“The World of Peter Rabbit” Book List and Length (by Publication Year)

   
A per­son­’s over­pow­er­ing tal­ent in one area can eas­i­ly over­shad­ow their tal­ents in anoth­er. For exam­ple, Miss Pot­ter’s stun­ning paint­ings are so beloved, but her writ­ing skills are often over­looked. Read­ers might get the impres­sion that Miss Pot­ter’s books with few­er words and more illus­tra­tions are bet­ter, while those with more words and few­er illus­tra­tions are less appeal­ing (per­haps her com­mand of words was­n’t as strong). Espe­cial­ly in her lat­er years, she seems to have pre­ferred books with more words, but with less suc­cess. How­ev­er, a clear chronol­o­gy of her writ­ing might reveal a dif­fer­ent impres­sion. Among her ear­li­est works, “The Tai­lor of Glouces­ter” is also quite long and wide­ly con­sid­ered a mas­ter­piece. Her lat­er work, “The Tale of Mr. Todd,” is the sec­ond-longest and a rec­og­nized mas­ter­piece in the UK. It was a child­hood favorite of Emma Thomp­son, the renowned actress and screen­writer (and author of three new Peter Rab­bit sto­ries). Per­son­al­ly, I pre­fer “The Tale of Brandy­wine,” which ranks third. Of course, every­one has their own pref­er­ences, and read­ing pref­er­ences are entire­ly up to you. But the judg­ment on the facts them­selves should still be clar­i­fied.

 
 The ser­i­al num­bers in the fol­low­ing Eng­lish titles are the orig­i­nal 23 com­plete vol­umes of “The World of Peter Rab­bit”
The sort­ing num­bers don’t quite match the order of pub­li­ca­tion year. The word count col­umn is based on the num­ber of words in the Word doc­u­ment, which is not very accu­rate, but the rela­tion­ship between the lengths of the works is clear.

   
Mau­rice Sendak, also a Miss Pot­ter fan, decid­ed to reread the book in its orig­i­nal pub­li­ca­tion order after read­ing it sev­er­al times, and found it par­tic­u­lar­ly reward­ing. Inter­est­ed read­ers may wish to give it a try.

Year of pub­li­ca­tion

Eng­lish name

Chi­nese trans­la­tion

Eng­lish word count

1902
1. The
Tale of Peter Rab­bit

The Sto­ry of Peter Rab­bit
958

1903

2. The Tale of Squir­rel Nutkin

The Sto­ry of Squir­rel Fruit
1259

1903

3. The Tai­lor of Glouces­ter

Tai­lor of Glouces­ter
2842

1904

4. The Tale of Ben­jamin Bun­ny

The Sto­ry of Ben­jamin Rab­bit
1145

1904

5. The Tale of Two Bad Mice

A Tale of Two Bad Mice
919

1905
6. 
The Tale of Mrs. Tig­gy-Win­kle

The Sto­ry of Mrs. Tithorne Winthorn
1321

1905
17. The Tale of The
Pie and the Pat­ty Pan

The sto­ry of the pie and the pie tray
1943

1906
7. 
The Tale of Mr. Jere­my Fish­er

The Sto­ry of Mr. Jere­my Fish­er
811

1906
20. The Sto­ry of A
Fierce Bad Rab­bit

The Sto­ry of a Bad Rab­bit
154

1906

21. The Sto­ry of Miss Mop­pet

The Sto­ry of Miss Cat Beibei
249

1907
8. 
The Tale of Tom Kit­ten

Talk­ing Tom
705

1908
9. The Tale of
Jemi­ma Pud­dle-duck

The Sto­ry of Jemi­ma Pud­dle-Duck
1280

1908

16. The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
The Sto­ry of Samuel the Beard­ed
or the sto­ry of Cat Patch
2670

1909

10. The Tale of the Flop­sy Bun­nies

The Sto­ry of the Fu Fam­i­ly Rab­bit
1022

1909

18. The Tale of Gin­ger and Pick­les

The Sto­ry of Gin­ger and Picos
1185

1910

11. The Tale of Mrs. Tit­tle­mouse

The Sto­ry of Mrs. Mouse
1178

1911
12. The Tale of
Tim­my Tip­toes

The Sto­ry of Tim­my Tip­toe
1355

1912

14. The Tale of Mr. Tod

Mr. Tod­d’s Sto­ry
4934

1913
15. The Tale of
Pigling Bland

The Sto­ry of Pig Brand
3494

1914*
The Tale
of Kit­ty-in-Boots 

The Sto­ry of Katie in Boots
2178

1917
22. App­ley Dap­ply’s
Nurs­ery Rhymes

April’s Nurs­ery Rhymes
249

1918

13. The Tale of John­ny Town-mouse

The Sto­ry of John­ny the City Mouse
1300

1922

23. Ceci­ly Pars­ley’s Nurs­ery Rhymes
Cel­ery Celie’s Nurs­ery Rhymes
247

1930
19. The Tale of
Lit­tle Pig Robin­son

The sto­ry of pig­gy Robin­son

10221

* The Tale of
Kit­ty-in-Boots (work­ing title: The Sto­ry of Kit­ty in Boots) was cre­at­ed in 1914 and pub­lished as a pic­ture book in 2016, with illus­tra­tions by Quentin Blake.