Best Loved Tales

by Beatrix Potter

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

112 pages, Hardcover

First published March 25, 1999

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and reviewed each of the four stories in this collection separately, so this is really just for my own records. Normally, in any Beatrix Potter collection, I would say that the stand-out feature is the artwork, and Potter is undoubtedly a highly talented artist. The pictures are so detailed, and so charming, that they're a pleasure to look at. In this collection, however, it is overshadowed - at least for me - because included in these tales is my most favourite Potter story ever, the deeply creepy Tale of Samuel Whiskers, which will never get anything less than 5 stars from me, ever. Miss Moppet and Squirrel Nutkin both earned 4 stars, and The Fierce Bad Rabbit 3, as it was fun but rather slight. Collection rating therefore averages out to 4 stars.

[Max Bean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, my daughter loved it! and the drawings are, as always, brilliant!

Squirrel Nutkin 5*s
Squirrels take an owl on an island some gifts. One squirrel is disrespectful.

A Fierce Bad Rabbit 4*s
A naughty rabbit steals a nice rabbits carrot and gets his tail shot off by a hunter.

Miss Moppet 4*s
A cat toys with a mouse but the mouse escapes.

Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding 3.5*s
A bit weird. A mother cat locks her kittens in a cupboard, but they escape and hide.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

246 - 2017