The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Wikipedia The Tale of Peter Rabbit From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search 1901 book by Beatrix Potter The Tale of Peter Rabbit First edition, October 1902 Author Beatrix Potter Illustrator Beatrix Potter Country England Language English Genre Children's literature Publisher Frederick Warne & Co. Publication date October 1902 Media type Print (Hardcover) Pages 56 OCLC 12533701 Followed by The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin  The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit 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, son of Potter's former governess Annie Carter Moore, in 1893. It was revised and privately printed 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,[1] and with 45 million copies sold it is one of the best-selling books in history.[2] 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 and expanded through new book editions, television and film. Contents 1 Plot 2 Composition 3 Publication history 3.1 Private publication 3.2 First commercial edition 3.3 American copyright 4 Merchandising 5 Literary praise 6 Adaptations 7 References 7.1 Footnotes 7.2 Works cited 8 External links Plot[edit] The story focuses on a family of anthropomorphic rabbits. The widowed mother rabbit warns her four rabbit children, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter (the youngest rabbit child) not to enter the vegetable garden of a man named Mr. McGregor, whose wife, she tells them, put their father in a pie after he entered. Her triplets (Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail) obediently refrain from entering the garden. Peter's older sisters (Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail) were good little bunnies and went down the lane to gather blackberries. But Peter enters the garden to snack on some vegetables. Peter ends up eating more than what is good for him and goes looking for parsley to cure his stomach ache. Peter is spotted by Mr. McGregor and loses his jacket and shoes while trying to escape. He hides in a watering can in a shed, but then has to run away again when Mr. McGregor finds him, and ends up completely lost. After sneaking past a cat, Peter sees the gate where he entered the garden from a distance and heads for it, despite being spotted and chased by Mr. McGregor again. With difficulty, he wriggles under the gate, and escapes from the garden, but he spots his abandoned clothing being used to dress Mr. McGregor's scarecrow for crows and other pesky critters. After returning home, a sick Peter is sent to bed by his mother, after she tells him that his jacket and shoes are the second jacket and pair of shoes that he has lost in a fortnight. His mother also takes note that he was not feeling too well, and deduces that he had definitely been to Mr McGregor's garden. To cure his stomachache, Mrs. Rabbit gives him chamomile tea which is revealed to be one teaspoon and gives a dose of it to Peter. Peter's older sisters (Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail), meanwhile, receive a scrumptious dinner of milk, bread and blackberries. However, only Mr. McGregor knew where Peter's clothes were as they were used to frighten the crows like a scarecrow. Composition[edit] The story was inspired by a pet rabbit Potter had as a child, which she named Peter Piper.[3] Through the 1890s, Potter sent illustrated story letters to the children of her former governess, Annie Moore. In 1900, Moore, realizing the commercial potential of Potter's stories, suggested they be made into books. Potter embraced the suggestion, and, borrowing her complete correspondence (which had been carefully preserved by the Moore children), selected a letter written on 4 September 1893 to five-year-old Noel that featured a tale about a rabbit named Peter. Potter biographer Linda Lear explains: "The original letter was too short to make a proper book so [Potter] added some text and made new black-and-white illustrations...and made it more suspenseful. These changes slowed the narrative down, added intrigue, and gave a greater sense of the passage of time. Then she copied it out into a stiff-covered exercise book, and painted a coloured frontispiece showing Mrs Rabbit dosing Peter with chamomile tea".[4] Publication history[edit] Private publication[edit] Cover of the 1901 privately published edition As Lear explains, Potter titled The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor's Garden and sent it to publishers, but "her manuscript was returned ... including Frederick Warne & Co. ... who nearly a decade earlier had shown some interest in her artwork. Some publishers wanted a shorter book, others a longer one. But most wanted coloured illustrations which by 1900 were both popular and affordable".[5] The several rejections were frustrating to Potter, who knew exactly how her book should look (she had adopted the format and style of Helen Bannerman's Little Black Sambo) "and how much it should cost".[6] She decided to publish the book herself, and on 16 December 1901 the first 250 copies of her privately printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit were "ready for distribution to family and friends".[7] First commercial edition[edit] In 1901, as Lear explains, a Potter family friend and sometime poet, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, set Potter's tale into "rather dreadful didactic verse and submitted it, along with Potter's illustrations and half her revised manuscript, to Frederick Warne & Co.," who had been among the original rejecters.[8] Warne editors declined Rawnsley's version "but asked to see the complete Potter manuscript" – their interest stimulated by the opportunity The Tale of Peter Rabbit offered the publisher to compete with the success of Helen Bannerman's wildly popular Little Black Sambo and other small-format children's books then on the market. When Warne inquired about the lack of colour illustrations in the book, Potter replied that rabbit-brown and green were not good subjects for colouration. Warne declined the book but left open the possibility of future publication.[9] Warne wanted colour illustrations throughout the "bunny book" (as the firm referred to the tale) and suggested cutting the illustrations "from forty-two to thirty-two ... and marked which ones might best be eliminated".[9] Potter initially resisted the idea of colour illustrations, but then realized her stubborn stance was a mistake. She sent Warne "several colour illustrations, along with a copy of her privately printed edition" which Warne then handed to their eminent children's book illustrator L. Leslie Brooke for his professional opinion. Brooke was impressed with Potter's work. Fortuitously, his recommendation coincided with a sudden surge in the small picture-book market.[10] Meanwhile, Potter continued to distribute her privately printed edition to family and friends, with the celebrated creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, acquiring a copy for his children. When the first private printing of 250 copies was sold out, another 200 were prepared.[11] She noted in an inscription in one copy that her beloved pet rabbit Peter had died.[12] Potter arrived at an agreement with Warne for an initial commercial publication of 5,000 copies.[13] Negotiations dragged on into the following year, but a contract was finally signed in June 1902.[12] Potter was closely involved in the publication of the commercial edition – redrawing where necessary, making minor adjustments to the prose and correcting punctuation. The blocks for the illustrations and text were sent to printer Edmund Evans for engraving, and she made adjustments to the proofs when she received them. Lear writes that "Even before the publication of the tale in early October 1902, the first 8,000 copies were sold out. By the year's end there were 28,000 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in print. By the middle of 1903 there was a fifth edition sporting coloured endpapers ... a sixth printing was produced within the month"; and a year after the first commercial publication there were 56,470 copies in print.[14] American copyright[edit] Warne's New York office "failed to register the copyright for The Tale of Peter Rabbit in the United States"[This quote needs a citation], and unlicensed copies of the book "(from which Potter would receive no royalties) began to appear in the spring of 1903. There was nothing anyone could do to stop them".[citation needed] The enormous financial loss "... [to Potter] only became evident over time"[This quote needs a citation]. The necessity of protecting her intellectual property hit home after the successful 1903 publication of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin when her father returned from Burlington Arcade in Mayfair at Christmas 1903 with a toy squirrel labelled "Nutkin".[15] Merchandising[edit] Peter feasts on Mr. McGregor's vegetables Potter asserted that her tales would one day be nursery classics, and part of the "longevity of her books comes from strategy", writes Potter biographer Ruth MacDonald.[16] 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.[17] Considerable variations to the original format and version of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, as well as spin-off merchandise, have been made available over the decades. Variant versions include "pop-ups, toy theatres, and lift-the-flap books". By 1998, modern technology had made available "videos, audio cassette, a CD-ROM, a computer program, and Internet sites", as described by Margaret Mackey writing in The case of Peter Rabbit: changing conditions of literature for children. She continues: "Warne and their collaborators and competitors have produced a large collection of activity books and a monthly educational magazine". A plethora of other Peter Rabbit related merchandise exists, and "toy shops in the United States and Britain have whole sections of [the] store specially signposted and earmarked exclusively for Potter-related toys and merchandise".[18] Unauthorized copying of The Tale of Peter Rabbit has flourished over the decades, including products only loosely associated with the original. In 1916, American Louise A. Field cashed in on the popularity by writing books such as Peter Rabbit Goes to School and Peter Rabbit and His Ma, the illustrations of which showed him in his distinctive blue jacket.[19] In an animated movie by Golden Films, The New Adventures of Peter Rabbit, "Peter is given buck teeth, an American accent and a fourth sister Hopsy." Another video "retelling of the tale casts Peter as a Christian preacher singing songs about God and Jesus."[18] Literary praise[edit] Writing in Storyteller: The Classic that Heralded America's Storytelling Revival, in discussing the difference between stories that lend themselves well to telling and stories that lend themselves well to reading, Ramon Ross explains Peter Rabbit is a story created for reading. He believes Potter created a good mix of suspense and tension, intermixed with lulls in the action. He goes on to write that the writing style—"the economy of words, the crisp writing"—lends itself well to a young audience.[20] Lear writes that Potter "had in fact created a new form of animal fable in: one in which anthropomorphic animals behave as real animals with true animal instincts", and a form of fable with anatomically correct illustrations drawn by a scientifically minded artist. She further states Peter Rabbit's nature is familiar to rabbit enthusiasts "and endorsed by those who are not ... because her portrayal speaks to some universal understanding of rabbity behaviour."[21] She describes the tale as a "perfect marriage of word and image" and "a triumph of fantasy and fact".[22] Mr. McGregor tries to trap Peter under a garden sieve According to Stuart Jeffries, "...psychoanalytic critiques of her work have multiplied since her death in 1943."[23] Carole Scott writes in Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit that the reader cannot help but identify with rebellious little Peter and his plight as all the illustrations are presented from his low-to-the-ground view, most feature Peter in close-up and within touching distance, and Mr. McGregor is distanced from the reader by always being depicted on the far side of Peter. Scott explains: "This identification dramatically instills fear and tension in the reader, and interacts with the frequently distanced voice of the verbal narrative", sometimes with contradictory effects.[24] In the verbal narrative and the illustration for the moment when Mr. McGregor attempts to trap Peter under a garden sieve, for example, the verbal narrative presents the murderous intent of Mr. McGregor as a matter-of-fact, everyday occurrence while the illustration presents the desperate moment from the terrified view of a small animal in fear of his life – a view that is reinforced by the birds that take flight to the left and the right.[25] In the illustration of Peter standing by the locked door, the verbal narrative describes the scene without the flippancy evident in the moment of the sieve. The inability to overcome obstacles is presented in the verbal narrative with objective matter-of-factness and the statement, "Peter began to cry" is offered without irony or attitude, thus drawing the reader closer to Peter's emotions and plight. The illustration depicts an unclothed Peter standing upright against the door, one foot upon the other with a tear running from his eye. Without his clothes, Peter is only a small, wild animal but his tears, his emotions, and his human posture intensifies the reader's identification with him. Here, verbal narrative and illustration work in harmony rather than in disharmony.[26] Scott suggests Potter's tale has encouraged many generations of children to "self-indulgence, disobedience, transgression of social boundaries and ethics, and assertion of their wild, unpredictable nature against the constrictions of civilized living."[27] Frank Delaney notes "a self-containment" in Potter's writing reflective of an uninterested mother and a lonely childhood spent in the company of pets.[28] John Bidwell, curator at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, observed "...the sardonic humor that makes Beatrix Potter so much fun for kids and grown-ups."[29] Adaptations[edit] In 1938, shortly after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney 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!"[30] In 1935, the story was loosely adapted in the Merrie Melodies 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 3 sisters. In 1971, Peter Rabbit appeared as a character in the ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter. In late 1991, HBO aired an animated musical adaptation of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, narrated by Carol Burnett,[31] as part of the network's Storybook Musicals series, which was later released to VHS by Family Home Entertainment under HBO licence.[32] In 1992, the tale was adapted to animation again for the BBC anthology series, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends, along with The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. In 2006, Peter Rabbit was heavily referenced in a biopic about Beatrix Potter entitled Miss Potter. In December 2012, a new CGI-animated children's TV series titled Peter Rabbit premiered on Nickelodeon, with a full series run beginning in February 2013.[33][34] Peter was voiced by Colin DePaula throughout Season 1 and recanted by L. Parker Lucas for Season 2 in the US version. In the U.K. version he is voiced by Connor Fitzgerald. In February 2018, a 3D live-action/CGI animated feature film titled Peter Rabbit, directed by Will Gluck, was released. Voice roles were played by James Corden, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, and Elizabeth Debicki, and live action roles played by Domhnall Gleeson, Rose Byrne, and Sam Neill.[35] A sequel is set to be released in 2021. References[edit] Footnotes[edit] ^ Mackey 2002, p. 33 ^ Worker's Press ^ Mackey 2002, p. 35 ^ Lear 2007, p. 142 ^ Lear 2007, p. 143 ^ Lear 2007, pp. 143–144 ^ Lear 2007, p. 145 ^ Lear 2007, pp. 145–146 ^ a b Lear 2007, p. 146 ^ Lear 2007, p. 147 ^ Lear 2007, p. 150 ^ a b Lear 2007, p. 149 ^ Lear 2007, p. 148 ^ Lear 2007, p. 152 ^ Lear 2007, p. 164 ^ MacDonald 1986, p. 128 ^ Lear 2008, pp. 172–5 ^ a b Mackey 1998, pp. xxi–xxii ^ Hallinan 2002, p. 83 ^ Ross 1996, p. 210 ^ Lear 2007, p. 153 ^ Lear 2007, pp. 154–155 ^ Jeffries, Stuart. "The ugly truth about Peter Rabbit ...", The Guardian, December 7, 2006 ^ Mackey 2002, p. 22 ^ Mackey 2002, pp. 22–23 ^ Mackey 2002, p. 26 ^ Mackey 2002, p. 29 ^ Delaney, Frank. "The Tale of Beatrix Potter", The public Domain Review ^ Chozick, Amy. "Bet Your Camomile Tea, Peter, You’re a TV Star Now", The New York Times, December 5, 2012 ^ Laws, Emma (2007). "Showing 'What a Woman Has Done': The Beatrix Potter Collections at the V&A". Art Libraries Journal. 32 (1). ISSN 0307-4722. ^ "The Tale of Peter Rabbit". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved 9 October 2016. ^ Peter Rabbit 1991 (TCM) ^ "Nickelodeon Premieres Peter Rabbit with Holiday Special". People Magazine. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2013. ^ "Adventure Abounds in Peter Rabbit, Nickelodeon's New Animated Preschool Series Premiering Tuesday, Feb. 19, At 12 pm (ET/PT)". PR Newswire. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2018. ^ Schaffstall, Katherine (9 February 2018). "'Peter Rabbit': Meet the Voices Behind the Animated Characters". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 15 May 2019. Works cited[edit] Hallinan, Camilla (2002), The Ultimate Peter Rabbit: A Visual Guide to the World of Beatrix Potter, London (et al.): Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 0-7894-8538-9 Lear, Linda (2007), Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 978-0-312-36934-7 Mackey, Margaret (2002), Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit: A Children's Classic at 100, Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN 0-8108-4197-5 Mackey, Margaret (1998), The Case of Peter Rabbit, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-8153-3094-4 Ross, Ramon Royal (1996), Storyteller: The Classic That Heralded America's Storytelling Revival, August House, ISBN 978-0-87483-451-2 Waller, Philip (2006), Writers, Readers, and Reputations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-820677-1 "Worker's Press acknowledge Frederick Warne's intellectual property rights", Prnewswire.co.uk, London: Frederick Warne and Co., 10 July 2003, archived from the original on 15 August 2017, retrieved 31 August 2009 External links[edit] Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Tale of Peter Rabbit Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The Tale of Peter Rabbit at Project Gutenberg The Tale of Peter Rabbit Audio Book at Project Gutenberg The Tale of Peter Rabbit public domain audiobook at LibriVox The Tale of Peter Rabbit Semantic ebook at Linkgua Books The Tale of Peter Rabbit Digital Book at The University of Iowa Libraries. Replaced(Flash) version (July 2020) World of Peter Rabbit: A website maintained by Potter's first publisher Frederick Warne & Co. v t e Beatrix Potter The Tales The Tale of Peter Rabbit The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin The Tailor of Gloucester The Tale of Benjamin Bunny The Tale of Two Bad Mice The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit The Story of Miss Moppet The Tale of Tom Kitten The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies The Tale of Ginger and Pickles The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes The Tale of Mr. Tod The Tale of Pigling Bland Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes The Tale of Little Pig Robinson Other books The Fairy Caravan The Sly Old Cat The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots Adaptations The Tales of Beatrix Potter The Tailor of Gloucester The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends The Adventures of Peter Rabbit & Benjamin Bunny Peter Rabbit (television series) Peter Rabbit (film) Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway People Norman Warne Hardwicke Rawnsley Locations Hill Top, Cumbria Beatrix Potter Gallery Near and Far Sawrey Dalguise Lake District Derwentwater St Herbert's Island Little Town, Cumbria Newlands Church Newlands Valley Hawkshead Keswick, Cumbria Carleton Crematorium and Cemetery Armitt Library Esthwaite Water Melford Hall Moss Eccles Tarn Characters Peter Rabbit Mr. McGregor Tabitha Twitchit Publishers Frederick Warne & Co David McKay The Horn Book Magazine Related Beswick Pottery Miss Potter (2006) Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse (2020) Authority control BNF: cb135987245 (data) Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Tale_of_Peter_Rabbit&oldid=1003049455" Categories: 1902 children's books Peter Rabbit Books adapted into films Books adapted into television series Books about rabbits and hares Frederick Warne & Co books Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use British English from August 2014 Use dmy dates from July 2014 Articles with unsourced quotes All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2019 Commons category link from Wikidata Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with LibriVox links Good articles Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Languages العربية Български Deutsch Español فارسی Français Bahasa Indonesia മലയാളം 日本語 ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Português Română Simple English Slovenščina ไทย 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 27 January 2021, at 05:21 (UTC). 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