ABSTRACT
On my table lie 35 books of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Each is different in some important way. There are other versions of the book on the market, but this sample is reasonably representative. This collection does not include any kind of activity book, a different form of text to which I will turn later. All 35 of these books are simply bound sets of words and pictures purporting to tell the story of Peter Rabbit. Some of them are authorized by Frederick Warne; others are not. Some of them include Potter’s own words and pictures, although not all of these feature Potter’s own words and pictures arranged on the page in the form and design she originally dictated. Some of the books include Potter’s own words and someone else’s pictures; others include Potter’s own pictures and someone else’s words. Eleven books contain the story both retold and reillustrated. Surely, in such a range of versions, there are discoveries to be made about how we may define and talk about a textual work of art in our time.
