This wonderful collection brings together the four original Beatrix Potter stories which feature the mischievous little rabbit: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and the Tale of Mr Tod. Peter Rabbit and his cousin, Benjamin Bunny, along with their extensive family, get into all sorts of mischief as they sneak into Mr McGregor's garden, narrowly avoid being turned into rabbit pie and outsmart the wily and cunning fox, Mr Tod. Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny's mischief, as well as their creative ploys to trick and outsmart their enemies, have ensured their lasting status as childhood favourites.
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who is best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit.
Born into a wealthy household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets, and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developed a love of landscape, flora, and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Because she was a woman, her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology.
In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit and became secretly engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne, causing a breach with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Warne died before the wedding.
Potter eventually published 24 children's books, the most recent being The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots (2016), and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time.
In her forties, she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. Potter died in 1943 and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers.
Potter's books continue to sell well throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in various formats, including a ballet, films, and in animation.
i just realized that this is A children’s classic published before 1980 and as such, i can use it to fulfill book riot's 2018 read harder challenge task #11: A children’s classic published before 1980 although i will sacrifice the extry points of the self-challenged "read something i've owned for more than a year. i'm okay with that. review still to come, but i'm please to check off another box.
this is the book my dad sent in my easter package this year, along with a metric ton of candy and these two friends:
and while i'm showing off my toys, here's the awesome easter sloth erica sent in her easter basket:
easter is the best holiday. i'm gonna go read this book while shoving refined sugar into my facehole.
The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit is a large format book which contains all 4 stories by Beatrix Potter, which feature Peter Rabbit.
They are “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny”, “The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies”, and “The Tale of Mr Tod”.
The original watercolour illustrations from Beatrix Potter’s tiny books are used, but before her stories were ever taken on by a large publisher (Frederick Warne), the author had the Peter Rabbit stories printed privately. This large format volume also includes some of these black and white pen drawings, which is a rare treat.
We can follow the whole family history of Peter Rabbit through these 4 stories. After his adventures in Mr. McGregor’s Garden in the first ever book, Peter grows up to be a respectable vegetable gardener himself! He sometimes helps out his more feckless relations, and now and then gives the odd cabbage to his sister Flopsy (who has married his cousin Benjamin Bunny). We also learn what befalls some of their offspring.
The Flopsy Bunnies unwittingly eat too many lettuces and suffer from the soporific effects, thereby falling straight into the hands of Mr McGregor. The fourth story is twice as long as any of the three preceding ones. In it, Tommy Brock the badger tricks Mr. Tod the fox, and kidnaps another litter of flopsy bunnies, because of the carelessness of their grandfather Old Benjamin Bouncer.
We also discover that Cotton-tail has married the little black rabbit who was sweet on her in a different book. But of the 3 rabbits who were Peter’s sisters, nobody every mentions Mopsy, and we do begin to wonder about Mr McGregor’s fondness for rabbit pie …
Whenever children's classics are discussed, Peter Rabbit is mentioned, so I figured I'd spend a nice summer day finding out what all the fuss is about. Turns out I hadn't missed much. There's a touch of darkness here in there (which I appreciate; not sure how kids would handle it, though), but overall the stories are just meh. The illustrations are cute, but unremarkable as well. I feel like I need something more from children's stories than just a silly rabbit stealing vegetables and other animals trying to eat the bunnies.
Brambly Hedge, on the other hand, I loved and thought much more charming. More about that later.
اولین کتاب از مجموعه ی پیتر خرگوشه داستانی در مورد پیتر خرگوشِ شیطون که علیرغم سه تا خواهر و برادر دیگه اش _ فلاپسی ، ماپسی و دم پنبه ای _به حرف مامان ش گوش نداد و توی دردسر افتاد اما تونست خودش رو نجات بده و فرار کنه اما در آخر توی بستر بیماری افتاد و نتونست از غذای خوشمزه ای که مامان ش تهیه کرده بود، بخوره . داستان های پاتر ، داستان های ساده و روانی هستند که در کنار تصویرگری زیبایی که داره ، واقعا لذت بخش و دوست داشتنیه
Gorgeous edition of all the Peter Rabbit stories. Though they are pretty scary reading as a grown up - literally Peter Rabbit's mum is nonchalantly like 'don't play at Mr McGregor's garden, he cooked up your dad & ate him' then leaves her bunny children unsupervised for the day. What does she think is going to happen??? As if the kids aren't going to go STRAIGHT TO FORBIDDEN PLACE. Then Peter spends one of the sequels seriously traumatised by his visit to said garden to the point where he basically starts hallucinating and hearing things. In a later story, a badger hides a bunch of rabbit babies in an oven in preparation for a snack only to be foiled by a fox who would also eat the babies. Still - love these stories.
Have read this with Mary for years but first time we made it through all the stories several times with Anselm! He especially liked the puddleducks and the bad mice.
can't find beauty in it, and all I see is how awful people or animals are. it remind's me about polish children books like "janko muzykant" or "nasza szkapa".
Like Tommy Brock taking all little rabbits and put them into oven... yeah.. fun read for kids... Or Like Benjamin had been beaten by his dad with stick - AWESOME! great children book ;)
Ok, never read Beatrix Potter as a kid (though I have heard of Peter Rabbit and recognized her illustrations pretty well because she's so popular) so reading this for school was really my first time ever but ohmy, this book. IT WAS AWESOME. It had things that I don't think children's books could get away with saying nowadays. For example in "Tale of Peter Rabbit" the mother warned the bunnies not to go into Mr. McGregor's garden because their father was captured and baked into a pie and it SHOWS A PICTURE OF MRS. MCGRREGOR BAKING THE RABBIT FILLED PIE. In "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny", Benjamin Bunny and his cousin Peter Rabbit go into Mr. McGregor's garden where they are trapped by a cat for five hours only to be rescued by Old Mr. Bunny (Benjamin's father and Peter's uncle) who right away takes a switch to each of the boys. And again, THERE IS A PICTURE OF HIM SWITCHING THEIR BACKSIDES. Like I said, stuff that would in no way get published today but back in 1901 when children were expected to obey their parents OR ELSE, this is in now considered a classic. Really interesting when you think about it that way.
Still a good set of novels. Not sure I'd read it to my kids/nieces/nephews/cousins though. Maybe to scare them. Because really, this was all these four novels were basically about.
Crotchety old gardener attempts to keep rabbits out of vegetable patches, as well as to appease his wife with various rodent pies and fur coats. Young rabbit ignores tragic family history and mother’s wishes to trespass onto dangerous property. Many misadventures (and scolded rabbits) ensue.
I know this is heresy, but Beatrix Potter is overrated. Love the illustrations and the OG Peter Rabbit one, but most of these stories are just weird and unpleasant.
Beatrix Potter is an all time childhood classic write. Everything she writes is gold. The pictures are so beautifully drawn. The movies that have been made have caught the mischievousness of Peter Rabbit.
BEATRIX POTTER: Did she find expression for her frustration at the glass-ceiling of Victorian era suppression? Did she write cautionary tales about the stupid naivety of young women succumbing to the wiles of crafty charlatans ["Jemima Puddle-duck was a simpleton" writes Potter]? Was she a product of her generation in which ALL children-animal stories that were written at that time or still popular from tradition were brutal, fearful, dark and treacherous (e.g. Little Red Riding Hood, etc)? - -
“The Tale of Peter Rabbit”
“Your father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”
“Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea: "One table-spoonful to be taken at bedtime.” “I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.” - - -
“The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin”
“This is a Tale about a tail—a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin. He had a brother called Twinkleberry, and a great many cousins.”
“Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house, and held him up by the tail, intending to skin him.” - - -
“The Tailor of Gloucester”
“In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets - when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta - there lived a tailor in Gloucester.” - - -
“The Tale of Benjamin Bunny”
“.. old Mr Benjamin Bunny … He was smoking a pipe of rabbit-tobacco (lavender), and had a little switch in his hand.”
Switch etymology? - switch as in a stick to hit with, and switch as in flicking a change of direction. - - -
“The Tale of Two Bad Mice”
Once upon a time there was a very beautiful doll’s-house; it was red brick with white windows, and it had real muslin curtains and a front door and a chimney. It belonged to two dolls called Lucinda and Jane; at least it belonged to Lucinda, but she never ordered meals. Jane was the Cook; but she never did any cooking, because the dinner had been bought ready-made, in a box full of shavings.
“perambulator” = old-fashioned term for pram.”
“They pushed the front door – it was not fast.” [fast = so as to be hard to move; securely.]
Tom Thumb and his wife Hunca Munca go ape-sh*t. Talk about psychos!
“Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca. They broke up the pudding, the lobsters, the pears and the oranges.”
“Then those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could—especially Tom Thumb! He took Jane’s clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom, and he threw them out of the top floor window.” - - -
“The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle”
Once upon a time there were three little kittens, and their names were Mittens, Tom Kitten, and Moppet. They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust.
“Lucie knocked-once-twice, and interrupted the song. A little frightened voice called out “Who's that?” Lucie opened the door: and what do you think there was...”
“'That isn't my pinny?' said Lucie. [pinafore = a collarless sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or jumper] - - -
“The Tale of Jeremy Fisher”
“Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher; he lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of ...”
Goloshes!
Butterfly sandwich, roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce, bobbit, skittleback (fish), shoal (of fish), macintosh. [Disconsolately = without consolation or solace; hopelessly unhappy; inconsolable.] - - -
“The Tale of Tom Kitten”
“Once upon a time there were three little kittens, and their names were. Mittens, Tom Kitten, and Moppet. They had dear little fur coats ...”
“I am affronted.” [affronted = offend the modesty or values of.]
“repose” [a state of rest, sleep, or tranquillity.]
Tucker! - - -
“The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck”
“Jemima Puddle-duck was a simpleton:..”
Was BEATRIX POTTER an undercover journalist in a war-turn Middle East nation attempting to sneak her story past the censorship of Western media?? [An example of one of her bedtime stories:]
Jemima Puddle-duck is an ethnic-minority widow who is not permitted to raise her own children under the oppressive regime in her homeland. Her every action is monitored by her peers who are complicit in upholding the existing regime. She tries hiding her children but they are always found and kidnapped into slavery. She flees as a refugee across the border where she finds asylum in the home of "an elegantly dressed gentleman reading a newspaper" (Fox) who promises to protect her and invade the dictator's headquarters and liberate her people. In fact he exploits her trust and manipulates her into laboring for his own wealth-creation, and keeps her in a room which has a mass grave of decomposing body parts. Once he's got all he can from her he's about to physically assault and ravage her, but not before Kep the collie-dog (having gathered Intel on her whereabouts and convincing his supporters that Fox poses a significant military threat to the free world) forms a coalition with other canine-allies and launches a strike on Fox's residence where Jemima and her nine infants are being held. The canine-allies drive Fox into exile but in the chaos of war her children are butchered and murdered by the allies. (At least these insubordinates who went 'rogue' were discharged with disgrace.) She is told that this collateral damage is the expected price of freedom as she is escorted home in tears by her 'liberators'. The new regime permits her to keep any future children however due to her PTSD and frequent anxiety-attacks she is unable to return to the normal life of motherhood. She convinces herself that her treatment is justified by telling herself that she never was a good mother anyway.
Potter's mind was sadistic and dark …. I think I'm starting to like her! - - -
“The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies”
“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'.”
“I shall skin them and cut off their heads.” - - -
За всички малки и големи, настоящи и бъдещи почитатели на любимата ни Биатрикс Потър пристигат събрани в един том всички оригинални четири приказки за Зайчето Питър! Издателство „Труд” ни зарадваха с „Забавните приключения на Зайчето Питър” - сборник с твърди корици, в който са намерили място пищно илюстрираните патила на пухкавия палавник. Оригиналното заглавие на книгата е „The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit” и в нея ще откриете класиките „Приказка за Зайчето Питър”, „Приказка за Бебо Бенджамин”, „Приказка за Зайчета Каламбичета” и преведената за първи път на български език „Приказка за Лис-Лисан”! Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле":
O pozadí vzniku knihy Dobrodružstvá zajačika Petríka a o Beatrix Potter je toho popísané mnoho. Stačí kuknúť uja Gúgla alebo tetu Wiki. Rozhodne odporúčam prečítať si, lebo je to veľmi zaujímavé čítanie. Veľmi pekne je tiež životopis Beatrix Potter spracovaný vo filme Miss Potter z roku 2006 v hlavnej úlohe s Renée Zellweger. Ak obľubujete príbehy od Jane Austen, nebudete ľutovať. Beatrix Potter svojim prístupom k životu veľmi pripomína práve hlavné hrdinky jej kníh. Beatrix Potter vytvorila milý, detsky nevinný príbeh o zajačikovi Petríkovi a jeho kamarátoch, ktorí robia rôzne lapajstvá a zažívajú pri nich plno dobrodružstiev. Ilustrácie len túto milotu a nevinnosť podčiarkujú.
Unpopulair opinion I suppose. Spoilers ahead, but it's 100 years old, so..
In the first story Peter's dad is Mrs. McGregor's dinner pie and the Mr. tries to catch and *unalive* Peter. Delightful (?) The second features an adult bunny whipping his son and nepphew, Mr. McGregor tries to *unalive* the bunnies again. Cousins marry and baby bunnies get kidnapped in the third story and we finish the book with another kidnapping of the same baby bunnies!!? To conclude: all ends well of course. Until the next story. The stories are very somber.
Not a super cute, fun, adorable, enjoyable children's classic in my eyes ?? Despite the obvious; the rest of the drawings are very cute.
Beatrix Potter's stories of personified animals are a delightful tour of the themes that shape our lives: obedience... and disobedience, adventure, greed, guilt service, service, hard work, telling the truth, love, and on and on and on. These impressions are colored with Potter's whimsical mark of narration and illustration. A family treasure. Highly recommended.
A few in here I hadn’t ever read or heard of before, including the much longer tale of Mr Tod, which has the horrifying attempt by some gentlemanly badger attempting to eat the young children of one of the Cottontail sisters. I recall one other Beatrix Potter story where a rat couple attempted to kidnap some kittens and bake them into some doughy British foodstuff to eat them and being similarly shocked by the brutality. This isn’t a detraction in my review, but rather an indication of how well the author can weave together the Elizabethan (or whatever Britishy era these books are set in) with the savage world of animal’s eating each other. It’s written so matter-of-fact-like and yet with the same horror at the prospect of one’s offspring being eaten that it really makes the characters seem more real than they would otherwise. This differs for example, with the one Redwall book I’ve read, or even the Wind in the Willows cartoon which I’ve seen, where the animalness of the characters is just incidental to the characterization. Those are just people who happen to be like animals, these are truly animals who have all the characteristics of people. One definitely gets the impression that Beatrix Potter knew animals much better, spent time with them, and acutely observed the ways they interacted with each other and the quaint little English countryside communities where she lived. As for moral, well, it doesn’t get any easier to encourage a child to obey his parents than telling him that otherwise he might get eaten. Our world has very real dangers, though often not so blatant as attempts to consume children. It behooves stories to reinforce in the young to trust and obey their parents, so as to narrowly miss the fate of being baked into a pie, or roasted in an oven, or turned into a pair of shoes. There are dates much worse than these, and these are the fates against which parents instruct, and children so often have difficulty in fearing.
I vaguely remembered the premise of these stories from my childhood, and enjoyed rereading the four stories contained in this book. Anthropomorphic animals, illustrations of lovely British gardens and natural landscapes, wonderfully sophisticated language for a children's book ("My Uncle Bouncer has displayed a lamentable lack of discretion for years...")...what's not to love? Rereading this was like time traveling back to my early elementary school years in the nicest, most relaxing way.
This collection included four stories: "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny," "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies," and "The Tale of Mr. Todd." I greatly enjoyed the stories and illustrations, but there were several surprising plot points I'd forgotten. For example:
-Benjamin Bunny marries his cousin Flopsy, and they have six bunnies together. Yes, they are rabbits and the story was written over 100 years ago, but I wasn't quite prepared for rabbit incest.
-Old Mr. Rabbit beats his son, Benjamin Bunny, and his nephew Peter Rabbit after they wander into Mr. McGregor's garden.
-Flopsy slaps her father-in-law after her bunny babies are kidnapped by an unsavory badger her father-in-law consorts with while he's supposed to be babysitting.
-Peter's father was eaten by the McGregors and turned into rabbit pie after he was caught going into the McGregor garden. Even though Mr. McGregor is a curmudgeon and clearly the antagonist of a couple of the stories, I can't help but feel for the poor guy, whose garden is constantly being raided by mischievous rabbits who continually outwit him.
I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read most of these lovely little tales before, and I'm glad to have them all in one place. This version contains 17 of Beatrix Potter's stories, and can be enjoyed all at once or spread out over a few week's worth of bedtimes. These stories are really meant to be read aloud. Beatrix Potter's illustrations are beautiful, but I enjoyed this audiobook with only her simple words to draw the pictures.
Laurel Schroeder is an excellent choice as the voice actor, she read them as I'd imagine Beatrix Potter herself would have. She has a lovely cultured accent for the regular narration, and gives each mouse or squirrel their own piping little voice. She handles the rhymes and riddles so well, they brought a smile to my face each time. My favorite was The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin with his silly sing song riddles.
I was provided a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I would listen to a classic by this narrator again.
This was the first time I have read all of Beatrix Potter's stories on Peter Rabbit collected. It was a joy for me because my daughter is old enough now to sit and listen to each, understand what is happening fully (and without only looking at the illustrations) and not be too scared to the point where we have to stop reading. By the middle point of the collection, my son was also listening in, though he was strictly there to check where each character was located on the provided map, and to ask if we could read Tommy Tiptoes every time. Potter's work here is timeless. Each story features recurring characters from previous or future tales, despite these being published annually over a century ago. Her drawings bring each character to life, and promote the type of mischief that is universal to all little ones. Peter Rabbit will endure for many years to come.
I feel like I should love this, it's a classic and it's all over book lists for young children. However, there are so many words that aren't used in our language any more! My kids liked it, but I would guess they understood half of what was read. We liked the first 3 stories the best- Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny & The Flopsy Bunnies. The last story, The Tale of Mr. Todd, is SO long! You may think this is great for young children, but I would say 6+ would be a decent audience.