The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter: The 23 Original Peter Rabbit Books

I read somewhere that children like their fairy tales a little scary, rather than saccharinely cute. I didn’t read Beatrix Potter as a child – although I was exposed to some of the stories – but it strikes me that if you identify with the anthropomorphic animals the tales are pretty grim. Peter Rabbit’s father was made into a pie by Mrs. MacGregor. Tom Kitten almost meets his end as a roly-poly pudding for Samuel Whiskers. Jemima Puddleduck is tricked into supplying her own stuffing. And Little Pig Robinson almost ends up as a birthday dinner. Kind of creepy; this sort of stuff never happens to Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck or Bugs Bunny. (For a variant, see The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Hieroglyph Edition))

I will get through this whole review without using the word "charming."

Beatrix Potter is a hero of mine. She was a talented illustrator who wanted to do nature drawings for scientific journals. Her claim to fame ended up being Peter Rabbit. This plus 21 other tiny little books of tales served as my bedtime reading this week. We found a complete boxed set at a used book store. While I was familiar with Peter Rabbit, had read Beatrix's bio, and named a goat after her, I had never read the complete tales until now.

It was a joy. Apart from the fact that the animals wear clothing, the illustrations and even many of the tales are very true to life. Peter Rabbit looks and feels very bunnylike indeed after losing his shoes and coat, lost and show more disoriented and damp from hiding in the watering can. The dogs, mice, badgers, frogs, "puddleducks", hens, piglets, etc. inhabiting this world, while engaging in people-like pursuits, keep their respective animal natures about them. One of my favorite tales involved two mice ransacking a dollhouse. After trying and failing to eat the tiny plaster food, they commence making a general mess and then spiriting various objects down their mousehole. Very mousey. Next morning, the dolls just stare and smile.

Beatrix lost her fiance tragically during a long engagement insisted upon by her parents, to whom she felt duty but little more. When they had both passed away, and she had inherited and earned money enough, she left the city she never liked and bought herself a farm among her beloved lakes. She came to life. And she was instrumental in preserving the local breed of sheep. I just felt like putting in a plug of why she's my hero. show less

What a nostalgic and fun read this was. I read Beatrix Potter’s stories as a child and reading them again now was a delight. I adore her illustrations and appreciated the humor I missed when I was young.

I love these small books because of the illustrations. BP is an acute observer, and her pictures are so full of these small, wonderful details. She creates a small and idyllic world that any child relates to. At the same thing she is not totally unrealistic because her world can be quite sinister and threatening at times as well. The text is interesting because she is a mix of the stereotypical annoying Victorian bitch and a quite modern woman. The books are a delight to read to kids, again and again as it happens.

Ok, no, I didn't read the whole book, not even all the ones I didn't know before. After all, they're at Project Gutenberg, so I can read them on my tablet at any time. But I picked this up at the library to have an idea of just how prolific Potter (second cousin's great-aunt of Harry?) was. And I have to admit, the variety of what she created is more than I realized, and the quantity less.

I'm finding that I'm enjoying the ones that are not so cutesy bunny more than those that are. [b:The Tale of Mr. Tod|375712|The Tale of Mr. Tod|Beatrix Potter|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421050807s/375712.jpg|365573] is killer. I never knew that Mr. Tod is a nickname for a fox, and Tommy Brock is a badger. And when a mother rabbit finds her show more children missing, we read that she "wrung her ears."

Did you know also that Potter bought country lands to preserve it, and "When she died in 1943 she left over 4,000 acres and fifteen farms to the nation." show less

Somehow I forgot how dark how many of these stories actually are... The artwork is really the best part of Beatrix Potter's stories anyway - the text often leaves something to be desired. Still, I will always love certain tales, like that of Mrs. Tiggywinkle, Jemima Puddleduck, and of course: Peter Rabbit.

One of the things I liked about this collection of Beatrix Potter stories, rhymes, and paintings is that before each there is text explaining a bit about the story such as when it was written, what was going on in her life at the time it was written, etc.

While a lot of these stories I remember hearing as a child there were also a decent number I hand not read before. Some stories were a bit nonsensical or absurd, though, maybe that is part of the point of those? It was also interesting to see what was considered appropriate for children in the early 1900s compared to today.

Even though I didn't love all the stories and rhymes, seeing all the lovely paintings and drawings by Potter was a delight. Though some of the stories kept me so show more pulled in I didn't want to look at the drawing in detail until later because I just wanted to find out the ending of that story.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are words or things that are no longer in popular use today that come up in some of the stories. While it rarely impacts the understanding of the story, there was one in which not knowing what something was did make it quite confusing. show less