Mr. Bliss

Mr. Bliss is delightfully amusing, both the book and the title character himself. He gets himself into a series of farcical scrapes involving his new car, three thuggish teddy bears, four obese brothers, some cabbages and some bananas. Mr. Bliss is a frightful coward throughout, not at all the hero you might expect, which I think would make him a rather sympathetic character for younger children. He does stand up for himself in the end, albeit in a somewhat passive/aggressive way. Oh, and watch out for a surprise appearance by Old Gaffer Gamgee!

Tolkien's illustrations are, to be generous, charmingly naïve, but they do fit the story well. He's a good illustrator of landscape and the inanimate, but he was self-confessedly limited in his show more depiction of people and animals. If the pictures look like they were coloured in with pencils at the kitchen table, that's because they probably were.

Mr. Bliss is an interesting comparison with [b:The Sunday Books|10888098|The Sunday Books|Mervyn Peake|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309980365s/10888098.jpg|15427086] by [a:Mervyn Peake|22018|Mervyn Peake|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206549489p2/22018.jpg]: both by giants of 20th century literature; both created by fathers for their children; both published posthumously. Peake's illustrations for that book are much better than Tolkien's, but then he was an illustrator by profession.

Conversely, Peake left no text for his pictures, the story being written years later by family friend, [a:Michael Moorcock|16939|Michael Moorcock|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1222901251p2/16939.jpg], and I think that Tolkien's is the superior tale. show less

I had no idea this book existed until I ran into it at a used book store the other day. I spent a minute going "Tolkien? *The* Tolkien? *That* Tolkien?," but I don't know that I've ever found a better book-related surprise.

'Mr. Bliss' is cute, amusing, and just a great deal of fun for any child or Tolkien fan--reading it ten minutes after I got it was certainly worth being caught with a picture book on a college campus! It's clever and full of imaginative little characters (I adore the girabbit--can I have one?), and details. The style is recognizably Tolkien, and Mr. Bliss is more than a little hobbit-like.

The added dimension of being able to read it in Tolkien's own handwriting is worth a star all on it's own, and though the show more illustrations are hardly brilliant works of art, they're certainly better than anything *I* could come up with.

Anyways, if you love Tolkien, find this--it's worth the while of children and adults alike! show less

Tolkien wrote and illustrated this delightful book for his own children when they were young but it was not published until 1982. His handwritten story and illustrations are reproduced in the book with printed text on opposing pages. It was inspired by his own driving mishaps with his first car in the early 1930s. Full of humour and silliness, it's just the kind of story to have youngsters hooting with laughter. And the illustrations of the beautiful yellow car with red wheels are beautiful.

Despite my friend attempts to get me to try Tolkien, this was my first book. Now I am ready to try more.

This is a charming and entertaining little book!

I particularly enjoyed the illustrations and seeing so much of Tolkien’s own handwriting. They (we) just don’t write like that anymore.

Cute! It's a simple story, but still fun. I would recommend it to fans of Tolkien or to younger children (7 and under) as a read aloud.

This is a really cute book that Tolkien wrote for his children. It is fun and I loved the pictures he drew for it.

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