it down. I finished reading it at about 8:30 that evening. The experience is not unlike Dorothy's opening the door of her Kansas house to step out onto the grass of Oz. I am totally unsurprised by a statement that says that the entire first page of `The Hobbit' has been reproduced in `Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'. There are few more magical or evocative openings to novels I have read in my whole life. I can appreciate that there are adult readers such as my Hemingway loving uncle who simply `don't get it'. I am often driven to the point of dispair when I can't interest young readers or listeners in `The Hobbit'. Like `Winnie the Pooh' and `Alice in Wonderland', I really think these are books designed much more to bring back memories of childhood in adults than to engage young readers. And oh how much I enjoy reading `The Hobbit' aloud!
`The Hobbit' shares many similarities with `Alice in Wonderland' in that both authors were distinguished Oxford dons who created the works out of stories they made up for young listeners. The differences are as interesting as the similarities. While Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was a logician, Tolkien was a philologist. So, while both, in a sense, studied language, the differences in their avocations are evident in their text. Dodgson's works are full of logical curiosities and Tolkien's works are full of linguistic inventions, going so far as to create parts of at least three different languages to put into the mouths of his `Hobbit' and `Lord of the Rings' characters. But Tolkien went much further than simply creating languages. Even Carroll dabbled in creating words (see the poem `Jabberwocky'). Tolkien created whole histories of a huge continent ruled by demiurges very similar to the Olympian gods and populated by at least three races of immortal elves, seven clans of dwarves, dragons, trolls, giant spiders, goblins, shapeshifting men, giant eagles, intelligent wolves, and some horrors too unspeakable to bring up here, as they do not appear in `The Hobbit'.
This history was probably not committed to paper as Tolkien was writing `The Hobbit', but it was certainly in the back of his mind. And, it is this sense of great depth to Middle Earth's history that gives one great added pleasure in reading this book.
For the three adults who don't know the story of `The Hobbit', it is the tale of a band thirteen homeless dwarves lead by a former king of their clan, Thorin Oakenshield who wishes to reclaim his home and treasure from a rather large and rather cunning dragon named Smaug. Thorin meets up with the wizard, `Gandalf the Gray' and over a pint of ale, hatch the scheme of hiring a thief and raiding their treasure from right under the dragon's nose. The thief who Gandalf selects is a most unlikely adventurer, a hobbit who is even more set in his comfortable ways than is usual for these very comfortable rural folk. But hobbits happen to have a few attributes that make them especially good at burglary. They are quiet in the extreme when sneaking up on something and they are exceptionally good with slings and hurling projectiles by hand.
I will not tell much more of the plot, as the unfolding of the story is by far one of the greatest pleasures. This is in no way a character study; it's all about landing in trouble and getting out of it by the skin of their teeth. Aside from banishing a major league dragon from their cozy mines, the main point of the story is the finding of a magical golden ring, which is the jumping off point of `Lord of the Rings'.
There is another less obvious connection between `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings'. Gandalf's support of Thorin's adventure is not done out of the goodness of his heart, it is done to remove a major calamity from the playing field before Sauron, the ultimate heavy in `The Lord of the Rings', can make use of Smaug. Even though dragons seem to be a pretty independent lot, there is no questions that Sauron could not bend even Smaug to his will, especially if Sauron recovered the `One Ring'.
One thing which always disappointed me about the great historical back story behind `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings' is that the origin and history of the wizards in Middle Earth is never fully spelled out. The history of the elves is done in great detail, but little is directly told of Gandalf, Saruman, and the other three wizards. The only thing of which I can be sure is that unlike Beorn, the eagles, and humans, they are not native to Middle Earth. There is but a single reference to a race of magicians in `The Silmarillion', but neither the name Gandalf or Mithrandir appears anywhere in this last of Tolkien's major works.
Since having read `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings', I have searched in vain for tales of equal quality and there are none. Arthurian legends come close and next to Gandalf, Merlin is easily my favorite fictional character, but Tolkien seems to have hit a mother lode of wonder and lore was before and remains hidden to other writers.
Book Review: The wonderful adventure of Bilbo
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read this book numerous times, and read it aloud even more, but to hear it on this set of cd's is truly mesmerizing.
I know it by heart, there was never a dull moment. And as always I wanted more. I am always sad to come to the end of The Hobbit, but now I can just pop it back on,
turn off the TV and escape into the world created by the master himself. I was there with Mr. Baggins and his group as they traveled into the unknown and he traveled back a new Hobbit. The images conjured up by the narration is so amazing, I actually felt the wind on my hair & the rain soaking me to the bone.
I am a 39 year old woman, married with an adult son. I have given this as a gift before and just recently I was called and thanked once by the 14 year old boy and then by his mother for bringing this story into their lives.
This is a story with many underlying themes as all of Tolkeins works are. I would recommend this and all of his other works to other teenagers and fantasy lovers of any age.
Book Review: UNabr CD read by Rob Inglis is EXCELLENT!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Rob Inglis is, in my opinion, one of the best readers out there, and I think he's perfect for "The Hobbit" and the complete "Lord of the Rings." He sings what needs singing, very well, which is relatively unusual. I have thoroughly enjoyed the creation he has wrought!!