Other editions of book The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1910. The tale is about housekeeping and insect pests in the home, and reflects Potter's own sense of tidiness and her abhorrence of insect infestations. The character of Mrs. Tittlemouse debuted in 1909 in a small but crucial role in The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies, and Potter decided to give her a tale of her own the following year. Her meticulous illustrations of the insects may have been drawn for their own sake, or to provoke horror and disgust in her juvenile readers. 25,000 copies of the tale were initially released in July 1910 and another 15,000 between November 1910 and November 1911 in Potter's typical small book format.

This original, authorised version has been lovingly recreated electronically for the first time, with reproductions of Potter's unmistakeable artwork optimised for use on colour devices such as the iPad. Mrs Tittlemouse is a terribly tidy little wood mouse. She is always sweeping her burrow, polishing and tidying. It is an endless job and it seems that no sooner has she made a good start than another messy visitor appears to leave their muddy footprints everywhere.Beatrix Potter had in her youth made beautiful microscopic studies of insects, and this knowledge enabled her to produce delightful pictures of the many uninvited guests, from spiders to bees, found in Mrs. Tittlemouse's underground home.The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse is number eleven in Beatrix Potter's series of 23 little books, the titles of which are as follows:1 The Tale of Peter Rabbit2 The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin3 The Tailor of Gloucester4 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny5 The Tale of Two Bad Mice6 The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle7 The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher8 The Tale of Tom Kitten9 The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck10 The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies11 The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse12 The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes13 The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse 14 The Tale of Mr. Tod15 The Tale of Pigling Bland16 The Tale of Samuel Whiskers17 The Tale of The Pie and the Patty-Pan18 The Tale of Ginger and Pickles19 The Tale of Little Pig Robinson20 The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit21 The Story of Miss Moppet22 Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes23 Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1910. The tale is about housekeeping and insect pests in the home, and reflects Potter's own sense of tidiness and her abhorrence of insect infestations. The character of Mrs. Tittlemouse debuted in 1909 in a small but crucial role in The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies, and Potter decided to give her a tale of her own the following year. Her meticulous illustrations of the insects may have been drawn for their own sake, or to provoke horror and disgust in her juvenile readers. 25,000 copies of the tale were initially released in July 1910 and another 15,000 between November 1910 and November 1911 in Potter's typical small book format.Mrs. Tittlemouse is a woodmouse who lives in a "funny house" of long passages and storerooms beneath a hedge. Her efforts to keep her dwelling tidy are thwarted by insect and arachnid intruders who create all sorts of messes about the place: a lost beetle leaves dirty footprints in a passage and a spider inquiring after Miss Muffet leaves bits of cobweb here and there. Her toad neighbour Mr. Jackson lets himself into her parlour, stays for dinner, and searches her storerooms for honey but leaves a mess behind. Poor Mrs. Tittlemouse wonders if her home will ever be tidy again, but after a good night's sleep, she gives her house a fortnight's spring cleaning, polishes her little tin spoons, and holds a party for her friends.Potter's life had become complicated with the demands of ageing parents and the business of operating a farm before the composition of Mrs. Tittlemouse, and, as a consequence, her literary and artistic productivity began a decline following the tale's publication. She continued to publish sporadically but much of her work was drawn from decades-old concepts and illustrations. Mrs. Tittlemouse marks the end of her two books a year output for Warnes. Scholars find the book's depictions of the insects its great attraction. One critic finds a "nightmarish quality" in the tale reflected in Mrs. Tittlemouse's almost endless war waged against insect pests. Characters from the tale have been modelled as porcelain figurines by Beswick Pottery beginning in 1948, and the mouse's image appeared on a Huntley & Palmer biscuit tin in 1955. Other merchandise has been marketed depicting Mrs. Tittlemouse and her friends. Mrs. Tittlemouse was a character in a 1971 ballet film and her tale was adapted to an animated television series in 1992.The book includes colored illustrations by Beatrix Potter and a FREE audiobook link for download (use a PC/Mac to download and listen to audiobook file) that can be found at the end of the book.

(Helen) Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was an English author and illustrator, botanist, and conservationist, born in Kensington, London best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. Educated at home by a succession of governesses, she had little opportunity to mix with other children. Potter had frogs and newts, and even a pet bat. The basis of her many projects and stories were the small animals that she smuggled into the house or observed during family holidays in Scotland and the Lake District. She was encouraged to publish her story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), but she struggled to find a publisher until it was accepted when she was 36, by Frederick Warne & Co. The small book and her following works were extremely well received and she gained an independent income from the sales. Potter eventually wrote 23 books. These were published in a small format, easy for a child to hold and read. Her writing efforts abated around 1920 due to poor eyesight.