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The Hobbit Illustrated Edition has received a massive discount for Black Friday at Amazon, dropping the price to only $27.50. Published last year with a $75 MSRP, the book typically sells for around $40. In fact, prior to this deal, The Hobbit Illustrated had never dropped below $35, let alone below $30. If this plays out similarly to prior Black Friday (and Prime Day) deals on sought-after editions of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy novels, The Hobbit Illustrated won't be available at this price for very long.
The Hobbit Illustrated Edition sets itself apart from the many, many other printings of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings prequel by featuring over 50 never-before-seen illustrations created by Tolkien himself. Full-color paintings, detailed drawings, paintings, rough sketches, and even hand-drawn maps of Middle-earth are dispersed throughout text.
It's fascinating to see this side of Tolkien while reading The Hobbit, as you get an inside look at how he visualized the characters and scenes as he wrote.
The illustrations are reason enough for big Tolkien fans to add another edition of The Hobbit to their shelf. But it's also simply a beautiful book, which is immediately apparent before you even crack the spine for the first time. The green dust jacket has gold-foil trim with Elvish script running across the top and bottom as well as encircling the illustration of the The Misty Mountains embossed in the center. The same image with a different color palette is stamped on the front cover.
The dust jacket is complemented by dark blue sprayed page edges adorned with Elvish script in white. When you first open the front and back covers, you'll find two fold-out maps: Thrór's Map and the Map of Wilderland.
The Hobbit Illustrated contains the unabridged, original text. You won't need your Lord of the Rings bookmark either, as The Hobbit Illustrated has a built-in ribbon to mark your place while on your 272-page journey with Bilbo. By the way, Amazon's store page claims this edition of The Hobbit is 432 pages, but it only has 272 numbered pages plus 39 pages before the story containing the foreword to the 50th Anniversary Edition of the novel and a note about Tolkien's illustrations.
It's worth noting that a premium version of this book released in October. The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated Edition has a hybrid leather and cloth board binding and comes packaged in a clothbound slipcase with an 88-page illustrated booklet and an art card of Tolkien's painting for The Hobbit's first dust jacket. It's significantly more expensive, especially right now, even at 33% off--but you can add The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated to your collection for $131 (was $195).
The Hobbit Illustrated was the last of the three Tolkien Illustrated Editions published in the US. This special series kicked off with, of course, The Lord of the Rings. Featuring the same design principles and stylistic flourishes as The Hobbit Illustrated, this version of Tolkien's greatest work includes 30 color illustrations he made while drafting LOTR. Since it contains all three volumes of The Lord of the Rings--The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King--this is much larger book, clocking in at 1,248 pages.
The Lord of the Rings Illustrated is an official Black Friday deal at Amazon, but it's not as cheap as The Hobbit. Still, the $40.37 price is the best we've seen since Prime Day in July.
One cool thing about this deal is that Amazon has a multibuy discount. If you purchase three copies, you'll save an additional $22.11, which drops your total down to $99 ($33 per book). So if you want to give the gift of The Lord of the Rings Illustrated to multiple people on your shopping list, this is a pretty great deal.
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