The Hobbit Audiobook By J. R. R. Tolkien cover art

The Hobbit

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Hobbit

By: J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Andy Serkis
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.55

Buy for $21.55

THE GREAT MODERN CLASSIC AND PRELUDE TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum—as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold.

Whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in his hobbit-hole in Bag End by Gandalf the wizard and a band of dwarves, Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.

This brand-new unabridged recording is narrated by the acclaimed actor, director and author, Andy Serkis.

©1937, 1951, 1966, 1978, 1995 The J.R.R. Tolkien Copyright Trust (P)2020 HarperCollins

Accolades & Awards

Audible Essentials
Fantasy Essentials
Most Popular
Action & Adventure Audible Essentials Fantasy Essentials Literature & Fiction Classics Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Funny Feel-Good Suspenseful Celebrity

Editorial review


By Alanna McAuliffe, Audible Editor

JOURNEY THERE AND BACK AGAIN WITH THE HOBBIT

I was still in diapers when the bar for fantasy world-building was set unreasonably high. My mother, who had been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work since she herself was a child, passed along her fandom to me. To this day, that sense of awe hasn’t faded, and even as an adult, I find myself wide-eyed and wonderstruck by the world that Tolkien created—dragons and dwarves and hobbits and elves and wizards, dark forces unseen and simple goodness unparalleled, a good old-fashioned tale of whimsy and adventure that completely redefined what it meant to tell a story.

But when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit back in the 1930s, he did not set out to create a work explicitly for children. Rather, he was crafting a fairy story, one rooted in his fascination with language, mythology, and history, that allowed him to build out a lore of his own. Nevertheless, it captivated readers young and old and has since become both a staple of kidlit and a foundational work in the overarching fantasy genre. Many stories are hailed as timeless, as enjoyable for little ones as they are for those several generations ahead, but few are as truly universal as this one, an accessible entry into a fully realized world in which you may wade as shallowly as you like or dive deep into ages of lore and backstory.

At its core, the story, following a most unlikely hero in the reserved, slightly curmudgeonly Bilbo Baggins, is a quest not just to slay the dragon and conquer evil but a journey into one’s own. Before Gandalf’s intervention, Bilbo has no inclination of taking on such an exploit, preferring instead the comforts and safeties of the only home he’s known. Hobbits, seemingly representative of England’s common countryfolk, are not heralded for theatrical acts of daring or brawn. But what Bilbo does have, in spades, is heart, goodness, and the capacity for tremendous courage, given the opportunity. Over the course of the story, we listen as Bilbo transforms into the confident hero of legend, the kind of pathfinding traveler that would write of his ventures, which in and of themselves create his memoir and center the narrative of The Hobbit. Bilbo is such a beloved figure in literature because he is all of us—as a timid, cautious child, his capers rang as evidence that I, too, had something to offer.

Continue reading Alanna's review >

Featured Article: Audible Essentials—The Top 100 Screen Adaptations of All Time


As the category of great page-to-screen storytelling continues to grow, we scoured our libraries, grilled audiophiles and cinephiles, and vetted the entire Audible catalog for the 100 greatest screen adaptations for watchers and listeners alike. These are the stories that inspired some of the greatest on-screen stories of all time, from Academy Award winners and cult classics to must-see TV. They're well worth the price of admission.

Featured Article Audible Essentials The Top 100 Screen Adaptations of All Time
Continue Your Journey Through Middle earth

Continue Your Journey
Through Middle-earth

Explore collection
Timeless Classic • Whimsical Adventure • Exceptional Voice Characterization • Rich Imagery • Clever Writing

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Andy Serkis has a habit of whispering, causing me to turn the volume up and down to hear at parts, and then he stops whispering and my eardrums almost burst. however, the story is very interesting.

good story, but missing some things

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Hobbit was written in the 30s sometime - and stands alone. Although not part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it is the inspiration. We're introduced to Bilbo and are transported through the world of wizards, goblins, dwarves, elves, etc. in a quest to retrieve an enormous stash of gold and treasures hoarded and guarded by a fire-breathing dragon.

Been putting off getting swept into the entire LOTR fantasy world - for years. But, that reluctance has been to my detriment. The Hobbit is a bit darker than the Harry Potter world and is very much young adult. But, a story that a young-at-heart adult can enjoy, as well.

Be willing to suspend reality, it is a world of complete fantasy and imagination. No sex, no objectionable language - squeaky clean reads. Narration is terrific.

Recommended.

The Hobbit

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Andy Serkis is a genius. He has the skill of an entire cast of voice actors - each of his voices are unique and interesting. There is not one single thing I would change.

I can only hope that they let him narrate the Lord of the Rings because I would buy that in a heartbeat.

Perfection.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Andy Serkis is an incredible narrator. All the different voices and the songs were performed top notch. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have listened because fantasy novels aren’t my favorite. But his voice drew me in for my first time reading Tolkien. The story is written very well, but some of the battle scenes were drawn out too long.

Best Performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Andy Serkis is a gem and this is one of the best audiobook narrations I've ever listened to. the story is a classic and is of course excellent. I would absolutely buy a version of the Lord of the Rings narrated by Andy, make it happen!!!!

love it! lets get Andy to narrate the trilogy now!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews