Seventy-Five Years Later, The Hobbit Still Enchants Us
Seventy-five years ago, on September 21, 1937, the world received The Hobbit or There and Back Again, a strong and sweet message from one of the greatest Christian apologists in modern history, J.R.R. Tolkien. Much of the reason for the book's success is obvious: Tolkien was a fabulous writer; he was describing a mystical, but earthy world which preceded the rise of man; and the characters were drawn with a master’s touch of personality. The Hobbit has lost none of its allure over the last 75 years and it has been continuously in print since then.
In fact, The Hobbit is the third best-selling work of fiction in history, with 100 million copies sold, and the number two selling book of fiction is The Lord of the Rings, sequel to The Hobbit, which has sold 150 million copies. Only Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities has sold more copies (and it less than The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit...