The openings of THE HOBBIT by JRR Tolkien & THE 39 STEPS by Richard Hannay. Very tonally distinct, despite their being essentially the same story: grumpy recluse is forced into embarking on a big game of hide & seek, at the end of which, war breaks out. 
I don't know why I said THE 39 STEPS was by Richard Hannay. It's John Buchan, obviously. Richard Hannay is his protagonist! Although it's *told* by Hannay, just as THE HOBBIT is, nominally, based on the record as written by Bilbo Baggins.
The main difference between the two characters, aside from height, is that Bilbo is very happy in his hole, whereas Hannay wants to clamber out. Richard Hannay is one of the least likeable, most misanthropic, xenophobic, carping protagonists in all popular fiction.
His bigotry is so wide-ranging, so universal, that it approaches a kind of equality. He really does loathe all peoples of the world, with perhaps the exception of a few Scots & white South African farmers. He's like a Daily Mail column with bipedal locomotion.
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