The Hobbit: A Journey into Maturity

Twayne's Masterwork Studies #149

by William H. Green

Series Robert Lecker, McGill University.Written in an easy-to-read, accessible style by teachers with years of classroom experience, MASTERWORK STUDIES are guides to the literary works most frequently studied in high school. Presenting ideas that spark imaginations, these books help students to gain background knowledge on great literature useful for papers and exams. The goal of each study is to encourage creative thinking by presenting engaging information about each work and its author. This approach allows students to arrive at sound analyses of their own, based on in-depth studies of popular literature. Each illuminates themes and concepts of a classic text; uses clear, conversational language; is an accessible, manageable length from 140 to 170 pages; includes a chronology of the authors life and era; provides an overview of the historical context; offers a summary of its critical reception; and lists primary and secondary sources and index.

Genres: Nonfiction

166 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I thought this book would be too out of date to be terribly relevant (as many of the books listed in the notes and bibliography, which I've already read, have been revised and updated over the last fifteen years), and for the first twenty or thirty pages I thought that I wouldn't get anything new out of this book. But that's before I realized that my scholarship has been more on LOTR than on The Hobbit, which is the primary focus of this book.

This book is very well-researched, with references made not only to specifically Tolkien scholarship and publications but also to Norse mythology, modern philology, and Jungian psychology. (As an aside, Jungian psychology makes more sense to me as a way to read literature than it does as a means of psychological treatment, and it's at times like this when I wish I were more acclimated with it.) It examines character development and narrative techniques involving the many metanarratives and linguistic layers Tolkien employed when creating The Hobbit.

I also think this book has almost single-handedly made me reevaluate my original lukewarm opinions concerning The Hobbit (as opposed to the masterpiece that I think LOTR is), especially since I've sort of recently reevaluated my opinion of "children's" literature. This makes me want to go back and reread The Hobbit (again) with more in mind than simply finding the links it has to Beowulf and other literary pieces I've read and know influences Tolkien, and actually evaluate Bilbo in ways that I've only used to evaluate Frodo, Feanor, and other "more important" characters in the Middle-earth series.

[Paolo Nardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://speloncalibro.blogspot.it/2015...

[Norbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voto "di mediazione"
tutte le volte che si butta sullo junghiano tendenzialmente sbadiglio e gli darei due/tre stelle.

Nell'analisi del testo, delle "ripetizioni" etc è assai megli e gli darei quattro/cinque stelle

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 3 out of 5]

partially read, too technical