First edition cover
Author Beatrix Potter
Illustrator Beatrix Potter
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Children's literature
Publisher Frederick Warne & Co
Publication date July 1906
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Preceded by The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan
Followed by The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in July 1906. The story's origins lie in a letter sent to a child in 1893 and tells of the misadventures of a frog as he fishes for his dinner.
Plot
The story chronicles the misadventures of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, a frog living by a pond. One rainy day he decides to invite some friends round for dinner. He then puts on his macintosh and goloshes and sets out to fish for minnows for dinner. He takes his lily-leaf boat and settles down with his rod in the middle of the pond. After an hour of no results, he gets tired and takes a break for lunch, a butterfly sandwich. Interrupted by a water beetle and a rat, he moves his boat further away. And now he gets a bite almost at once, but the fish turns out to be little Jack Sharp, the stickleback, who escapes and jumps back in the water. Mr. Jeremy's fingers are hurt by the stickleback spines, and while he is nursing them, a trout jumps up and snaps him in its mouth. Luckily the macintosh makes the trout spit him back out, but it swallows his goloshes. As Jeremy swims ashore he laments the loss of his fishing rod and basket, but concludes he won't go fishing again anyway. In the end, his friends Sir Isaac Newton (a newt) and Mr. Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise come to dinner, but instead of minnows they have a roasted grasshopper with lady-bird sauce.
Composition and publication
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher had its origins in a picture and story letter Potter sent from Dunkeld, Scotland to Eric Moore, the son of a former governess, on 5 September 1893. The letter began, "Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher, and he lived in a little house on the bank of a river [...]". The tale was set on the River Tay where Potter summered with her family and Mr. Potter fished with friends. Potter kept frogs, newts, and toads as pets over the years, and long wanted to write a story about a frog because it would offer her the opportunity to create the naturalist illustrations she took delight in.
In 1894, she produced a series of pen-and-ink drawings called "A Frog he would a-fishing go" for the firm of Ernest Nister which insisted the public was not interested in frogs but haggled over Potter's price. They finally gave her the price she requested and the sketches were published in a children's annual. Following the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, Potter decided to develop the frog story further and bought the drawings and printer's blocks from Nister to protect any future copyright concerns.
Potter changed the setting fron Dunkeld to Sawrey and chose the Regency period for the tale (reflecting her love for the work of Randolph Caldecott) and the background illustrations were inspired by areas near Hill Top Farm. In Jeremy and his friends, she managed to recreate the camaraderie of her father's club members at the Reform and Athenaeum in London. When Fruing Warne (the brother of her publisher and fiancé Norman Warne) thought the frog's colouration incorrect, Potter brought the live frog to the Warne offices in a jar to settle the question. The book was the last she discussed with Norman Warne before his sudden and unexpected death in August 1905. The book was dedicated to her cousin's daughter Stephanie and released in July 1906.[1][2]
Adaptions and legacy
In 1993, an animated adaptation of the tale was telecast on the BBC anthology series The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. Derek Jacobi and Richard Griffiths voiced Jeremy and the guests respectively.
For the 100th anniversary of Jeremy Fisher in 2006, a set of commemorative stamps entitled Animal Tales was issued by the Royal Mail in Great Britain. The set celebrate several different illustrated children's books, with Jeremy Fisher featured on one of the stamps.[3]
References
- ^ Taylor 126-7
- ^ Lear 211-3
- ^ "Stamp calendar 2006 - Animal Tales". Royal Mail . http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=22900465&mediaId=22900490. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
- Lear, Linda (2007), Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin, ISBN 0-312-37796-7
- Mackey, Margaret (2002), Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit: A Children's Classic at 100, Children's Literature Association Centennial Studies, Lanham, Maryland, and London: The Children's Literature Association and The Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN 0-8108-4197-5
- Taylor, Susan; Whalley, Joyce Irene; Hobbs, Anne Stevenson; Battrick, Elizabeth M. (1987). Beatrix Potter 1866–1943: The Artist and Her World. London: F. Warne & Co. and The National Trust. ISBN 0-7232-3561-9.
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
- The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher at Project Gutenberg
- The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher at Internet Archive
The Tales
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) • The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903) • The Tailor of Gloucester (1903) • The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904) • The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904) • The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905) • The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan (1905) • The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1906) • The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit (1906) • The Story of Miss Moppet (1906) • The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907) • The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908) • The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding (1908) • The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909) • The Tale of Ginger and Pickles (1909) • The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910) • The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes (1911) • The Tale of Mr. Tod (1912) • The Tale of Pigling Bland (1913) • Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes (1917) • The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse (1918) • Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes (1922) • The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1930)
Other books
Peter Rabbit's Painting Book (1911) • Tom Kitten's Painting Book (1917) • Jemima Puddle-Duck's Painting Book (1925) • Peter Rabbit's Almanac for 1929 (1928) • The Fairy Caravan (1929) • Sister Anne (1932) • Wag-by-Wall (1944) • The Tale of the Faithful Dove (1955) • The Sly Old Cat (1971)
Other media
The Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971) • The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (1992-1995) • Miss Potter (2006) • Beswick Pottery
People
Locations
Hill Top, Cumbria • Beatrix Potter Gallery • Near and Far Sawrey • Dalguise • Lake District • Derwentwater • St Herbert's Island • Little Town, Cumbria • Newlands Church • Newlands Valley • Hawkshead • Keswick, Cumbria • Carleton Crematorium and Cemetery • Armitt Library
Characters
Peter Rabbit • Mr. McGregor • Mrs. Rabbit • Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail • Mrs. Tittlemouse • Mr. Jackson and Babbitty Bumble • Tabitha Twitchit • Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb • Lucinda and Jane
Publishers