Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely
travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his
contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of thirteen
dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an unexpected
journey 'there and back again'. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of
Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon? The prelude to The
Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit has sold many millions of copies since its
publication in 1937, establishing itself as one of the most beloved and
influential books of the twentieth century.