The Tale Of Peter Rabbit
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''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' is a
children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
written and illustrated by
Beatrix Potter Helen Beatrix Heelis (; 28 July 186622 December 1943), usually known as Beatrix Potter ( ), was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as '' ...
that follows mischievous and disobedient young
Peter Rabbit Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in various children's stories by English author Beatrix Potter. A mischievous, adventurous young rabbit who wears a blue jacket, he first appeared in ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' in 1902, and subseq ...
as he gets into, and is chased around, the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother, who puts him to bed after offering him chamomile tea. The tale was written for five-year-old Noel Moore, the son of Potter's former governess, Annie Carter Moore, in 1893. It was revised and
privately printed Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fr ...
by Potter in 1901 after several publishers' rejections, but was printed in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1902. The book was a success, and multiple reprints were issued in the years immediately following its debut. It has been translated into 36 languages, and with 45 million copies sold, it is one of the best-selling books in history. Since its release, the book has generated considerable merchandise for both children and adults, including toys, dishes, foods, clothing, and videos. Potter was one of the first to be responsible for such merchandise when she patented a Peter Rabbit doll in 1903 and followed it almost immediately with a Peter Rabbit board game. Peter Rabbit has remained popular amongst children for more than a century and continues to be adapted into new book editions, television programmes, and films. Scholars of literature have commented on themes in the book, such as its radical quality, Peter Rabbit's rebellious nature, and the story's ruthlessness, stating that these offer readers a chance to imagine going to similar extremes.


Context

In 1893,
Beatrix Potter Helen Beatrix Heelis (; 28 July 186622 December 1943), usually known as Beatrix Potter ( ), was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as '' ...
heard that the 5-year-old son of a friend, Annie Moore, was convalescing after
scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...
. Potter decided to entertain the boy, Noel, with an illustrated letter. With her pet rabbit named Peter Piper in mind, she wrote a very short story "about four little rabbits", and illustrated it in the letter. Further letters about other animals followed, until in 1900, Annie Moore proposed to Potter that the illustrated letters could be made into books.


Plot

The story focuses on
Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...
, a young
rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...
, and his family. Peter's mother, Mrs. Rabbit, intends to go shopping for the day and allows Peter and her other three children, Peter's sisters: Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail to go playing. She tells them they can go anywhere they like, but not to enter the
vegetable garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...
of an old man named Mr. McGregor, whose wife, Mrs. McGregor, put their father in a
pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), fruit preserves ( jam tart ...
after he entered and got caught by Mr. McGregor. Peter's three younger sisters obediently stay away from Mr. McGregor's garden, choosing to go down the lane and gather
blackberries BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...
, but Peter enters Mr. McGregor's garden in the hopes of eating some
vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...
s. Peter eats more than is good for him and goes looking for
parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...
to cure his stomach ache. Peter is seen by Mr. McGregor, who chases Peter. Peter gets caught in a net and three friendly sparrows comfort him. Peter manages to escape Mr. McGregor just in time, but loses his blue jacket and shoes while running off. He hides in a greenhouse, ultimately jumping into a
watering can A watering can (or watering pot or watering jug) is a portable container, usually with a handle and a funnel, used to water plants by hand. It has been in use since at least A.D. 79 and has since seen many improvements in design. Apart from water ...
for protection. Unfortunately there is water inside the watering can so Peter gets wet and sneezes, alerting Mr. McGregor. When Mr. McGregor gets tired running after Peter and resumes his work, Peter tries to escape, but is completely lost in the huge garden. Peter tries getting a young
mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
to help him, however she is collecting food for her family and cannot help. Peter also notices a
cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
sitting by a pond. Peter considers asking for directions, but ultimately decides not to, having been warned about cats by his cousin. However, Peter sees that Mr. McGregor is "gone" and it buys him some time to escape to the gate. Peter sees from a distance the gate where he entered the garden and heads for it, despite being noticed and chased by Mr. McGregor again. With difficulty, he wriggles under the gate, and escapes from the garden. His abandoned clothing is used by Mr. McGregor to dress a scarecrow. After returning home late, a sick Peter is reprimanded by his mother for losing his shoes and his jacket (the second jacket and shoes he has lost in a fortnight). Peter's mother puts him to bed early without supper. To cure his stomach-ache, Mrs. Rabbit gives Peter a teaspoon of chamomile tea. Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail, meanwhile, enjoy a delicious dinner of
milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...
,
bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...
and
blackberries BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...
.


Characters

* Peter: Peter is a naughty rabbit who disobeys his mother. (He is the eldest of the four little rabbits.) * Flopsy: Flopsy is Peter's sister who is a good rabbit. (She is the second youngest of the four siblings.) * Mopsy: Mopsy is a rabbit and Peter's sister who always obeys her mother. (She is the second oldest of the four.) * Cotton-tail: Cotton-tail is a sweet rabbit and Peter's sister. As her name says, she is soft as cotton. (She is the youngest of the four.) * Mr. McGregor: Mr. McGregor owns a beautiful garden that is filled with delicious fruits and vegetables. Peter's father was put into a pie by Mrs. McGregor.


Publication history

''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' was first published in the United Kingdom by Frederick Warne & Co. as a small hardback book in October 1901; Potter created both the text and the illustrations. The first edition had a print run of 250, with monochrome illustrations. The demand was greater and she needed to print 200 more. Warne published the first full-colour edition in 1902. The blocks for the illustrations and text were sent to the printer Edmund Evans for
engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...
, and Potter adjusted the page proofs. The book was soon on sale in shops in London, including
Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...
department store, accompanied by the world's first licensed character, a soft toy of Peter Rabbit. By December 1903 the book had sold 50,000 copies. The book's success prompted Warne to obtain more stories from Potter, starting in 1903 with both ''
The Tailor of Gloucester ''The Tailor of Gloucester'' is a Christmas Children's literature, children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, privately printed by the author in 1902, and published in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1903. The ...
'' and '' The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin''. The book has since been reprinted many times, and after 100 years had never gone out of print. Warne did not
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
the book when it was published in the United States; unlicensed editions of the book were produced, the first published by Henry Altemus Company in 1904. The book has been translated into 36 languages. Over 45 million copies have been sold, making it one of the best-selling books in history.


Reception

Scholars have identified a variety of themes in ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit''. Eliza Dresang suggests that the book is "radical" in multiple ways. The first of these is its child-centred size, easy to hold. It is radical, too, in its nonlinear quality, with the images not immediately beside the text they illustrate (and sometimes before that text), and with sentences that often start with the result, and end with the actor, as in "But round the end of a cucumber frame, whom should he meet but Mr. McGregor!" The meaning, too, has more than one layer, not least in the dressed animals, which are at once experienced by the reader as animals and as humans. And the book's start, with the death of Peter Rabbit's father, is a radical innovation for a book for small children. Katie Mullins describes Peter's rebellious nature, which is seen in the book's first dialogue, when Mrs. Rabbit forbids Peter to go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Mullins comments that the garden is stated to be dangerous, as it is where Peter's father met his death. She cites Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott's description of Peter as a "naughty boy who values his independence and whose desire to transgress boundaries far outweighs his mother's warnings or his personal safety". Judith Robertson and colleagues examine the element of ruthlessness in the story. In their view, Peter Rabbit's qualities such as ruthlessness and defiance allow Potter to speak of her own self-knowledge; this serves both as an outlet for a woman in the strict
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
, and as a place for her young readers to imagine going to similar extremes. ''
School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, wi ...
'' included the book at #19 on their Top 100 Picture Books list in 2012.


Adaptations


Merchandising

Potter asserted her tales would one day be nursery classics, and part of the "longevity of her books comes from strategy", writes Potter biographer Ruth MacDonald. She was the first to exploit the commercial possibilities of her characters and tales; between 1903 and 1905 these included a Peter Rabbit stuffed toy, an unpublished board game, and nursery wallpaper.


Book

The scholar Margaret Mackey writes that Warne was still attempting to prevent other publishers from printing ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' in 1993, despite the failure to protect the copyright 90 years earlier. In her view "the battle has clearly been lost", as multiple editions and formats exist in North America, and some "even in Britain" where the book was still protected at that time. Some use both Potter's words and her illustrations, though sometimes too small to read. Warne itself has issued a large-format book, ''The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit'', printing several of the original pages "as panels on a larger page". Mackey comments that this at once loses the subtlety of the original's layout and
book design Book design is the graphic art of determining the visual and physical characteristics of a book. The design process begins after an author and editor finalize the manuscript, at which point it is passed to the production stage. During productio ...
. In 1989, Warne further printed ''Scenes from The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' with "five three-dimensional cut-out pictures from the book, tagged with quotations from the story." Among the seemingly-pirated editions, one by Ottenheimer Publishers in 1993 printed only a selection of the illustrations with the text, with larger but fewer pages. In Mackey's view, "this version is simply an example of diminishment and loss", as the rhythm of the original is dislocated. Other editions dispense with Potter's text altogether, using a selection of her illustrations. One such is Warne's ''Meet Peter Rabbit'', a board book for babies with five pictures inside and one on the front cover, along with Beatrix Potter's name. The text "barely mention Mr. McGregor."


Film

In 1938, shortly after the success of ''
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...
'',
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
became interested in making an animated film based on ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit''. However, in a letter to a friend, Potter wrote that she refused Walt Disney's "scheme to film Peter Rabbit", saying, "I am not very hopeful about the result. They propose to use cartoons; it seems that a succession of figures can be joggled together to give an impression of motion. I don't think the pictures would be satisfactory... I am not troubling myself about it!" In 1935, the story was loosely adapted in the ''
Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...
'' short film, ''Country Boy''. It shows some modifications in relation to Beatrix Potter's original story, most notably the Rabbit family surname is changed to "Cottontail" and Peter having two brothers and a sister rather than three sisters. In 1971, Peter Rabbit appeared as a character in the
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
film '' The Tales of Beatrix Potter''. In late 1991,
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
aired an animated musical adaptation of ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', narrated by
Carol Burnett Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Carol Burnett, nu ...
, as part of the network's '' Storybook Musicals'' series, which was later released to VHS by Family Home Entertainment under HBO licence.Peter Rabbit 1991 (TCM)
/ref> In 1992, the tale was adapted to animation again for the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...
, '' The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends'', along with ''
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny ''The Tale of Benjamin Bunny'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in September 1904. The book is a sequel to ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' (1902), and tells of Peter's retur ...
''. In 2006, Peter Rabbit was heavily referenced in a biopic about Beatrix Potter entitled '' Miss Potter''. In December 2012, a new animated children's TV series titled ''
Peter Rabbit Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in various children's stories by English author Beatrix Potter. A mischievous, adventurous young rabbit who wears a blue jacket, he first appeared in ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' in 1902, and subseq ...
'' premiered on
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
, with a full series run beginning in February 2013. In February 2018, a live-action/animated feature film titled ''
Peter Rabbit Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in various children's stories by English author Beatrix Potter. A mischievous, adventurous young rabbit who wears a blue jacket, he first appeared in ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' in 1902, and subseq ...
'', directed by
Will Gluck Will Gluck (born November 7, 1978) is an American filmmaker, songwriter, and composer. He is known for writing and directing films such as ''Easy A'' (2010), ''Friends with Benefits (film), Friends with Benefits'' (2011), the ''Peter Rabbit'' f ...
, was released. Voice roles were played by
James Corden James Kimberley Corden (born 22 August 1978) is an English comedian, actor, writer, producer, singer, and television host. In the United Kingdom, he is best known for co-writing and starring in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom '' Gavin & S ...
, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, and Elizabeth Debicki, and live action roles played by
Domhnall Gleeson Domhnall Gleeson (; born 12 May 1983) is an Irish actor and screenwriter. The son of actor Brendan Gleeson, he studied media arts at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He began his career by directing and writing several short films, and garne ...
,
Rose Byrne Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film ''Dallas Doll'' (1994) , and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She gained her first leading film role in ...
, and
Sam Neill Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. His career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he is regarded as one of the most versatile acto ...
. A sequel was released in 2021.


References


Footnotes


Works cited

* * * * * *


External links

* * ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'
Audio Book
at
Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
* * ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'
Digital Book
at The University of Iowa Libraries.
World of Peter Rabbit
A website maintained by Potter's first publisher Frederick Warne & Co. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tale of Peter Rabbit, The * 1902 children's books British children's books British picture books Children's books about rabbits and hares Children's books adapted into films Children's books adapted into television shows Frederick Warne & Co books