In the following essay, Sullivan considers The Hobbit in terms of its impact on children's literature.
When it was first published in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was an immediate success. Reviewers noted its ties to ancient northern European myths and legends, especially Beowulf and the Eddas, and praised it for its strong component of adventure, its humor, its imaginative scope, and its intelligent presentation. At least one reviewer asserted that the book was destined to become a classic of children's literature. Allen and Unwin, who published the book, must have agreed, for they were soon urging Tolkien—who really wanted to work on the mythological materials that would eventually be published, some years after his death, as The Silmarillion—to produce "another Hobbit." But history has denied The Hobbit the status it deserves as an important children's.....
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