The Hobbit was first published in 1937 as J.R.R. Tolkien’s breakthrough children’s fantasy novel.
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, appeared on 21 September 1937. It follows Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving hobbit who joins Thorin Oakenshield and a company of dwarves on a journey to reclaim treasure from the dragon Smaug. The book combines adventure, songs, riddles, humor, and a style accessible to younger readers.
Its success led Tolkien’s publisher to request a sequel. Tolkien began developing a darker and more expansive story, which became The Lord of the Rings. The later novel shares characters and settings with The Hobbit but grows into a much broader work about power, history, war, and moral choice.
The Hobbit is sometimes treated as merely a prelude to The Lord of the Rings, but it has its own narrative voice and structure. Its original edition also differed in details from the later revised text, especially in the account of Bilbo’s discovery of the Ring.