The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter: The 23 Original Peter Rabbit Books (1989)

Questo è libro è stato uno dei capisaldi della mia infanzia (e infatti la mia edizione ha un'aria molto letta e vissuta). E, secondo me, è uno dei quei libri che tutti i bambini dovrebbero ascoltare e vedere.

Sì, perché il libro è impreziosito - è proprio il caso di dirlo - dalle illustrazioni originali dell'autrice. Piccole opere d'arte dipinte ad acquarello o in bianco e nero, nelle quali un bambino può ammirare conigli in giacchetta azzurra e anatre con cuffia e scialle. Tutto è assolutamente realistico perché Beatrix Potter utilizzava veri conigli, anatre, maiali, etc... come modelli. Viveva e amava la campagna che descriveva e raffigurava nei suoi disegni.

Le storie sono di quelle che si ricordano per tutta la vita... Peter Coniglio, la Signora Trovatutto, il Sarto di Gloucester, Nutkin lo Scoiattolo, la Signora Topolina, Timmy Puntappiè... sono quei personaggi che un bambino ama, sogna e disegna come protagonisti delle sue personali avventure.

Per i più grandi, ogni storia ha una brevissima introduzione sulle vicende compositive ed editoriali che ne hanno portato alla pubblicazione. ( )

Lovely little stories to read aloud. We used these to discuss story structure and writing style. ( )

"The 23 Original Peter Rabbit Books" - the original and aurhorized edition; new colour reproductions.
(from the book cover)

Deluxe volume containing all 23 Peter Rabbit Tales, complete and unabridged, with all the original illustrations, arranged in order of publication. Also includes 2 early narrative picture sequences and 2 unpublished stories. (from the dust jacket)

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 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. ( )