Have you met Peter Rabbit? If you haven’t then it’s time to do so. Peter Rabbit is a naughty, disobedient rabbit. His mother warned him and his sisters not to enter Mr. McGregor’s garden as his father had had “an accident there”. But Peter Rabbit thought differently and he was adventurous. He got into the forbidden garden and feasted on the vegetables. Having gorged himself he needs parsley to cure his aching stomach. His luck runs out and he is spotted by Mr. McGregor, chased and gets completely lost. His adventures in the garden and how he makes his escape are exciting.
Master storyteller
Beatrix Potter is the creator of this fascinating tale of the little rabbit. She was born on July 28, 1866. She was not only an author, but also an illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist. She is known and remembered for endearing characters like Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin and Jemima Puddle-Duck that she created and illustrated. Her stories gave readers a glimpse of the English landscape and country life.
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Every summer, Potter and her family left London behind to explore the English countryside. She was taught by a private governess until she was 18 years old.
Potter wrote and illustrated The Tale of Peter Rabbit and had it published privately in 1901. One year later, it came out as a small three-colour book.
There is a remarkable anecdote of how the Peter Rabbit stories came about. Beatrix Potter used to send illustrated story letters to the children of her former governess, Annie Moore. Annie Moore saw that these letters could be made into books. Potter thought the idea brilliant and borrowed the entire collection of letters from the children (who had preserved them). Of the lot, she selected one letter dated September 4, 1893 which featured a rabbit named Peter.
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Potter’s 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 camomile tea”.
Have you read?
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tailor of Gloucester, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, The Tale of Jemima Puddle- Duck and The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan.