JRR Tolkien published his first novel 87 years ago: The Hobbit

Described by British poet Wystan Hugh Auden as “the greatest children’s story of the last fifty years”, it was initially born as a fairy tale, but was quickly appreciated by adults too and immediately achieved great popularity.

But the bond with children is inevitably linked to its success. In fact, a decisive role in its diffusion was played by the positive review of the ten-year-old son of Stanley Unwin, owner of the publishing house Allen & Unwin, who convinced his father to publish it.

The first printing of 1500 copies, illustrated with black and white drawings, sold out within two months and the following year the first color edition was published. The novel thus briefly gained great popularity, but it was in the post-war period that Tolkien’s work achieved incredible success, also thanks to the publication in the following years of “The Lord of the Rings”, an epic fantasy saga, published in three volumes between 1954 and 1955 and which takes up the events narrated in “The Hobbit”.

The protagonist of the novel is Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who lives in Middle Earth, dragged almost by chance into an epic adventure by his friend the wizard Gandalf, a wise magician, who suddenly arrives in his house making him part of a mission to undertake together with thirteen dwarves, the objective of which consists in recovering the treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug, in the dangerous and desolate Lonely Mountain.

During this incredible mission, which will lead him to become increasingly stronger and more self-confident, Bilbo will face incredible creatures: from the monstrous Gollum, to giant spiders, from the evil orcs to the great dragon Smaug, up to the terrible Battle of the Five Armies, an epic clash between benign and evil forces to obtain the coveted treasure.

But for Bilbo, the most important event is without a doubt the discovery, apparently by chance, of the magic ring that ended up in the hands of Gollum, deformed in mind and body by prolonged possession. And it is precisely from here that the great saga that Tolkien will carry forward in the three books of the Lord of the Rings will develop and that will consecrate him as an immortal author.