Category: Books

Bench at Wolvercote Cemetery (c) Marcel Aubron-Bülles 1

75 reasons: Michael Drout

The Heroic World and the Bourgeois World Each Have Something to Offer n important structural dynamic in The Hobbit is the interaction of the bourgeois world with the heroic.[1] Bilbo, with his pocket...

The Randolph, Oxford (c) Marcel Aubron-Bülles 1

75 reasons: Dimitra Fimi

hy should one read The Hobbit before watching the film? Because, judging by the trailers and interviews, the Hobbit film adaptation will be presented as a coherent ‘prequel’ to The Lord of the...

The Bird & Baby, Oxford, at night (c) Marcel Aubron-Bülles 7

75 reasons: Douglas A. Anderson

n my view, when a work exists in a form that has been popular enough to precipitate a film being made of it, I’ve usually tried to experience the original before the adaptation....

Bridge of Sighs, Oxford. (c) Marcel Aubron-Bülles 0

75 reasons: Jonathan Fruoco

“In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.” This sentence is without any doubt the best reason why one should read The Hobbit, and the simple fact of quoting these magical...

Just take a seat (c) Marcel R. Aubron-Bülles 0

75 reasons: Guglielmo Spirito

n the entrance hallway of that sumptuous home there was an enormous mirror, very old; acquired at least eighty years ago.   A strikingly beautiful boy, a tailor’s assistant, (on Sunday afternoon, an...

Exam Schools, Oxford 0

75 reasons: Colin Duriez

75 shades of Hobbit hitherto unknown species was introduced into the world in 1937, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s opening sentence of 10 words, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” A...

3

75 reasons: Tom Shippey

BILBO’S HEROIC PROGRESS hen I used to teach a course on Tolkien, one of the essay questions which my students answered consistently well was the one which asked them how, in The Hobbit,...

The Old Sheldonian (c) Marcel R. Aubron-Bülles 2

75 reasons: Chris Seeman

nlike the soon-to-be-released Peter Jackson films, Tolkien’s Hobbit is NOT a “prequel” to The Lord of the Rings. By this I mean that Tolkien did not write it to be an introduction to...

Tolkien Reading Day 0

75 reasons: Verlyn Flieger

would like people to read The Hobbit before viewing the forthcoming film presentations by Peter Jackson for several reasons.  If they have already read The Hobbit I would like them read it again...

Open book 2

75 reasons: Brian Sibley

reasons? Well… a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins; a wizard named Gandalf; pipes; a door; a sign; twelve dwarves named Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and Thorin; an...