Peter Rabbit

fictional character in children's books by Beatrix Potter

Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in many children's stories by Beatrix Potter. Peter was different from the traditional hero of that time. He is small, emotional, easily scared, and a not very wise animal.[1] He first came out in The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902. After that, he came out in five more books between 1904 and 1912. Potter made a soft doll shaped like Peter Rabbit, and soon dishes and wallpaper showed pictures of him. He appears as a character in the 1971 ballet movie, The Tales of Beatrix Potter and in the BBC series The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. He was inspired by Potter's pet rabbit, Peter Piper. In stories, he wears human clothes and walks standing up. His mother is Mrs. Josephine Rabbit, and he has three sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail. His popularity made Potter say in 1917, "All rabbits are called Peter now" – but she added "either Peter or Brer Rabbit."[2]

In 2018, a live-action animated movie was released with James Corden voicing Peter Rabbit.

References

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  1. Mackey 2002, p. 28
  2. Waller 2006, p. 343

Further reading

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  • Mackey, Margaret (2002), Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit: A Children's Classic at 100, Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN 0810-84197-5
  • Waller, Philip (2006), Writers, Readers, and Reputations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-820677-1
  • Worker's Press acknowledge Frederick Warne's intellectual property rights, Prnewswire.co.uk, 2003-07-10, retrieved 2009-08-31