If I Ran the Circus

Infobox Book |
name =If I Ran the Circus
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Dr. Seuss
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Children's literature
publisher = Random House
pub_date = 1956
media_type = Print (Hardcover and paperback)
pages = 65
isbn =
oclc = 471685
preceded_by =On Beyond Zebra
followed_by =How the Grinch Stole Christmas

"If I Ran the Circus" is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, published in 1956 by Random House. Although it is perhaps not the best known of Seuss's books, its title is often used in North American English as a saying for introducing an opinion.

Like The Cat in the Hat, or the more political Yertle the Turtle, "If I Ran the Circus" develops a theme of cumulative fantasy leading to excess. The overt social commentary found in the Sneetches and the Zax demonstrates that Dr. Seuss was fascinated by the errors and excesses to which humans are prone (See Fensch, 1997), and "If I Ran the Circus" also examines this interest, though more subtly and comically, given its earlier genesis.

Plot Summary

Behind Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store, there's an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, nothing would prevent him from using the lot for the amazing, world-beating, Circus McGurkus. The more elaborate Morris' dreams about the circus become, the more they depend on the sleepy-looking and innocent Sneelock, who stands outside his ramshackle store sucking on a pipe, oblivious to the fate that awaits him in the depths of Morris's imagination. He doesn't yet know that he'll have to dispense 500 gallons of lemonade, be lassoed by a Wily Walloo, wrestle a Grizzly-Ghastly, and ski down a slope dotted with giant cacti. But if his performance is up to McGurkian expectations, then "Why, ladies and gentlemen, youngsters and oldsters, your heads will quite likely spin right off your shouldsters!"

Copyright Dates

It was October 12, 1956. But now, it was renewed: September 23, 1983, where "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1983), was filmed.

ee also

If I Ran the Zoo

Citations

Fensch, Thomas. 1997. Of Sneetches and Whos and the good Dr. Seuss : essays on the writings and life of Theodor Geisel. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.