 Frontdust jacket of the first edition | |
| Author | J. R. R. Tolkien,Douglas A. Anderson |
|---|---|
| Genre | Literary analysis |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,Unwin Hyman,HarperCollins |
Publication date | 1988 |
| Media type | |
| Awards | Mythopoeic Scholarship Award |
| ISBN | 978-0-395-47690-1 |
| LC Class | PR6039.O32 H6 |
The Annotated Hobbit: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is an edition ofJ. R. R. Tolkien's novelThe Hobbit with a commentary byDouglas A. Anderson. It was first published in 1988 byHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of thefirst American publication ofThe Hobbit, and byUnwin Hyman of London.
The structure ofThe Annotated Hobbit is that ofThe Hobbit with its 19 chapters. The text is accompanied throughout with marginal notes beside the text and commenting on it by the Tolkien scholarDouglas A. Anderson.[1] The edition includes more than 150 black-and-white illustrations from foreign editions and some that weredrawn by Tolkien himself, and some rarepoems written by Tolkien.[2][3]
On its publication,The Annotated Hobbit was warmly welcomed inMythlore byGlen GoodKnight, founder of theMythopoeic Society. He began with the words "What a treasure trove; what a superb delight!"[4] He was pleased by the annotations, from the briefest of definitions through to quotations fromletters andentire poems. He specially liked the many illustrations and photographs, commenting that for some readers, the images of dust jackets and translations will be especially interesting. GoodKnight personally found "most ofthe foreign illustrations ... technically and artistically embarrassing",[4] but even so the "cumulative effect" of the coverage of editions and translations was "rich and fascinating".[4]
More recently, George W. Beahm has calledThe Annotated Hobbit "the most informative edition" ofThe Hobbit.[5] The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey noted that the earliest version of Tolkien's poem "The Hoard" from 1923 was best accessible in this book.[6]The Annotated Hobbit won the 1990Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in "Inkling studies" by theMythopoeic Society.[7]
In 2002, after the initial publication ofThe Annotated Hobbit, a "Revised and Expanded Edition" was published. This version included maps and colour paintings. It also provided newer sources and greater understanding of Tolkien's legendarium.[2] The appendix includes a chapter "The Quest of Erebor" about Gandalf's motivation to join Bilbo to the dwarven company.[5] Another British edition was published in 2003 byHarperCollins of London.[8]
Translations into other languages include the following:
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