The classic bestseller behind this year's biggest movie this definitive paperback edition features nine illustrations & two maps drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien & a preface by Christopher Tolkien. 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 & a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an unexpected journey 'there & back again'. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent a large & 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 & influential books of the twentieth century.