Jemima Puddleduck original story

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We had a box set gifted to us so thought we would read Jemima last night by request. Dear god that book has a needlessly horrific ending (was hurriedly changed in our reading). Dogs save her from the fox.... Then eat her eggs and then it states she's a rubbish mum for no real reason. What is wrong with Beatrix Potter?! Last three pages attached - apologies if a couple are sideways.

Did everyone else know about these original stories?

Many much-loved children's books have an orphan as the protagonist, or at least one absent parent.

I grew up with ducks in the country (not a farm though)

We loved jemima puddleduck. She is exactly like real ducks.
Always trying to sneak off to have a brood of eggs and always having to be rescued to save them from the fox.

Of course the dog eats the eggs. he is a dog. They are eggs, not children and dogs liek eggs. We ate our ducks eggs, and delicious they were too. Of course every year some of our eggs were hatched into cute fluffy chicks, but the rest we ate.

In th eold days duck eggs were often hatche dunder chickens as ducks were thought to be poor mothers.

As we spent a lot of time securing our ducks against the fox, we dlighted in the sneaky wily fox and in the stupidity of Jemima.

I don't think there is anything wrong with her frame of mind or her books. They are about animals in context. That is how foxes, and dogs behave, don't be misled by their coats and hats into thinking they are people, they remain animals.

But to be fair, most children's stories featuring talking animal characters don't have them doing what real animals do. It's hardly a requirement. Look at Peppa Pig, they'd all be eating each other.

Roald Dahl's darker view of life was certainly explained to a large degree by real events:

"...Dahl was just following the classic advice of writing what you know, which in his case happened to be misery and death. When he was 3 his sister died, and then a few weeks later his dad bounced off the planet too. His mother then sent him to a boarding school that featured regular canings and a dictatorial headmaster who once confiscated the food care packages of every boy because they wouldn't turn in their friend for a minor prank, among other hellish experiences. Dahl probably just assumed that dead parents and draconian schoolmasters were experiences all the children of the world shared.

After fracturing his skull in a crash while serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Dahl got married and had five kids, including a son who suffered a massive brain injury after being struck by a taxi and a daughter who died at 7 (the same age Dahl's sister was when she died), and his wife had three strokes while pregnant with another daughter."

[ source: www.cracked.com/article_21656_7-horrifying-backstories-behind-classic-childrens-books.html ]

Much as I love many of his books, his use of language, and the fact that he allows kids to explore difficult emotions and events alongside his brilliant anarchic humour, I'm not impressed by some of his RL (on public record) views.
The infamous anti-Semitic bigotry was unforgivable.

Complex character he was. As many great children's authors tend to be!

ToadInTheHole,

Ooh, yes, agree: Marina Warner's really interesting on the subject.

Mary Poppins is another one. The original books has her as a much more sinister and darker character than the sugar coated version we got on screen.

Stigma - but peppa pig is a product of 21 century bland nothing nasty must be seen psychology.
beatrix Potter was of her time. Which was that dogs ate eggs.
(do your children not eat eggs? Do you think - Oh no they are eating ducks children....)

I used to love Mr Tod when I was little. I made my poor mother act it out with me time and time again, especially the bit when he kidnaps the baby rabbits.

I meant of course, Bess to Beth, obviously I was so incensed my memory failed me

I understand the gritty realism that goes on in farms. But this is a fictitious story about a talking duck who can chat to other animals (and a fox who reads the paper etc).

I also understand that eggs are eaten - usually the unfertilised ones though that don't have a small chick inside them. Though no male duck is mentioned in the story we are to understand that the eggs Jemima has incubated are going to hatch into chicks here and not be the same as the ones we would eat for breakfast.

Look, I get they're "of their time" but I was a bit shocked as to "why" you wouldn't just make it a bit happier once the dogs had chased away/killed the fox (I was unclear as to what the dogs had done to the fox there!)

That's life!
And she was a rubbish mother - she kept forgetting to sit on her eggs.

Samuel whiskers used to scare the crap out of me

I got hold of the original Faraway Tree books to read to Dd. And we're working our way through the Famous Five. They are great stories. I have also had a discussion with her about how they were written a while ago and attitudes have changed. So with the Famous Five we've talked about how George wanted to be a boy, and why that was, and how girls were expected to be, vs how boys were expected to be. And we had a conversation about how lucky we are now that we know girls can be brave and strong and do boy things but it doesn't make them any less a girl, it just means we can all be whatever we are good at, and want to be. She's 8. She can enjoy the stories but understand that times have changed since then.
She has never liked BP. Not because of the endings but just didn't engage with the stories. DD2, now 4, loves them. We read JPD for the first time the other night. She was not at all bothered by the ending. In fact, she commented that dogs like eggs so that's why we keep our gate locked. We have a split garden, with chickens in the bottom half, and the gate between is kept locked in case the dog gets at the eggs (and their mothers!). So far from being traumatised, it related to something she 'gets,' because it is part of daily life.

Did everyone else know about these original stories?

Yes I did, they were part of my childhood. They were not written for tiny children despite the stuffed-toy and nursery furnishings industry that has sprung up around them. Beatrix Potter's stories were very well observed and they reflected real life in the countryside which was hard for most people and all animals. Piglets got sent to the market and then slaughtered. Rabbits got trapped and cooked. Hunting dogs tore foxes apart. Ducks neglect their eggs. Good clothes had to be boiled and bleached and starched and pressed and children only had one set of good clothes and if they spoilt them they got beaten for it. These stories are a lot closer to The Mouse and His Child than they are to Winnie the Pooh.

And I may never forgive Disney for what they did to the Little Mermaid. I read that as a child too. The original is a beautiful and horrifying parable about self-sacrifice for romantic love. And the Disney film - isn't.

I see no one else cares about poor little Squirrel Nutkin !

When I was small I had a pack of happy family cards, beautiful illustrations, I think by Racey Helps . Mrs Owl is particularly memorable as she is about to serve a delicious mouse pie to her family, complete with tails, Mr Fox was the one who gave me shudders, though in fact none of the fox family were particularly pleasant. The pack is still available, Woodland Happy Families.

I visited Potter's home earlier this year. Prompted me to have a look at some of her stories again (I'd found them boring as a child!), they are indeed a bit by our standards....but 'time and place'.
I love all the very old folk tales, allegorical warnings, and fairy tales which would be told to children dying of starvation and illness.
Beatrix Potter was relatively recent, but the concept of childhood is even more modern, especially as we know it. Anyway, in an era when it was considered you'd had a good innings if you reached the age of 5, a few eggs eaten by dogs wouldn't have ruffled feathers.

Velveteen rabbit.... nobody dies but traumatised us all. Welling up reading it, dd refused to have it again.

I see no one else cares about poor little Squirrel Nutkin !

Squirrel nutkin was a lazy little bod with not enough sense not to taunt a predator. He escaped lightly!

Velveteen rabbit is one of the ones thats very hard to read aloud. We went to a wedding where they had an extract as one of the readings...gah, I never usually cry at weddings.

I fucking hate the Velveteen Rabbit

Does anyone else find Michael Morpugo a bit overly sentimental?

God, yes Toad. Give me a bracing bit of BP or even sadist Dahl any day.

My kids never absolutely loved him Toad. I think some of his books are really good, but actually I sometimes find him a bit formulaic and slightly tiresome.

In the updated Faraway Tree books, Silky has changed from a pixie into a fairy. Why?

Pigling Bland is my favourite Potter story. I had an LP of stories as a child so remember every word.