Novel about thief nipped by half-cut Theban ferret (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
the hobbit
'novel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'by half-cut theban ferret' is the wordplay.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'half cut' means to take half the letters.
'ferret' becomes 'hobbit' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'theban' with half the letters taken is 'the'.
'the'+'hobbit' is 'THE HOBBIT'.
'about thief nipped' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for the hobbit that I've seen before include "Novel" , "saga" , "fantasy" .)