Literature's Most Famous Launderer
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I am surprised noone has reviewed this little tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle! Well, I guess if you like any Beatrix Potter's book you like them all. Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is as delectable a creation as any other in the world of Peter Rabbit. Personally, I find this one one of the less good story. The tale is not the heaviest on the cautionary side among Beatrix Potter's work but does feature a very courteous young girl and an equally well-mannered and unassuming hedgehog. The plot is very very slim with scantly any unfolding. That couples to the lack of the child-like escapade of tales such as "Peter Rabbit" and "Tom Kitten" makes it somewhat less engaging. The illustration is also somewhat lower in standard, and the fact that one of the two main characters is a little girl does not help as Beatrix Potter's art was always weaker when it comes to depicting human. Whilst the text does give delightful and very vivid and impressionistic descriptions of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle I think the character is let down simply by the fact that a hedgehog translates into a fully-gowned two-legged creature less well than a rabbit or a kitten (Peter Rabbit was not even decked in full human raiment - just a jacket and a pair of shoes). Some illustrations depict her really well but others - where Beatrix Potter has had to resort to distoring her anatomy - simply look quite awkward - a departure from the realistic way in which Beatrix Potter always draw the anatomy of her animal characters, a treatment I think which has given the books their distinct charm.
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