119 – The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Today you will hear the Tale of Peter Rabbit.

This is episode number 119, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

On Easter Sunday, two of our good friends came over to our house and brought a box of homemade sugar cookies in a variety of different shapes. The cookies were very neatly frosted, there were carrots, dragonflies, little pots and birds. And then a little bunny I recognized as Peter Rabbit. He was wearing his famous blue jacket with brass buttons. Of course, the brass being painted a sort of gold color.

I asked my friend Oda, who had made these cookies and who is Norwegian, if Peter Rabbit is famous in Norway and she gave me a very enthusiastic "Oh, yeah!"

Like me, she’d grown up reading the stories of Peter and his adventures. As a child, I remember my mom reading the tales of Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potter was an incredible illustrator and author, and her images really bring life to the words that go alongside them. I mean, who doesn’t like bunnies and field mice and other little cute animals in adorable clothes? Maybe you can picture them in your own head. If you can’t, I highly recommend going to the episode webpage for this episode and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. 

Illustration by Beatrix Potter

Illustration by Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Peter Rabbit was released in 1902 in English; Beatrix Potter was a British author. To date, stories of Peter Rabbit have been translated into 35 languages, and over 150 million copies have been sold worldwide. Since the story is now in the public domain, I can share it with you. So today I’ll share the original tale of Peter Rabbit, the 1902 version of it.

If you have signed up to premium content for Season 3 or All Premium Content, you will have the extended version of this audio in which I’ll explain in detail what the meanings of more complicated words are, some old-fashioned terms that we don’t use anymore, or that are more often used in British English than American English, so that you can get a better idea of how this text would be written if it were written today in modern American English.

I’ll also have the full downloadable transcript and MP3 with those images for you so that you can share this story with someone special. Once again, that is Season 3 or All Premium Content, and you can find those on the episode webpage or in the episode notes.

Without any further ado, let’s begin.

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Free Transcript ends here. Please purchase Season 3 or All Premium Content to obtain the rest.