Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Hobbit cover art

The Hobbit

By: J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Rob Inglis
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.00

Buy Now for £13.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Silmarillion cover art
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Dramatised) cover art
The Fall of Númenor cover art
The Children of Hurin cover art
Dune cover art
The Fall of Gondolin cover art
Unfinished Tales cover art
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Dramatised) cover art
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King (Dramatised) cover art
Clive Barker's First Tales cover art
The Hobbit (Dramatised) cover art
Beren and Lúthien cover art
The Princess and the Goblin cover art
The Marvellous Land of Snergs cover art
The Legend of Huma cover art
Hagbane's Doom cover art

Summary

The Hobbit is the unforgettable story of Bilbo Baggins and acts as a prequel to the mythical Lord of the Rings fantasy series. Showcasing J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative prowess, this a beautiful, otherworldly tale that cements the author's status as one of the premier storytellers of the twentieth century.

The complete unabridged audiobook of J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of 13 dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an unexpected journey ‘there and back again’. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon....

The prelude to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit has sold many millions of copies since its publication in 1937, establishing itself as one of the most beloved and influential books of the 20th century.

©1954, 1966 The Tolkien Estate Limited (P)1991 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Featured article: Gimli - a Lord Of The Tings character guide


Here's everything you could possibly want to know about Gimli, the Dwarf who was embraced by a band of Hobbits, and the important role he plays in one of the world's best-known and most-loved fantasy sagas.

What listeners say about The Hobbit

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6,441
  • 4 Stars
    1,165
  • 3 Stars
    253
  • 2 Stars
    58
  • 1 Stars
    48
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5,156
  • 4 Stars
    1,134
  • 3 Stars
    284
  • 2 Stars
    59
  • 1 Stars
    50
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5,670
  • 4 Stars
    772
  • 3 Stars
    192
  • 2 Stars
    31
  • 1 Stars
    23

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Loved it!!!

Ok fistly I'd like to say that the book is really enjoyable and the narrator is very good and I even enjoyed the singing parts. But I have to say that it is a cheek of audible to split this book into two seperate purchases as has been done with the lord of the rings. The physical books are not split as neither should these. It is a poor attempt at getting more money out of their customers. I have has the lord of the rings on my wish list for a long time but am annoyed I have to use two of my credits for one book!!! Audible sort it out!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

237 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A real pleasure

Despite some previous reviews, this is now the whole, unabridged Hobbit in a single recording. The story is a joy, as much as it was when I first read it at 10 years old. The narration is a fine effort of a difficult book, resisting the temptation to overact. The treatment of the songs was always going to be challenging, and although the occasionally grated a little, it is hard to see how he could have done otherwise. It has given me a lot of pleasure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

110 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Good story but TWO volumes? Despicable!

This is a great tale and well read in this version. It can be a little monotonous in parts. My biggest grievance is the fact that the tale last around 11 hours in total, yet is still split into TWO books. On that basis, Stephen King would be very expensive!!

To summarise, it's ok, but I can't justify the price and won't be getting the LOTR "trilogy" (6 books!) to follow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

62 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

DULL

I am a fan huge of Tolkien and have read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Similarion on many occasions. I purchased this to gain a new experience of the work. I was however, left feeling disappointed. The narration was dreadful. Rob Inglis does attempt to 'play' the different characters and he even does some of them well but aaah the monotony! I did finish the book, it did not improve and I shan't bother with the rest of the series as it's the same narrator. Also, most importantly WHY IS THIS BOOK SOLD IN TWO VOLUMES??!!. I have books in my library over 40 hrs long that are sold as one volume. I noticed this also applies to The Lord of the Rings. I do love audible but I'm quite disappointed with this two volume nonsense, 8 credits for 4 books, rip off anyone....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

This version takes the shine off the treasure

"The Hobbit" is one of the treasures of English fiction: a rattling tale told by Tolkein with wit and unique imagination.Given the status of this book and the spectacular attention given to the sequels, it is all the more surprising that this audioadaptation is so lacklustre and pedestrian. The narrator lacks any true range in his animation of the characters; relying on degrees of pomposity alone to voice Gandalf, Thorin and the dwarves. This is in stark contrast to the vivacious, varied and comedic audio interpretations that we have grown accustomed to with modern classics (e.g. Stephen Fry's sparkling rendition of the Harry Potter series). In my view, the poverty of this production of the Hobbit is a greater crime than the insouciance of making us pay double for the book by splitting it unneccessarily into two parts. Audible should be careful not to repeat either of these transgressions in future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Hobbit parts 1 & 2

Although the books were good,I think that the presentation of the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings(all parts), could easily have been done in one part instead of two,(which everybody knows is a money making ploy.)By this I I mean that each book could have been in one part per book..Although this is the grievance I wished to make ,I think that all the books are BRILLIANT.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

much better than the abridged version

Much more expensive because it is sold as two books instead of one, this recording of The Hobbit is much better than the abridged version available on Audible. Tolkien’s prose is more than half the fun, and the abridged version loses the sparkle and colour of it.
Rob Inglis has done a great job again in narrating Tolkien, although his pronunciation of the word ‘eyrie’ is continually irritating in episodes featuring the eagles. Some of the Dwark names are a bit odd to my ear too, but I can live with those, unlike eyrie.
As an postscript observation on a great many titles in the Audible catalogue, why don’t audiobook editors and producers actually do their job and ensure narrators pronounce words correctly? Some books are desecrated by bad editing and Audible surely has enough influence in the market to insist that their providers up their game on pronunciations – especially non-English words.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story and a thoroughly enjoyable narration

I absolutely loved this book as a child and even more so a few years later... :)) It is written with a lovely sense of humour with none of the somewhat oppressing seriousness of The Lord of the Rings. It is light-hearted, with a captivating style and story line.



The narration is only adds enjoyment to this audiobook. It is a shame that it has been split into two books, as there is no need for that. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Watch out! Slow, dull and too expensive

I have no problem with Tolkien's text, but the fact that a 300-page book is split into two volumes is just too cynical and speculative, Audible!



Furthermore, this reading is frightfully slow and dull. Surely, there must be other versions available which don't draaaaaag out the beautiful descriptions so that the listener completely loses track of where we are, who is present, and what we are dealing with...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great stuff (for half a book)

Inglis' voice was excellent for this work, managing to capture all the different characters and narrative moments. It just seems a shame that the book has been split into two for no apparent reason. It's certainly no longer than other books that have been kept as one. However, otherwise a very pleasant and engaging listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful