The Original Tales

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

Name: The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse
Author: Beatrix Potter

By Beatrix Potter · First published 1910

Mrs. Thomasina Tittlemouse is a wood-mouse who keeps a beautifully tidy house in a bank under a hedge. Yards and yards of sandy passages — kitchen, parlour, pantry, larder, a little box-bed. But this morning, she has visitors: a beetle in the larder, ladybirds in the lobby, bees in the cupboard, a butterfly in the sugar, and Mr. Jackson the toad, who would like some honey. Mrs. Tittlemouse will spend a fortnight cleaning afterwards.

The book draws on Beatrix's lifelong study of small creatures. From the age of seventeen she had filled her Journal with detailed observations of land-newts, frogs, toads, beetles, butterflies. Microscope drawings of butterfly scales. Magnified anatomy of spiders. The illustrations in this book are — beneath the watercolour — naturalist-precise.

The manuscript was a New Year's gift to Nellie, Harold Warne's small daughter, on the 1st of January 1910 — neatly written in a small leather notebook the size of a hand. "For Nellie with love and best wishes for A Happy New Year." The family called it Nellie's little book. The same words were printed in the dedication.

The cover shown is the original edition. Amazon carries the copies in print today.

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For collectors

First Edition Notes

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Particulars

Trade edition: July 1910, Frederick Warne & Co.
Setting: A wood-mouse's home in a bank under a hedge
Dedication: "Nellie's little book" (Nellie Warne, daughter of Harold Warne)
Manuscript: 1 January 1910 — small leather notebook (150 × 85 mm), 21 pages of text, 8 paintings
Source material: Beatrix's lifelong natural-history studies — microscope drawings of butterfly scales and beetle anatomy from her teens

Curiosities

❦Warne objected to the word "wood-lice" in the manuscript. Beatrix was amused — "such distinctions mattered nothing to her" — and changed it to "three creepy crawly people."
❦Two of the original creatures were quietly replaced. The earwig in the dust-pan became a beetle. The centipede behind the soup-tureen became a butterfly. The published book is gentler than the manuscript.
❦Beatrix's biographer Margaret Lane wrote that Mrs. Tittlemouse — "the woodmouse with a long tail" — embodies "the beautifully observed fastidiousness of her mouse nature."
❦When the bound copies arrived, Beatrix wrote: "The buff copy is the prettiest colour, though it may not keep so clean. I think it should prove popular with little girls."
❦Mr. Jackson the toad is the only male visitor and the only one who refuses to leave. Beatrix knew that real toads carry their wives on their backs to spring spawning grounds. She knew everything about them.