Mr. Bliss is a children's picture book by J. R. R. Tolkien, published posthumously in book form in 1982. One of Tolkien's least-known short works, it tells the story of Mr. Bliss and his first ride in his new motor-car. Many adventures follow: encounters with bears, angry neighbours, irate shopkeepers, and assorted collisions.

Narrative

Mr. Bliss tells the story, in pictures and handwritten text, of Mr. Bliss and his first ride in his new motor-car. Many adventures follow: encounters with bears, angry neighbours, irate shopkeepers, and assorted collisions.

Concept and creation

The story was inspired by Tolkien's own vehicular mishaps with his first car, purchased in 1932. The bears were based on toy bears owned by Tolkien's sons. Tolkien was both author and illustrator of the book. His narrative binds the story and illustrations tightly together, as the text often comments directly on the pictures.

Several commentators have compared Mr. Bliss with the works of Beatrix Potter and Edward Lear, and also to The Wind in the Willows.

Mr. Bliss was not published during Tolkien's lifetime. He submitted it to his publishers as a balm to readers who were hungry for more from him after the success of The Hobbit. The ink and coloured pencil illustrations would have made production costs prohibitively expensive. Tolkien agreed to redraw the pictures in a simpler style, but then found he didn't have time to do it. The manuscript lay in a drawer until 1957, when he sold it (as well as the original manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Farmer Giles of Ham) to Marquette University for £1,250. It was first published by George Allen & Unwin in hardback in 1982. It had Tolkien's difficult-to-read handwritten story and illustrations on one page, and a typeset transcription on the facing page.

thumb|One of the new roads that Tolkien felt were "gutting" the [[Oxfordshire countryside, the A34 ]]

Alex Lewis, in Mallorn, writes that Tolkien lamented the loss of the countryside in and around Oxfordshire. Tolkien loved nature, especially trees, and had what Lewis calls "well-founded" fears for the environment, "verg[ing] on the prophetic".

Tolkien used two names from Mr. Bliss for hobbits in The Lord of the Rings: Gaffer Gamgee and Boffin.

See also

  • The Making of the English Landscape – a non-fiction book by an Oxfordshire author concerned about the loss of the historic landscape

References

  • Mr. Bliss, a tale written and illustrated by Tolkien: 25th anniversary of publication