The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
Encyclopedia
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter
. It was first published by Frederick Warne & Co
. in July 1908
. Potter composed the book at Hill Top
, a working farm in the Lake District
she bought in 1905. Following the purchase, her works began to focus on country and village life, incorporating large casts of animal characters and sinister villains. Jemima Puddle-Duck was the first of her books set wholly at the farm with background illustrations based on the farm buildings and yard, and nearby locales.
Jemima is a domestic duck whose eggs are routinely confiscated by the farmer's wife because she believes Jemima a poor sitter. Jemima searches for a place away from the farm where she can hatch her eggs without human interference, and naively confides her woes to a suave fox who invites her to nest in a shed at his home. Jemima accepts his invitation, little realizing her danger: the fox plans to kill and roast her. Kep, a collie on the farm, discovers Jemima's whereabouts and rescues her just in time. Potter indicated the tale was a revision of "Little Red Riding Hood
" with Jemima, the fox, and the dog parallels to the fairy tale's heroine, wolf, and woodcutter. Jemima, Kep, the farmer's wife and her two children were all modelled on real world individuals at Potter's Hill Top farm.
The book was hugely popular. Spinoff merchandise included a soft Jemima doll in bonnet and shawl, a Jemima painting book in 1925, and illustrated fabric placemats hand-fashioned by Potter and distributed to friends. Critically, the book is considered one of Potter's best. In 1971, the tale became a segment in the Royal Ballet film, The Tales of Beatrix Potter
, and, in 1993, it was telecast as an episode on the animated BBC
anthology series, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends
.
The tale begins in a farmyard which is home to a duck called Jemima Puddle-duck. She wants to hatch her own eggs, but the farmer's wife believes ducks make poor sitters and routinely confiscates their eggs to allow the hens to incubate them. Jemima tries to hide her eggs, but they are always found and carried away. She sets off along the road in poke bonnet
and shawl to find a safe place away from the farm to lay her eggs.
At the top of a hill, she spies a distant wood, flies to it, and waddles about until she discovers an appropriate nesting place. However, a charming gentleman with "black prick ears and sandy-coloured whiskers" persuades her to nest in a shed at his home. Jemima is led to his "tumble-down shed" (which is curiously filled with feathers), and makes herself a nest with little ado.
Jemima lays her eggs, and the fox suggests a dinner party to mark the event. He asks her to collect the traditional herbs used in stuffing a duck, telling her the seasonings will be used for an omelette. Jemima sets about her errand, but the farm collie
, Kep, meets her as she carries onions from the farm kitchen. She reveals her errand, and Kep sees through the fox's plan at once.
With the help of two fox-hound puppies, Kep rescues Jemima and the "foxy-whiskered gentleman" is never seen again. However, the hungry fox-hounds eat Jemima's eggs. Jemima is escorted back to the farm in tears over her lost eggs, but, in time, lays more eggs and successfully hatches four ducklings.
lies in wait for Peter Rabbit
, Simpkin for the mice in the tailor
's shop, and the trout for Jeremy Fisher
. Potter was following the pattern of fairy tales by dwelling on the theme of pursuit and prey and, if there is a moral to Potter's interpretation of the theme, it tells us that an innocent, helpless, simple, or rash animal may become someone else's meal. Potter often pointed out that the tale of Jemima was a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood". Perrault's tale ends with the death of the heroine, but Potter understood children will not tolerate tragedy. The prey in her books survive for better or worse (Peter returns home for a dose of chamomile tea, for example) and, though Jemima loses her eggs to her hungry rescuers, she lives to return to the farm to raise a brood of ducklings.
The tale shows Potter at her best in depicting the life of the farm and the village of Near Sawrey
, but the tale becomes one of something more than just local color and interest. The archetypical tale upon which Jemima is based – the foolish and naive are rescued from destruction by the loyal and dependable – is transformed in Potter's hands to one in which self-preservation and shrewdness become admirable virtues. Graham Greene
thought the sandy-whiskered gentleman a character of ominous gloom and suggested Potter had suffered some sort of mental breakdown, but it is more likely she was simply coming to terms with life on a farm. Wild animals invade the precincts of the domesticated ones, and death is part of farming.
The victor in the tale is the farmer's wife: she regains her errant duck and is rid of the predatory fox. Ostensibly, she confiscates Jemima's eggs believing Jemima will abandon them, but the eggs are not confiscated for the well-being of Jemima and her kin but for the well-being of the farmer's wife and her family: the eggs (or the ducks hatched from them) will end up on their dinner table. In this respect, the farmer's wife is a predator like the fox, but the fox is condemned for his predation. Human values are at the top of the tale's hierarchy. Potter argues for the well-ordered home and the practicalities of farm life over the fantasy lives of animals. It was the modus vivendi Potter was to incorporate in her own life as she devoted more of her thoughts and hours to the business of farming and less to tales of fantasy animals.
Like many fairy tales, Jemima Puddle-Duck belongs in a remote, but not-too-distant, past. Jemima's shawl reflects the typical farm dress of the Lake District at the time of the tale's composition, but the poke bonnet does not, and the fox's long tail coat and exquisite manners also suggest another time. Jemima is a more interesting character when humanized with the clothing; without it, she is just a farmyard duck. As Potter pointed out, the tale is a revision of a fairy tale and belongs in the indefinite period of "once upon a time".
The story is one of Potter's more ominous and is fraught with tension. Jemima is a headstrong innocent distracted by her overwhelming desire to nest, and thus unable to penetrate the fox's designs and comprehend her dangerous situation. The tension rises in increments from the mysterious feather-filled shed (the place of slaughter), to the fox's plan for an omelette (of Jemima's eggs), to the ultimate horror and crowning irony, Jemima's errand to fetch the herbs that will be used to season herself.
The fox is the first male villain in Potter's work, saving Samuel Whiskers in The Roly Poly Pudding, the companion piece to Jemima, and, like all villains in Potter, the "gentleman with sandy whiskers" presents a false social front that conceals his bestial nature. He dresses and behaves as a country gentleman of leisure, idling with a newspaper and living off the labor of others by luring their fowl to his feather-filled shed. Potter had little tolerance for indolence and lack of industry, but, as a country woman, she knew foxes were clever and managed to escape more times than they were caught. From the first encounter between Jemima and the fox, the reader realizes the fox is more clever than Jemima and is forced to extend him a grudging admiration.
Rupert William Potter and his wife Helen (Leech) Potter in London. She was educated by governess
es and tutors, and passed a quiet childhood reading, painting, drawing, visiting museums and art exhibitions, and tending a nursery menagerie of small animals. Her interests in the natural world and country life were nurtured with holidays in Scotland, the Lake District
, and Camfield Place, the Hertfordshire
home of her paternal grandparents.
Potter's adolescence was as quiet as her childhood. She grew into a spinsterish young woman whose parents groomed her to be a permanent resident and housekeeper in their home. She continued to paint and draw, and experienced her first professional artistic success in 1890 when she sold six designs of humanized animals to a greeting card publisher. She hoped to lead a useful life independent of her parents, and tentatively considered a career in mycology
, but the all-male scientific community regarded her as an amateur and she abandoned fungi.
Potter had maintained contact with her last governess Annie Carter Moore and had grown fond of her children. Through the 1890s, she wrote the children story and picture letters. Mrs. Moore recognized the literary and artistic value of the letters and urged her former charge to publish. Potter liked the suggestion, and, in 1900, revised a tale she had written for five-year-old Noel Moore in 1893, and fashioned a dummy book of it in imitation of Helen Bannerman
's 1899
bestseller The Story of Little Black Sambo. Unable to find a buyer for the tale, she published it for family and friends at her own expense in December 1901.
Frederick Warne & Co
. had once rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the booming small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) following the recommendation of their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke
. Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, chose the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours, and on 2 October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit
was released.
Potter continued to publish with Warnes. Early in July 1905 she bought Hill Top
, a working farm of 34 acres (13.8 ha) at Sawrey in the Lake District
with profits from her books and a small legacy from an aunt. On 25 August 1905 Potter's editor and fiancé, Norman Warne
died suddenly and unexpectedly. Potter became deeply depressed and was ill for many weeks, but rallied to complete the last few tales she had planned and discussed with Warne.
(1899), and, after multiple rejections from London publishers, privately published her tale in December 1901. Frederick Warne & Co
. was eager to compete in the burgeoning and lucrative small format children's book market, and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) after their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke
gave it his enthusiastic endorsement. Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, chose the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours, and in October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit
was released.
In the next few years, Potter published books similar in concept, style, or format to Peter Rabbit: The Tailor of Gloucester
and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
in 1903, and the tales of Benjamin Bunny
and Two Bad Mice
in 1904. In August 1905, sales profits and a small legacy from an aunt enabled Potter to buy Hill Top
, a working farm of 34 acres and 36 perches (13.85 ha) in the Lake District
. In the years immediately following its purchase, she produced tales and illustrations inspired by the farm, its woodland surroundings, and nearby villages.
Potter worked on sketches for Jemima Puddle-Duck during the winter of 1907 while recuperating from respiratory infections. She accompanied her parents on a holiday to Sidmouth
in April 1908, and continued to work on Jemima Puddle-Duck. Potter's cousin Caroline Hutton Clark was at Hill Top during the composition of Jemima Puddle-Duck and joined Potter as she searched the farmstead for a suitable place in which to situate Jemima's nest for the illustrations. Kep was a real dog, and Mrs. Clark was given one of Kep's sons. She later described the puppy as "the dearest and cleverest dog I ever had."
Two versions of the opening paragraph were written. The slightly cynical, "What a gratifying thing it is in these days to meet with a female devoted to family life" was revised to read, "What a funny sight it is to see a brood of ducklings with a hen." The tale is complicated with irony
(the feather-filled shed and the herbs for roasting a duck) and the co-existence of two time sequences or two different points of view: Kep's as he seeks the assistance of the fox-hounds in rescuing Jemima, and the sandy-whiskered gentleman's as he waits nervously for Jemima to return with the herbs.
The "farmyard tale" was dedicated to Betsy and Ralph Cannon, the children of Potter's farm manager, John Cannon. The children appear in one of the illustrations collecting Jemima's eggs from the rhubarb patch, and their mother is depicted in the opening picture feeding the barnyard fowl. Jemima was based upon a real world duck at Hill Top Farm who evaded Mrs. Cannon and her children in their attempts to locate her eggs before she mismanaged their incubation. Mrs. Cannon believed ducks made poor sitters, and routinely confiscated the ducks' eggs to allow the hens to incubate them. Potter may have taken inspiration from a drawing in her father's 1853 sketchbook of a flying duck wearing a bonnet. Potter almost certainly chose the name "Jemima" in honour of Jemima Blackburn
, an ornithological painter and illustrator whose Birds from Nature she had received as a gift on her tenth birthday and whom she met in 1891.
The illustrations depict the new barn and outbuildings at Hill Top, the wrought-iron gate Potter installed at the kitchen garden, the rhubarb patch, the entrance porch at the farmhouse, the exterior of the Tower Bank Arms in the village, and imagined aerial views of the countryside around Near Sawrey. In 1940, Potter remarked upon the illustration of Jemima rushing downhill with her bonnet and shawl askew, "That is what I used to look like to the Sawrey people. I rushed about quacking industriously."
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck was published in July 1908 after heated discussions with publisher Harold Warne about the dialogues and cover illustration. The book was an immediate success.
In later years, Ernest Aris
would blatantly plagiarise not only the Peter Rabbit character in his The Treasure Seekers but Jemima in his Mrs. Beak Duck. Potter was restrained when alerted to the imitations: she praised his technical artistry but chastised him for a lack of originality. At the time, her eyesight was deteriorating and her days were heavily invested in operating her farm; her restraint with Aris may be attributed to her desire to enlist him as a collaborator.
", and the similarities between the two are several: Jemima and her eggs are substitutes for Red Riding Hood and her grandmother; the farmer's wife and Jemima's sister-in-law Rebeccah are substitutes for Red Riding Hood's mother; the fox and the wolf both conceal their bestial natures beneath the polite behaviour of gentlemen, and the dogs are substitutes for the woodcutters. Both tales touch upon physical appetite, temptation, and foolish behaviour.
Though the tale has a happy ending, tearful Jemima is led back to the farm in public humiliation after losing her eggs to her hungry rescuers. She is allowed to hatch a brood on the farm, but it only produces four ducklings. Potter's revision of "Little Red Riding Hood" more nearly resembles Perrault's tragic tale than the happily-ever-after Grimm version where the heroine is rescued by woodcutters. The author knew her young audience would sympathize with the unhatched ducklings and would not tolerate having Jemima, a mother figure, suffer a bloody end in the fox's shed. The loss of the eggs is sad for the reader, but Potter ended the tale as happily as possible – not only for her audience but for the sake of the real world children of her farm manager, Ralph and Betsy Cannon, to whom the tale was dedicated. Jemima is punished for her headstrong foolishness and must relinquish her hope of finding a nesting spot away from the farm, but the punishment is mitigated when she is allowed to hatch one brood herself.
Potter waited for ducklings to hatch at the farm to be used as models for the painting book, but in the end, the eggs were rotten. The instructions in Jemima's painting book were similar to those in Tom Kitten's painting book, but the kittens with crayons in Tom's book accompanying the instructions were replaced by six ducklings splashing about in paint water for the similar page in Jemima's book. In the original tale, Jemima's eggs are eaten by her rescuers but in the painting book, a new design was executed for "They took Jemima home"; in the painting book, Kep and the fox hound puppies lead Jemima away from her broken but uneaten eggs. The same theme was depicted on Crabtree & Evelyn
chocolate Easter eggs.
The painting book displays Potter's willingness to exploit the commercial possibilities of her characters and tales. The purchaser was alerted to the existence of other Potter books on the inside front cover and directed to a list of books on the back cover. Other merchandise included sets of linen or silk placemats painted by Potter for friends with an abridged text and 12 of the illustrations. In 1910, Potter patented a design for a soft toy duck based on her model of Jemima in a Paisley handkerchief shawl and bonnet. A soft Jemima doll was manufactured by J. I. Farnell of Acton.
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
. It was first published by Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co was a British publishing firm famous for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter. It was founded in 1865 by a bookseller, who gave his own name to the firm.- History :...
. in July 1908
1908 in literature
The year 1908 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Afawarq Gabra Iyasus - Libb Wolled Tārīk , the first novel in Amharic*Leonid Andreyev - The Seven Who Were Hanged...
. Potter composed the book at Hill Top
Hill Top, Cumbria
Hill Top is a 17th-century house in Near Sawrey near Hawkshead, in the English county of Cumbria. It is an example of Lakeland vernacular architecture with random stone walls and slate roof...
, a working farm in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
she bought in 1905. Following the purchase, her works began to focus on country and village life, incorporating large casts of animal characters and sinister villains. Jemima Puddle-Duck was the first of her books set wholly at the farm with background illustrations based on the farm buildings and yard, and nearby locales.
Jemima is a domestic duck whose eggs are routinely confiscated by the farmer's wife because she believes Jemima a poor sitter. Jemima searches for a place away from the farm where she can hatch her eggs without human interference, and naively confides her woes to a suave fox who invites her to nest in a shed at his home. Jemima accepts his invitation, little realizing her danger: the fox plans to kill and roast her. Kep, a collie on the farm, discovers Jemima's whereabouts and rescues her just in time. Potter indicated the tale was a revision of "Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
" with Jemima, the fox, and the dog parallels to the fairy tale's heroine, wolf, and woodcutter. Jemima, Kep, the farmer's wife and her two children were all modelled on real world individuals at Potter's Hill Top farm.
The book was hugely popular. Spinoff merchandise included a soft Jemima doll in bonnet and shawl, a Jemima painting book in 1925, and illustrated fabric placemats hand-fashioned by Potter and distributed to friends. Critically, the book is considered one of Potter's best. In 1971, the tale became a segment in the Royal Ballet film, The Tales of Beatrix Potter
The Tales of Beatrix Potter
Tales of Beatrix Potter is a 1971 ballet film with a plot based on the children's stories of English author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. The film was directed by Reginald Mills, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton , and starred artists of the Royal Ballet...
, and, in 1993, it was telecast as an episode on the animated BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
anthology series, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends is an animated television series based on the works of Beatrix Potter, featuring Peter Rabbit and other anthropomorphic animal characters created by Potter. It was originally shown in the UK on BBC between 1992 and 1995 and subsequently broadcast in the USA on...
.
Plot
Poke Bonnet
A poke bonnet is a women's bonnet in the shape of a hood, featuring a projecting rim on the front side, which would shade the face of the wearer.The poke bonnet came into fashion at the beginning of the 19th century....
and shawl to find a safe place away from the farm to lay her eggs.
At the top of a hill, she spies a distant wood, flies to it, and waddles about until she discovers an appropriate nesting place. However, a charming gentleman with "black prick ears and sandy-coloured whiskers" persuades her to nest in a shed at his home. Jemima is led to his "tumble-down shed" (which is curiously filled with feathers), and makes herself a nest with little ado.
Jemima lays her eggs, and the fox suggests a dinner party to mark the event. He asks her to collect the traditional herbs used in stuffing a duck, telling her the seasonings will be used for an omelette. Jemima sets about her errand, but the farm collie
Farm collie
The Farm Collie is a herding dog, of collie type. The term "Farm Collie" can have various definitions including:# Any collie-like dog that lives on a farm.# Any collie-like dog that does farm work such as herding, guarding and pest control....
, Kep, meets her as she carries onions from the farm kitchen. She reveals her errand, and Kep sees through the fox's plan at once.
With the help of two fox-hound puppies, Kep rescues Jemima and the "foxy-whiskered gentleman" is never seen again. However, the hungry fox-hounds eat Jemima's eggs. Jemima is escorted back to the farm in tears over her lost eggs, but, in time, lays more eggs and successfully hatches four ducklings.
Scholarly commentaries
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck is a tale of pursuit and prey. The theme runs through several of Potter's tales: Mr. McGregorMr. McGregor
Mr. John McGregor is a fictional character in three children's books by author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. He is an elderly, serio-comic villain of Scots background intent upon keeping hungry rabbits out of his vegetable garden...
lies in wait for Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea...
, Simpkin for the mice in the tailor
The Tailor of Gloucester
The Tailor of Gloucester is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, privately printed by the author in 1902, and published in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1903...
's shop, and the trout for Jeremy Fisher
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher is a children's book, written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was released by Frederick Warne & Co. in July 1906. Jeremy's origin lies in a letter she wrote to a child in 1893. She revised it in 1906, and moved its setting from the River Tay to the English Lake...
. Potter was following the pattern of fairy tales by dwelling on the theme of pursuit and prey and, if there is a moral to Potter's interpretation of the theme, it tells us that an innocent, helpless, simple, or rash animal may become someone else's meal. Potter often pointed out that the tale of Jemima was a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood". Perrault's tale ends with the death of the heroine, but Potter understood children will not tolerate tragedy. The prey in her books survive for better or worse (Peter returns home for a dose of chamomile tea, for example) and, though Jemima loses her eggs to her hungry rescuers, she lives to return to the farm to raise a brood of ducklings.
The tale shows Potter at her best in depicting the life of the farm and the village of Near Sawrey
Near Sawrey
Near Sawrey and Far Sawrey are two neighbouring villages in the Furness area of Cumbria. They are located in the Lake District between the town of Hawkshead and the lake of Windermere...
, but the tale becomes one of something more than just local color and interest. The archetypical tale upon which Jemima is based – the foolish and naive are rescued from destruction by the loyal and dependable – is transformed in Potter's hands to one in which self-preservation and shrewdness become admirable virtues. Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
thought the sandy-whiskered gentleman a character of ominous gloom and suggested Potter had suffered some sort of mental breakdown, but it is more likely she was simply coming to terms with life on a farm. Wild animals invade the precincts of the domesticated ones, and death is part of farming.
The victor in the tale is the farmer's wife: she regains her errant duck and is rid of the predatory fox. Ostensibly, she confiscates Jemima's eggs believing Jemima will abandon them, but the eggs are not confiscated for the well-being of Jemima and her kin but for the well-being of the farmer's wife and her family: the eggs (or the ducks hatched from them) will end up on their dinner table. In this respect, the farmer's wife is a predator like the fox, but the fox is condemned for his predation. Human values are at the top of the tale's hierarchy. Potter argues for the well-ordered home and the practicalities of farm life over the fantasy lives of animals. It was the modus vivendi Potter was to incorporate in her own life as she devoted more of her thoughts and hours to the business of farming and less to tales of fantasy animals.
Like many fairy tales, Jemima Puddle-Duck belongs in a remote, but not-too-distant, past. Jemima's shawl reflects the typical farm dress of the Lake District at the time of the tale's composition, but the poke bonnet does not, and the fox's long tail coat and exquisite manners also suggest another time. Jemima is a more interesting character when humanized with the clothing; without it, she is just a farmyard duck. As Potter pointed out, the tale is a revision of a fairy tale and belongs in the indefinite period of "once upon a time".
The story is one of Potter's more ominous and is fraught with tension. Jemima is a headstrong innocent distracted by her overwhelming desire to nest, and thus unable to penetrate the fox's designs and comprehend her dangerous situation. The tension rises in increments from the mysterious feather-filled shed (the place of slaughter), to the fox's plan for an omelette (of Jemima's eggs), to the ultimate horror and crowning irony, Jemima's errand to fetch the herbs that will be used to season herself.
The fox is the first male villain in Potter's work, saving Samuel Whiskers in The Roly Poly Pudding, the companion piece to Jemima, and, like all villains in Potter, the "gentleman with sandy whiskers" presents a false social front that conceals his bestial nature. He dresses and behaves as a country gentleman of leisure, idling with a newspaper and living off the labor of others by luring their fowl to his feather-filled shed. Potter had little tolerance for indolence and lack of industry, but, as a country woman, she knew foxes were clever and managed to escape more times than they were caught. From the first encounter between Jemima and the fox, the reader realizes the fox is more clever than Jemima and is forced to extend him a grudging admiration.
Background
Helen Beatrix Potter was born on 28 July 1866 to barristerBarrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
Rupert William Potter and his wife Helen (Leech) Potter in London. She was educated by governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
es and tutors, and passed a quiet childhood reading, painting, drawing, visiting museums and art exhibitions, and tending a nursery menagerie of small animals. Her interests in the natural world and country life were nurtured with holidays in Scotland, the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, and Camfield Place, the Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
home of her paternal grandparents.
Potter's adolescence was as quiet as her childhood. She grew into a spinsterish young woman whose parents groomed her to be a permanent resident and housekeeper in their home. She continued to paint and draw, and experienced her first professional artistic success in 1890 when she sold six designs of humanized animals to a greeting card publisher. She hoped to lead a useful life independent of her parents, and tentatively considered a career in mycology
Mycology
Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals , food and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or...
, but the all-male scientific community regarded her as an amateur and she abandoned fungi.
Potter had maintained contact with her last governess Annie Carter Moore and had grown fond of her children. Through the 1890s, she wrote the children story and picture letters. Mrs. Moore recognized the literary and artistic value of the letters and urged her former charge to publish. Potter liked the suggestion, and, in 1900, revised a tale she had written for five-year-old Noel Moore in 1893, and fashioned a dummy book of it in imitation of Helen Bannerman
Helen Bannerman
Helen Bannerman was the Scottish author of a number of children's books, the most notable being Little Black Sambo. She was born in Edinburgh and, because women were not admitted as students into British Universities, she sat external examinations set by the University of St. Andrews and attained...
's 1899
1899 in literature
The year 1899 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Edgar Rice Burroughs begins working in his father's business.*Rainer Maria Rilke travels to Moscow to meet Leo Tolstoy....
bestseller The Story of Little Black Sambo. Unable to find a buyer for the tale, she published it for family and friends at her own expense in December 1901.
Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co was a British publishing firm famous for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter. It was founded in 1865 by a bookseller, who gave his own name to the firm.- History :...
. had once rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the booming small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) following the recommendation of their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke
L. Leslie Brooke
Leonard Leslie Brooke was a British artist and writer who was born on 24 September 1862, in Birkenhead, England. His skillful and witty illustrations in Andrew Lang's Nursery Rhyme Book established his reputation as a leading children's book illustrator of pen-and-ink line drawings and watercolors...
. Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, chose the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours, and on 2 October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea...
was released.
Potter continued to publish with Warnes. Early in July 1905 she bought Hill Top
Hill Top, Cumbria
Hill Top is a 17th-century house in Near Sawrey near Hawkshead, in the English county of Cumbria. It is an example of Lakeland vernacular architecture with random stone walls and slate roof...
, a working farm of 34 acres (13.8 ha) at Sawrey in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
with profits from her books and a small legacy from an aunt. On 25 August 1905 Potter's editor and fiancé, Norman Warne
Norman Warne
Norman Dalziel Warne was the third son of publisher Frederick Warne, and joined his father's firm Frederick Warne & Co. as editor. In 1900 the company rejected Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but eventually reconsidered and published the book in October 1902 to great success...
died suddenly and unexpectedly. Potter became deeply depressed and was ill for many weeks, but rallied to complete the last few tales she had planned and discussed with Warne.
Production
In 1900 Beatrix Potter revised a tale about a humanized rabbit she had written in 1893, worked up a dummy book in imitation of the small format bestseller Little Black SamboLittle Black Sambo
The Story of Little Black Sambo is a children's book written and illustrated by Helen Bannerman, and first published by Grant Richards in October 1899 as one in a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children....
(1899), and, after multiple rejections from London publishers, privately published her tale in December 1901. Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co was a British publishing firm famous for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter. It was founded in 1865 by a bookseller, who gave his own name to the firm.- History :...
. was eager to compete in the burgeoning and lucrative small format children's book market, and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) after their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke
L. Leslie Brooke
Leonard Leslie Brooke was a British artist and writer who was born on 24 September 1862, in Birkenhead, England. His skillful and witty illustrations in Andrew Lang's Nursery Rhyme Book established his reputation as a leading children's book illustrator of pen-and-ink line drawings and watercolors...
gave it his enthusiastic endorsement. Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, chose the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours, and in October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea...
was released.
In the next few years, Potter published books similar in concept, style, or format to Peter Rabbit: The Tailor of Gloucester
The Tailor of Gloucester
The Tailor of Gloucester is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, privately printed by the author in 1902, and published in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1903...
and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in August 1903. The story is about an impertinent red squirrel named Nutkin and his narrow escape from an owl called Old Brown. The book followed Potter's hugely...
in 1903, and the tales of Benjamin Bunny
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in September 1904. The book is a sequel to The Tale of Peter Rabbit , and tells of Peter's return to Mr. McGregor's garden with his cousin Benjamin to retrieve...
and Two Bad Mice
The Tale of Two Bad Mice
The Tale of Two Bad Mice is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and published by Frederick Warne & Co. in September 1904. Potter took inspiration for the tale from two mice caught in a cage-trap in her cousin's home and a dollhouse being constructed by her editor and...
in 1904. In August 1905, sales profits and a small legacy from an aunt enabled Potter to buy Hill Top
Hill Top, Cumbria
Hill Top is a 17th-century house in Near Sawrey near Hawkshead, in the English county of Cumbria. It is an example of Lakeland vernacular architecture with random stone walls and slate roof...
, a working farm of 34 acres and 36 perches (13.85 ha) in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
. In the years immediately following its purchase, she produced tales and illustrations inspired by the farm, its woodland surroundings, and nearby villages.
Potter worked on sketches for Jemima Puddle-Duck during the winter of 1907 while recuperating from respiratory infections. She accompanied her parents on a holiday to Sidmouth
Sidmouth
Sidmouth is a small town on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England. The town lies at the mouth of the River Sid in the East Devon district, south east of Exeter. It has a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% are over 65....
in April 1908, and continued to work on Jemima Puddle-Duck. Potter's cousin Caroline Hutton Clark was at Hill Top during the composition of Jemima Puddle-Duck and joined Potter as she searched the farmstead for a suitable place in which to situate Jemima's nest for the illustrations. Kep was a real dog, and Mrs. Clark was given one of Kep's sons. She later described the puppy as "the dearest and cleverest dog I ever had."
Two versions of the opening paragraph were written. The slightly cynical, "What a gratifying thing it is in these days to meet with a female devoted to family life" was revised to read, "What a funny sight it is to see a brood of ducklings with a hen." The tale is complicated with irony
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
(the feather-filled shed and the herbs for roasting a duck) and the co-existence of two time sequences or two different points of view: Kep's as he seeks the assistance of the fox-hounds in rescuing Jemima, and the sandy-whiskered gentleman's as he waits nervously for Jemima to return with the herbs.
The "farmyard tale" was dedicated to Betsy and Ralph Cannon, the children of Potter's farm manager, John Cannon. The children appear in one of the illustrations collecting Jemima's eggs from the rhubarb patch, and their mother is depicted in the opening picture feeding the barnyard fowl. Jemima was based upon a real world duck at Hill Top Farm who evaded Mrs. Cannon and her children in their attempts to locate her eggs before she mismanaged their incubation. Mrs. Cannon believed ducks made poor sitters, and routinely confiscated the ducks' eggs to allow the hens to incubate them. Potter may have taken inspiration from a drawing in her father's 1853 sketchbook of a flying duck wearing a bonnet. Potter almost certainly chose the name "Jemima" in honour of Jemima Blackburn
Jemima Blackburn
Jemima Wedderburn Blackburn was a Scottish painter whose work gives us an evocative picture of rural life in 19th-century Scotland. One of the most popular illustrators in Victorian Britain, she illustrated 27 books. Her greatest ornithological achievement was the second edition of her Birds from...
, an ornithological painter and illustrator whose Birds from Nature she had received as a gift on her tenth birthday and whom she met in 1891.
The illustrations depict the new barn and outbuildings at Hill Top, the wrought-iron gate Potter installed at the kitchen garden, the rhubarb patch, the entrance porch at the farmhouse, the exterior of the Tower Bank Arms in the village, and imagined aerial views of the countryside around Near Sawrey. In 1940, Potter remarked upon the illustration of Jemima rushing downhill with her bonnet and shawl askew, "That is what I used to look like to the Sawrey people. I rushed about quacking industriously."
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck was published in July 1908 after heated discussions with publisher Harold Warne about the dialogues and cover illustration. The book was an immediate success.
In later years, Ernest Aris
Ernest Aris
Alfred Ernest Walter George Aris, FZS. SGA. , was an author and illustrator of children's books. He worked on more than 170 publications. Ernest Aris also designed cigarette cards, postcards, toys and games.-Early life:...
would blatantly plagiarise not only the Peter Rabbit character in his The Treasure Seekers but Jemima in his Mrs. Beak Duck. Potter was restrained when alerted to the imitations: she praised his technical artistry but chastised him for a lack of originality. At the time, her eyesight was deteriorating and her days were heavily invested in operating her farm; her restraint with Aris may be attributed to her desire to enlist him as a collaborator.
Similarities to "Little Red Riding Hood"
Potter indicated Jemima was a revision of "Little Red Riding HoodLittle Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
", and the similarities between the two are several: Jemima and her eggs are substitutes for Red Riding Hood and her grandmother; the farmer's wife and Jemima's sister-in-law Rebeccah are substitutes for Red Riding Hood's mother; the fox and the wolf both conceal their bestial natures beneath the polite behaviour of gentlemen, and the dogs are substitutes for the woodcutters. Both tales touch upon physical appetite, temptation, and foolish behaviour.
Though the tale has a happy ending, tearful Jemima is led back to the farm in public humiliation after losing her eggs to her hungry rescuers. She is allowed to hatch a brood on the farm, but it only produces four ducklings. Potter's revision of "Little Red Riding Hood" more nearly resembles Perrault's tragic tale than the happily-ever-after Grimm version where the heroine is rescued by woodcutters. The author knew her young audience would sympathize with the unhatched ducklings and would not tolerate having Jemima, a mother figure, suffer a bloody end in the fox's shed. The loss of the eggs is sad for the reader, but Potter ended the tale as happily as possible – not only for her audience but for the sake of the real world children of her farm manager, Ralph and Betsy Cannon, to whom the tale was dedicated. Jemima is punished for her headstrong foolishness and must relinquish her hope of finding a nesting spot away from the farm, but the punishment is mitigated when she is allowed to hatch one brood herself.
Merchandising
Jemima Puddle-Duck was popular, almost as popular as Peter Rabbit, and became the subject of ancillary merchandise. She is depicted in one of the four well known endpapers of the Potter books, and was featured on a Christmas card for the Invalid Children's Aid Association. She became the principal character in an unpublished painting book describing the livestock at Hill Top, and appeared in Peter Rabbit's Painting Book and Tom Kitten's Painting Book before being given her own painting book, Jemima Puddle-Duck's Painting Book in 1925, composed grudgingly in response to public demand for yet another book.Potter waited for ducklings to hatch at the farm to be used as models for the painting book, but in the end, the eggs were rotten. The instructions in Jemima's painting book were similar to those in Tom Kitten's painting book, but the kittens with crayons in Tom's book accompanying the instructions were replaced by six ducklings splashing about in paint water for the similar page in Jemima's book. In the original tale, Jemima's eggs are eaten by her rescuers but in the painting book, a new design was executed for "They took Jemima home"; in the painting book, Kep and the fox hound puppies lead Jemima away from her broken but uneaten eggs. The same theme was depicted on Crabtree & Evelyn
Crabtree & Evelyn
Crabtree & Evelyn is an American retailer of body and home products with stores globally. According to its website, Crabtree & Evelyn uses over 160 “natural botanical ingredients” in its skin care products. It is wholly owned by KLK, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad., a Malaysian company that also owns...
chocolate Easter eggs.
The painting book displays Potter's willingness to exploit the commercial possibilities of her characters and tales. The purchaser was alerted to the existence of other Potter books on the inside front cover and directed to a list of books on the back cover. Other merchandise included sets of linen or silk placemats painted by Potter for friends with an abridged text and 12 of the illustrations. In 1910, Potter patented a design for a soft toy duck based on her model of Jemima in a Paisley handkerchief shawl and bonnet. A soft Jemima doll was manufactured by J. I. Farnell of Acton.