276°
Posted 20 hours ago

The Hobbit: An Illustrated Edition of the Fantasy Classic (The Lord of the Rings)

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

There are a few negative qualities about this book. In some parts it gets too descriptive and it seems like the narrator talks forever, describing to the extent that it feels like there isn't an end to the words! The characters are very honest with each other, but sometimes it just doesn't matter and wastes time. When the narrator said, "Dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of valuing money," it was pointless and had no pertinence to the story. Sure, it tells you information about the Dwarves and was semi-apologetic for what was previously said, but as the reader it just doesn't matter. Sometimes, the book is just spread out too far. When they said, "The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: that they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow doing it if he would..." They could have made that same sentence but with more pertinence to the story. It has a few words that are confusing and it takes a while to understand. Most people know the bare outline of the tale. The main character is Bilbo Baggins, a contented home-loving hobbit, who likes the quiet life. However, against his better judgement, he is tempted by the thought of an “adventure”. His life is then turned upside down when he joins the wizard Gandalf and a group of thirteen dwarves. He is employed by them as their “burglar”, when they go on a dangerous quest to reclaim their treasure which had been stolen long ago. Bilbo becomes increasingly involved, meeting with trolls, goblins and elves, and a strange slippery, amphibious creature who calls himself “Gollum”. Using his brains, and with several opportunities for inventing devious riddles, Bilbo eventually realises that it is up to him to enable the dwarves to achieve their long dream and reclaim their homeland. Alone he must face and outwit the monster who now guards the stolen hoard of treasure. And this monster is a much-feared dragon, the most dreaded in all Middle-earth, a worm called Smaug. I originally read the Hobbit when I was 11 in my English lessons which was great as I had already been a fan of Lord of the Rings for a couple of years, so I was very excited to spot this in a charity shop! Illustrated and hand painted in full colour throughout, and accompanied by the carefully abridged text of the original novel, this handsome authorised edition will introduce new generations to a magical masterpiece – and be treasured by Hobbit fans of all ages, everywhere. Very pretty!” said Gandalf. “But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”

The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo Baggins, a quiet and contented Hobbit whose life is turned upside down when he joins the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves on their quest to reclaim stolen treasure. This is a great companion to Tolkien's novel, and the art is as atmospheric as you would expect. It's been a while since Middle Earth looked this good. That said, don't expect Alan Lee or John Howe - The Hobbit doesn't have quite the same epic, or dark, overtones as The Lord of the Rings. A brand new revised edition of the best-selling graphic novel based on the enchanting prelude to The Lord of the Rings. I particularly like the lush evocative illustrations of the Shire, and the atmospheric ones in the dragon’s cave. Most startling for me is the way David Wenzel has captured exactly what Bilbo looks like in my mind’s eye: a short dumpy male with a bit of a pot belly and plain, almost ugly features. He has a bulbous nose and a rubicund good-natured face. All the dwarves are well-drawn individuals and very convincing, as is Gollum, who is uncannily like the Gollum in the films. Smaug is a mean-looking and terrifying beast. What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!” said Gandalf. “Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won’t be good till I move off.”By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)—Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion. He had not been down that way under The Hill for ages and ages, not since his friend the Old Took died, in fact, and the hobbits had almost forgotten what he looked like. He had been away over The Hill and across The Water on businesses of his own since they were all small hobbit-boys and hobbit-girls. Illustrated and hand painted in full colour throughout, and accompanied by the carefully abridged text of the original novel, this handsome authorised edition will introduce new generations to a magical masterpiece - and be treasured by Hobbit fans of all ages, everywhere.

J.R.R. Tolkien's enchanting prelude to The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-loved books of all time. Carefully abridged and beautifully painted, David Wenzel's graphic novel has become a best-selling classic in its own right. While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998. All of them at once,” said Bilbo. “And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and have a fill of mine! There’s no hurry, we have all the day before us!” Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over The Hill. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill—The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. But, what I will say is that this brings the story to life. Well, that’s a bad phrase. Tolkien’s story is already alive when you read it. What I mean is that this presents it in a medium that allows you to physically see it rather than just visualise it. Is that better? No I think not. Let me try again: this provides illustrations to aid with an abridged version of the story; it enhances the experience, somewhat, because the artwork is so appropriate.Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs Bungo Baggins. Bungo, that was Bilbo’s father, built the most luxurious hobbit-hole for her (and partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or over The Hill or across The Water, and there they remained to the end of their days. Still it is probable that Bilbo, her only son, although he looked and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable father, got something a bit queer in his make-up from the Took side, something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance never arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old or so, and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father, which I have just described for you, until he had in fact apparently settled down immovably. The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo Baggins, a quiet and contented hobbit whose life is turned upside down when he joins the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves on their quest to reclaim their stolen treasure. It is a journey fraught with danger – and in the end it is Bilbo alone who must face the guardian of this treasure, the most-dreaded dragon, Smaug. Decir ante todo que es una versión adaptada del libro, con lo que es normal que su extensión se reduzca y haya pasajes que se resumen en una página o poco más. Pero aun así, la obra de Tolkien es perfectamente reconocible bajo los trazados de cada viñeta. Basta echar un vistado a un paisaje, a un orco o a un enano para darse cuenta de que estamos observando Tierra Media en todo su esplendor. The Story: I’m not going into a great deal of detail here. I’d only be repeating myself. I think I said all I could in my full review of the actual novel. Here's the link in case anyone wants to read me praising the hell out of it: my review

The movie adaptations are even bleaker and more despairing than the book, but this feels more hopeful and full of light than either of them. I already knew I was going to love the bones of the story but I love the direction this took and how the focus remained on Bilbo throughout, rather than the feats of the other characters. The name The Hobbit refers to more than one character, item or concept. For a list of other meanings, see The Hobbit (disambiguation).As a long time fan of Tolkien since I was a child (having even been a TA in a college-level Tolkien studies class), I'm always interested in how Tolkien is adapted. When I saw this graphic novel edition of the Hobbit, I was very curious as to how the story would play in the medium of the "comic". And I'm actually happy to say that the novel itself comes across really well. The story, characters and plot are all evenly handled. However, a fundmental problem with the medium of comic books would definitely be visual approachability. In a less dense story, you could show the action in the graphics/drawings, and the dialogue in word form. But when there's a linear approach to a story's plot, the graphic medium may not be the best way to handle it...because I found the actual act of reading this book a bit frustrating...having to re-read panels over again because the flow of dialogue and action were a bit confusing (ie, do I read this bubble first? or that one? it seemed to change, depending on the layout. So, hence, minus one star. It feels like a far daintier and quieter tale than the original, despite this faithfulness. It is always interesting, in any retelling, to see what an individual chose to deliver as the most important features, and discovering this was what I most enjoyed here. Good morning!” he said at last. “We don’t want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water.” By this he meant that the conversation was at an end. Find the hottest teen books, connect with your favorite YA authors and meet new friends who share your reading interests!

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment