Product Description

This handsome edition brings all of Beatrix Potter's 23 tales and verses together in one book. Each story is complete and unabridged, and all the original illustrations, both color and black-and-white, are included. Potter's tales were often connected with real people, places and animals, so each story has a brief introductory note about its history. As an added bonus, The Complete Tales also includes four other works by Potter, which remained unpublished in her lifetime.

As part of Peter Rabbit's centennial celebration, the first printing of The Complete Tales will be published with a limited edition lithograph inside.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #474279 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Amazon.com
"I cannot draw you a picture of Peter and Benjamin underneath the basket," writes Beatrix Potter in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, "because it was quite dark, and because the smell of onions was fearful; it made Peter Rabbit and little Benjamin cry." Beatrix Potter's animal stories, the first of which was published in 1902, have been a joy to generations of young readers. This deluxe volume collects all of Beatrix Potter's 23 Peter Rabbit tales and verses together--complete and unabridged--in one book. All the original illustrations, both color and black and white, are included. The stories are arranged in the order in which they were first published to enable them to be read in the proper sequence, from A Tale of Peter Rabbit to The Tale of Little Pig Robinson. Beatrix Potter's tales were often connected with real places, people, or animals, so each story also includes a brief introductory note about its history. For example, "The story of naughty Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregor's garden first appeared in a picture letter Beatrix Potter wrote to Noel Moore, the young son of her former governess, in 1893." In addition to the original 23 tales, this edition contains two early narrative picture sequences, Three Little Mice and The Rabbit's Christmas Party. And, there are two charming little stories, The Sly Old Cat and The Fox and the Stork, which were originally intended to be worked up into books, but remained unpublished. This beautiful introduction to the world of Beatrix Potter is sure to remain on the family bookshelf for generations to come. (Baby to Preschool)

From AudioFile
This delightful production of the classic TALES OF BEATRIX POTTER is more suitable for older children and adults than for little listeners. There are several reasons for this: The pretty package is decorated with Beatrix Potter's drawings, but offers no other illustrations; the CD technology, in comparison with tapes, is inaccessible to young children and does not lend itself to a series of short tales written for little ones; finally, the first CD begins with a fascinating brief biography of Potter, something of more interest to adults than children. That said, Nadia May's dramatization is very good. Peter Rabbit is young and reckless, Squirrel Nutkin as rude as can be, the cats sound dangerous, and the mice in the "Tailor of Gloucester"--well, they sound just like most sociable mice I know. As with the packaging, May's reading is geared to older listeners, for while it's not fast, neither is it toddler-page-turning slow. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Meet Peter Rabbit and His Friends
It could be that more people know ABOUT the stories of Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)than actually know them. Peter Rabbit is certainly well known, and all the stories tend to get lumped into the category of toddler tales. Not so! Most of them are for children a little older, who can perhaps even read them themselves as well as enjoy being read to. There are a couple of true picture books for the very young, and a couple of longer stories for older children.

But who knew? The way to know is to listen to all the stories yourself, and this audio book makes it very easy to enjoy them with your children or grandchildren. You may be surprised to find that, despite Miss Potter's justly renowned illustrations, the stories are good ones and interesting in themselves.

Explain to your youngsters that Beatrix Potter was very interested in farming, and had a farm herself when she was older (actually, she had several); she came to know farm animals very well, and some characters get into other characters' stories because they live together. Any terms you don't quite understand (we didn't know what a patty-pan, a roly-poly pudding, or a stile were) can be very easily looked up on the Internet.

All that being said, this is a fine audio book to have. There's nothing fancy about it - it's just quite well done. My grandchildren are enjoying it, and I am, too!

audiobook tracking (Nadia May) ANNOYING - what were they thinking?!
We've taken this one out of our local library and the tracking on the cds is incredibly annoying. In spite of tracking every few minutes, and that these are *very* short tales, often only 2-3 tracks long, not one of the stories we have heard thusfar begins at the beginning of a track. That's right, there is no way to hear any of these stories (including the first one, The Tale of Peter Rabbit) without fast forwarding through a track to find the beginning. What was Blackstone THINKING when they broke the tracks up like this?! Needless to say, we shall not be purchasing a copy of this one - we'll go looking for the Shelley Frasier version (Tantor) instead.

Wonderful book!
I recently ordered this book from Amazon.com and was very happy with the book - especially for the price!

The book is breathtakingly beautiful and the slipcase makes it more of an heirloom item, rather than a simple book for young children. This book is the complete works by Beatrix Potter and so much easier to read than the smaller books orginally published for small childrens' grip.

I would strongly recommend ALL parents of young children - as well as adults reminiscing of days gone by, to purchase this book and keep it in a place of prominence on your bookshelves.

I still can not get over the great price for such a wonderfully crafted book!