Kristen Phillips reviews The Hobbit for L’afterwork at Lille’s central library

Kristen Phillips reviews The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

As part of the Afterwork littéraire 28 June 2024 event at Lille’s Central Library, I wrote a review of The Hobbit. Here’s the text:

‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’
Page 3 The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

First published in 1937, Allen and Unwin

I read The Hobbit when I was twelve, and enjoyed it.  So when I saw it was part of the English language BM de Lille collection I was glad to have the opportunity to reread and review it.  What would it be like reading this childhood classic decades later?

The simple answer is: I loved it.  I found the story was still fresh and compelling.  Tolkien brings to life a world of hobbits, dwarves, wizards, goblins, elves, giants, spiders, wolves, eagles, dragon, bears and humans.  Aside from tension and plot twists in every chapter, there are maps and drawings to study, and invented languages.

Like any good story, there are many layers of meaning at work – layers I was less aware of as a child, caught up in Bilbo Baggin’s exciting adventure.  Reading The Hobbit again, I saw stories about greed, obsession, violence and friendship.  And courage – what would I have done, faced with Bibo’s challenges? 

I love the way each chapter is complete, a story within a story, providing a sure springboard to the next chapter.  The final chapter introduces us to Frodo, Bilbo’s nephew, the main character in The Lord of the Rings. 

Tolkien is a master storyteller and linguistic genius, so you are getting more than a fantasy adventure with The Hobbit – timeless.

PS NZ special interest in The Hobbit:
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003) and the The Hobbit film trilogy (2012-2014) were filmed in Aotearoa NZ, directed by New Zealander Peter Jackson.  So there is a strong connection in Aotearoa to these works by Tolkien; one of the Lord of the Rings scenes was filmed five minutes’ walk from where I currently live.