The Hobbit was J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 book that first introduced many readers to Middle-earth. Its full title is The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.
The story follows Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit drawn into a quest with thirteen Dwarves and the wizard Gandalf. Their goal is to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug. During the journey, Bilbo finds a mysterious ring in the underground tunnels beneath the Misty Mountains.
Tolkien originally wrote The Hobbit as a children’s fantasy, but its world-building connected it to the older mythology he had been developing for years. Its success led Tolkien’s publisher to request a sequel, which eventually became the much larger The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is not the title of that sequel or of Tolkien’s posthumously assembled mythology.