The Tale of Peter Rabbit

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a story about a naughty bunny named Peter. Peter disobeys his mother and runs into the MacGregor's garden for an afternoon of feasting. Unfortunately, he is caught by Mr. MacGregor and the chase is on!
This book is a classic story written by Beatrix Potter in the late nineteenth centuary. Beatrix Potter was an intelligent woman whose education came from governesses rather than schools.  While the usual nineteenth centuary governesses were sent to make sure young ladies of that era knew basic math, French, art, and deportment  <how to behave socialy> Beatrix Potter wanted to learn more. Her facination with nature was so intense that as a child she would bring home dead animals to boil them, and assemble their skeletons. While that sounds disgusting to us in the twenty first centuary, remember there was no internet, and very few resources for a young girl to learn anatomy and phsyiology. She taught herself the science of mycology, which is the biology of fungi. Her self education in that particular field was so thorough that her uncle tried to get her in as a student at the Royal Botanic Gardens but she was turned down because of her sex. Despite this setback she continued her education on her own and became respected in the field.
Beatrix Potter used her art to draw pictures of the things she could see around her. At first she drew pictures of the items she saw under the microscope. Her copies of fungi are museum quality. Her ability to copy nature so accurately was what made her books' illustrations so charming.
Peter Rabbit is written in the style of the times. The vocabulary is more erudite than what we are used to seeing in children's books today. Also the themes are kept on a moralistic basis. Peter disobeys his mother, and because of that is almost eaten. There is no sugar coating in Potter's books. There is a crime and a punishment. Redemption is given after it is earned. As an example of this, in another book,"The Tale of Benjamin Bunny".Benjamin disobeys his parents, and both he and his cousin Peter are soundly "thrashed" by Benjamin's father who uses a whip.
Beatrix Potter's books give us a window into a time when things were simpler. The stories and the pictures are a true peek into "once upon a time."