J. R. R. Tolkien, in this extraordinary rare recording, will lead you in prose, poems, and song into the fantastic world of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, places of enchantment you'll want to return to again and again - that is, if you're ever able to leave them in the first place!

This audio is based on a tape recording that Tolkien made in August 1952. The Lord of the Rings, on which he'd worked for more than 14 years, had been refused by publishers and he had almost given up hope of ever seeing it in print. But this recording made him believe in it again - enough to prompt him to send it to a former pupil who had become a publisher. The result was that even during his lifetime more than three million copies were sold.