The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse

The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse

First edition cover
Author	Beatrix Potter
Illustrator	Beatrix Potter
Language	English
Genre	Children's literature
Publisher	Frederick Warne & Co.
Publication date	December 1918
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (originally hardcover, but since printed in softcover as well)
Preceded by	Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes
Followed by	Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
Text	The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse at Wikisource

The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. In December 1918. The tale is based on the Aesop fable, "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse", with details taken from Horace's Satires 2.6.79-117. It tells of a country mouse and a city mouse who visit each other in their respective homes. After sampling the other's way of life, both express a decided preference for their own. The book was critically well received. The Johnny Town-mouse character appeared in a 1971 ballet film, and the tale has been adapted to a BBC television animated series.

Plot summary

Johnny Town-Mouse visiting the country mouse Timmy Willie

The country mouse, Timmy Willie, falls asleep in a hamper, and is carried with the vegetables to the city, where the mice, including Johnny Town-Mouse, make him welcome, but finding the cat frightening and the food strange, he returns by the hamper. Sometime later, Johnny Town-Mouse pays him a visit, but finding such things as cows and lawnmowers frightening, returns to the city himself.

Adaptions

An animated adaptation of the story, shown alongside The Tale of Two Bad Mice, was featured on The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends in 1995 with Johnny Town-Mouse voiced by British actor Hugh Laurie.

References

Footnotes

Works cited

• Lear, Linda (2007), Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, ISBN 0-312-37796-7
• MacDonald, Ruth K. (1986), Beatrix Potter, Boston: Twayne Publishers, ISBN 0-8057-6917-X
• Taylor, Judy; Whalley, Joyce Irene; Hobbs, Anne Stevenson; Battrick, Elizabeth M. (1987), Beatrix Potter 1866–1943: The Artist and Her World, F. Warne & Co. and The National Trust, ISBN 0-7232-3561-9

Bibliography

• Mackey, Margaret (2002). Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit: A Children's Classic at 100. Lanham, Maryland, and London: The Children's Literature Association and The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-4197-5.

External links

• The full text of The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse at Wikisource
• Media related to The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse at Wikimedia Commons

• The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse at Project Gutenberg
• The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse public domain audiobook at LibriVox