The Hobbit

First published in 1937, this novel follows Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving hobbit of the Shire, who is hired by the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield to help reclaim a treasure from the dragon Smaug in the Lonely Mountain. The journey east runs through trolls, goblins, wolves, elves of Mirkwood, and the town of Lake-men; Bilbo finds a ring in a cave and bargains with a creature there. The book is a children's quest story of burglary, pride, and a contested hoard, not the later war of the Ring.

Scarce variant issue of, in which in error the first signature lists George Allen & Unwin as publisher instead of the Folio Society. Otherwise identical to above. The number of these variant copies is unknown, nor is it known why the mismatch of cases and sheets took place.