Mr. Bliss

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395329361
• ISBN13: 9780395329368
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 110 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.5" x 6.1"
• Age Range: 4 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

This book is awesome

I love this book. I am a huge Lord of the Rings/Hobbit/Silmarillion fan, and have recently been reading some of Tolkien's non-Middle-Earth books, this being one of them. This book was written for his children and has illustratons by Tolkien. It's creative and funny, and the pictures are great.

A delightful children's tale. . .

. . .by the Master, JRR Tolkien.Tolkien fans have long known about the existence of Mr. Bliss, but it remained unpublished for decades. Fortunately, this delightful hand printed and self illustrated volume can easily be obtained.From the moment when Mr. Bliss decides to buy a motor-car, adventures of the most dramatic (and expensive) sort begin to happen. The observant reader will also note names throughout the book which bear resemblance to names in "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings".This book demonstrates that Tolkien had many gifts -- and that he exercised his creativity outside the realm of Middle-Earth.A wonderful experience for children aged 4 to 104. I highly recommend it.

Mr. Bliss could be a hobbit. . .

. . .and that can't be said for most of the Big People!In this wonderful adventure, Mr. Bliss purchases a motorcar (definitely an unhobbitlike device) and proceeds to have all sorts of misadventures with it.Any hobbit will sympathize with poor Mr. Bliss, living in a world where one is expected to foot the bill for tea for a family as large as the Dorkinses. Any hobbit will sympathize with the terror poor Mr. Bliss experiences driving through Three Bears Wood in the dark. And any hobbit will sympathize with Mr. Bliss's eventually handling of the situation!Hobbits will also appreciate the fact that many of the Big People in the story have good, sensible hobbit names like Boffin and Gamgee.A wonderful tale to read to young hobbits in the cool of the evening or before the fireplace.

Excellent Picture Book by Tolkien

A very eccentric, very British children's story written by Professor Tolkien for his children. Imagine a children's picture book illustrated by the guy who did those two fantasy classics (THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT), involving a man with tall hats and a bad driving record, and a very British feel, and you have MR BLISS It largely shows his distrust turned hatred of things mechanical that destroy the environment. But make no mistake: this is no propaganda track written to slam pollution, it is first and foremost a story for children, his children. It is basically a humourous exploration, beautifully illustrated, of what could go wrong with an unexperienced driver (namely Mr Bliss). Easily the strangest character is a Girabbit, a type of animal invention that must be particular to British society, or even more localised to Tolkien's imagination, for I have never encountered him anywhere else; it has that feel of Britain, so it would not surprise me if it was British and not Tolkien's own invention. However, all of his children's fiction, save THE HOBBIT, has the particular feel. It is a rabbit with a very long neck (hence the name Girabbit, combining Giraffe and Rabbit).The story is that a man named Mr Bliss goes and buys a Motor Car. Thru the course of the story, he has several interactions with his neighbours and three bears. His acquisition of a motor car is quite disastrous, and momentarily devastating, and in the end Mr Bliss finds the motor-car unnecessarily troublesome, and has "taken a great dislike to it". This attitude he expressed in the unpublished TALES AND SONGS OF BIMBLE BAY. According to Carpenter, his official biographer, Tolkien took a "charge `em and they scatter" method of driving, and was much more daring than was skillful. But here, it is expressed humourously. If any moral can be drawn from it, it is that motor cars are trouble. Afterward, Tolkien takes this attitude and develops it in a much more sophisticated and mature form in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. But this story delights in being for children, and one notable word play is two characters, of which Mr Bliss had an accident with involving his motor car, go into business together, and they call it after their names, which is Day and Knight. It is this type of word play that makes Tolkien's children's fiction notable. An interesting note about this story is that it was to be originally published back in 1937 or 1938, when THE HOBBIT had been accepted for publication. On the strength of it, Tolkien had submitted several other shorter works, including Farmer Giles, Roverandom, this, and the Quenta Silmarillion proper. Because of the illustrations it proved uneconomical to publish, and was set aside for years and years, a fate Roverandom would also share (sadly).The edition I have is nicely down, with a facsimile of the original manuscript on the right hand side (while reading it, on the right) and then text on the