Product Description

A beautiful boxed set: the definitive examination of how Tolkien came to write his original masterpiece, including the complete unpublished draft and little-known illustrations and unpublished maps, along with a new edition of the classic work itself.

First published in 1938, The Hobbit is a story that "grew in the telling," and many characters and events in the published book are completely different from what Tolkien first wrote to read aloud to his young sons as part of their "fireside reads." For the first time, The History of the Hobbit reproduces the original version of one of literature's most famous stories, and includes many little-known illustrations and previously unpublished maps for The Hobbit created by Tolkien himself. Also featured are extensive annotations and commentaries on the date of composition, how Tolkien's professional and early mythological writings influenced the story, the imaginary geography he created, and how he came to revise the book in the years after publication to accommodate events in The Lord of the Rings.

These two volumes are boxed together with a new edition of The Hobbit with a short introduction by Christopher Tolkien, a reset text incorporating the most up-to-date corrections, and all of Tolkien's own drawings and color illustrations, including the rare "Mirkwood" piece.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52798 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 3
• Binding: Hardcover

About the Author
John D. Rateliff is a writer, editor, and independent scholar. For many years, he worked with the Tolkien manuscripts at Marquette University and has written extensively on Tolkien and the Inklings. He lives in Seattle with his family.

Customer Reviews

great set !
What a great set of books ! Well worth the money !
A must for any L.O.T.R. fan !

An Insightful Look Into The Making of The Hobbit
This three volume set gives new insight into the world of The Hobbit. The first book is The Hobbit as you know it and the second two are a annotated copy of J.R.R. Tolkiens' original manuscript. It is extremely interesting to see the work as it evolved. This is a must buy for any Tolkien fan!

How Mr. Baggins Got His Groove Back
I have to admit that on my first glance at this, I was expecting disappointment - because, while it followed the format of Christopher Tolkien's ten-volume "History of Middle Earth," it was not BY that esteemed Professor of Anglo-Saxon, and therefore could not be as good. Believe me, I got over it quickly! Rateliff, who repeatedly mentions his debt to the younger Tolkiens, as well as to Tolkien scholars like Tom Shippey, has done a superb job of tracking down how Mr. Baggins started out at his doorstep in the 1930s with a wizard named Bladorthin and a dwarf-king named Gandalf (a dwarf by that name does appear in Sturlasson's "Voluspa," the source of most of Tolkien's dwarf names) and ended up back at Bag End somewhat wiser and richer in the 1960s with a wizard named Gandalf and the memory of a heroic dwarf-king named Thorin.

The history of "The Hobbit" itself is fascinating, the history of how it interwove with the developing mythology of "Lord of the Rings" and the "Silmarillion" even more so. But there are also detached analytical essays scattered throughout, on subjects like the goblins/orcs, Beorn, the Great Eagles and Tolkien's attitude towards spiders, which are unexpected bonuses, as well as the revelation that Gollum originally was not only more well-spoken but somewhat nicer than he later became.

One very minor niggle (unaccompanied by leaf): in his essay on Beorn, Rateliff mentions that the Middle Earth equivalent of Grizzly Adams was of indefinite but probably immense age, and in fact was a "leftover from an older world" -- but then died shortly after Bilbo's adventure, according to LOTR. Rateliff doesn't quite explain this, but the explanation may lie in his suggestion that Beorn's were-bear nature was inflicted on him by a curse, which not only made him turn into a bear under stress but made him effectively immortal, and that this curse was lifted by his heroic actions at the Battle of Five Armies. If the were-bear curse was lifted (presumably by the Valar or by Eru Himself), it seems likely he lost the immortality as a sidebar and then lived out a normal human lifetime, although that doesn't seem to jibe with Tolkien's throwaway line in "The Hobbit" that the men of Beorn's line for generations afterwards kept the ability to shapeshift into bears.

A reviewer noted that some of the early drafts have been unfortunately lost to history. Rateliff mentions that the thrifty Tolkien saved on paper by writing on unused portions of blue exam booklets. The paper used in such booklets is acidic and of fairly minimal quality -- Rateliff pointed out instances in which it has turned brown, making Tolkien's handwritten text even harder to deceipher. It seems likely that some of the earlier papers (including the famous blank page on which he wrote: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit") may no longer be with us because they literally crumbled away.

Anyway, I strongly recommend Rateliff's set, not only for would-be Tolkien scholars like myself, but for those who simply enjoyed their first expose to Tolkien, be it via reading "The Hobbit" or by seeing Peter Jackson's movie versions, and would like to know more.