The Tale of Peter Rabbit
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.
The story focuses on a family of anthropomorphic rabbits. The widowed mother rabbit warns her four rabbit children, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter (the oldest 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 little 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 bedridden by his mother. His mother wonders where Peter’s clothes are. She is very cross at Peter for going into Mr. McGregor’s garden and losing his jacket and shoes. It is revealed that it was the second little jacket and pair of shoes Peter lost in a fortnight. She 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 little 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.
