Mr. Tickle [Hardcover]

Roger Hargreaves (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Grolier (1971)
• ASIN: B000RC2LPS
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

More About the Author

The late Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of childrens' books, including the popular Mr. Men and Little Miss series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Tickle My favorite Roger Hargreaves book, July 11, 2001

By 

Wilma Tarro "Wilma Tarro" (Newport, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Tickle (Mr. Men and Little Miss) (Paperback)

I loved reading this book to my grandchildren. Even my husband was listening and enjoyed hearing this cute story. I shared it with my neighbor and her grandchildren wanted her to reread it over and over. Little Miss Mischief mentions Mr. Tickle also in the story and a great follow-up book to go along with it. All of the Mr. Men books are great fun to read, and I will keep them on hand for any little one who will sit still to listen to me read it to them. I enjoy the stories as much as the children do.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, June 29, 2001

By 

neilathotep (San Mateo, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr. Tickle (Mr. Men and Little Miss) (Paperback)

Back in college I got a job as a summer janitor at the local elementary school. One of the things I had to do was clean up in the library. I took this time as an opportunity to catch up on some reading... in the form of the Mr. Men series. Mr. Tickle is a great book about a man who likes to tickle. If you like to laugh, this book is for you. If you like to tickle, this book is for you. If you are a mean spirited and grumpy person, perhaps you should try another book

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Freud Helps Hargreaves Loosen His Tie, March 2, 2010

By 

Hamilton Richardson (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr. Tickle (Mr. Men and Little Miss) (Paperback)

Hargreaves' first work, and regarded by many as his masterpiece, Mr Tickle is something of a rarity amongst the Mr Men books. Elsewhere, we see much exposition on the pitfalls of excess - such as in Mr Greedy and Mr Messy, for instance - but a distinct lack of discourse on personalities that are over- rather than under-regulated. A case in point might be another work, Mr Fussy, which stands out as an opportunity glaringly missed. Despite a faintly ridiculing tone to the prose, this is essentially a lamentation on how others cannot live up to the high ideals and perfectionism of its titular central character. It is at best an ambiguous critique of repression, and Mr Fussy escapes the moral judgment so often dished out to others in the series.

So what a glorious anomaly we find in Mr Tickle - a breath of fresh air from the unrestrained id. The all-consuming sensual delight he offers relentlessly disrupts the social order. A postman drops all his letters in a puddle, the tickling of a policeman causes a traffic jam, and the unbearable reverie he inflicts upon a station master brings the local rail network to a temporary standstill. There is something almost Bakhtinian about the manner in which he tickles a dour schoolmaster until he loses control in front of his class.

But Mr Tickle is not Stirner's Egoist, nor does he proclaim `do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law'. And if he is a terrorist, his weapons are laughter and ecstasy. Though his principal targets may well be those who wear uniforms - those who exercise, embody and therefore are most in the grip of Authority - we would be mistaken to think that Hargreaves' purpose is to challenge the external Social Order. Rather, it is to loosen the vice-like grip of an interior foe: the overdeveloped Superego.

We note that Mr Tickle himself is no slave to sensory delight - quite the opposite; he is a model of psychical equilibrium. At the end of his day's escapades he relaxes in an armchair, sated and quiescent. Our hero preaches a message of catharsis - a call to arms against becoming too bogged down by self-suppression and normative regulation. Via psychoanalysis, we arrive at an Aristotlean middle way, and are left with the gentle realisation of our need to give a measure of expression to desire and joy.

Because one thing we can be sure of is that the more we repress the pleasure principle, the more we guarantee that sooner or later we will fall victim to an overpowering and fervid release from the id.

And rest assured, it will be at just that hour we fail our Superego the most.