Mr. Bliss

Mr. Bliss is a lesser-known children’s book by JRR Tolkien, a chaotic and charming departure from his Middle-earth legendarium. Written and illustrated by Tolkien for his own children in the 1930s, the manuscript was not published until 1982 due to the high cost of reproducing his elaborate, colourful drawings and handwritten text.

The story follows the eccentric Mr. Bliss, a man fond of enormously tall hats and a peculiar pet known as a Girabbit. Impulsively, Mr. Bliss buys a bright yellow motor-car with red wheels. His very first drive to visit friends becomes a slapstick disaster, a comical catalogue of mishaps. He promptly crashes into the vegetable-barrow of Mr. Day and the donkey-cart of Mrs. Knight, scattering cabbages and bananas everywhere.

The adventures escalate wildly when he, Mr. Day, and Mrs. Knight are inadvertently hijacked by three mischievous bears—Archie, Teddy, and Bruno—and they all crash into a picnic. The bears escape into a dark wood, and the rest of the company gives chase. The tale is an example of pure, whimsical nonsense, influenced by Edward Lear and Beatrix Potter. It playfully satirizes the mechanical age, reflecting Tolkien’s personal distaste for motorcars, and ends with Mr. Bliss settling his debts and happily taking to a donkey-cart instead.