The Velveteen Rabbit
Written by Margery Williams and
illustrated by William Nicholson
Reproduced by Suzeteo
Enterprises, 2017; Originally published in 1922
“The Velveteen Rabbit” is a
classic children’s book celebrating its 100th year in print this
month.
Very few children’s books remain
in print for so long. Most picture books sell between 5,000 and 10,000 copies
in hardcover and go out of print within two years.
“The Velveteen Rabbit” endures
because of its universal theme about love and its appeal to both children and
adults.
The story begins with a boy
receiving a velveteen rabbit as a gift at Christmas. The child likes the toy
when he first gets it, but quickly forgets it in the excitement of looking at
all his new presents.
For a long time, the velveteen
rabbit lives in the toy cupboard mostly ignored. He is snubbed by the more
modern mechanical toys.
The only toy who is kind to the
rabbit is the wise skin horse, the oldest toy in the nursery. One day the
velveteen rabbit asks the skin horse, "What is real?"
The skin horse explains that when
a child loves you for a long, long time, you become real. Nursery magic makes
you real. By the time you become real most of your hair has been loved off.
Your eyes may fall out and you are loose in the joints and very shabby.
But these things do not matter
because once you are real you can’t be ugly except to those who don’t
understand.
The skin horse is real because
years ago the boy’s uncle made him real. Once you are real you will always be
real, the skin horse explains. It lasts forever.
One day when the boy is going to
bed, he cannot find the china dog that always sleeps with him. Nana hands him
the rabbit. This is how the boy begins sleeping with the velveteen rabbit every
night. In the spring and summer, the boy takes the rabbit outdoors with him when he plays.
Finally, the rabbit hears the boy
tell Nana that the rabbit is real. He feels almost too happy to sleep. So much
love stirs in his sawdust heart that it almost bursts.
One day when the velveteen rabbit
is outdoors, he sees two real rabbits. They ask him why doesn’t he get up and
play with them. He doesn’t want to admit that he can’t move. Finally, one of
the real rabbits says the velveteen rabbit doesn’t smell right and he isn’t
real. The velveteen rabbit insists he is real, but the rabbits hop away.
The velveteen rabbit becomes more and
more shabby, but the boy loves him just as much. To him, his rabbit is just as
beautiful. It doesn’t matter to the velveteen rabbit how he looks to other
people. The boy loves him.
Then one day, the boy becomes ill.
He has scarlet fever. In 1922, there were no medicines to treat this
illness. Children sometimes died from it.
The velveteen rabbit stays at the
boy’s side. He knows the boy needs him. He looks forward to the time when they
can go outside and play.
Finally, the boy gets better. He sits up in bed and looks at picture books while the velveteen rabbit cuddles at
his side. One day, they let him get up and dress. They tells him he will go to the seaside the
next day.
The velveteen rabbit looks forward to the seaside. But the boy’s doctor says everything in the boy’s room should
be disinfected. The books and toys that he played with in bed must be
burned.
The rabbit is put in a sack with
the picture books and carried out to the garden to be burned the next day. The
boy is told the velveteen bunny was lost. He is in a different room and he has a new bunny to sleep with him.
The rabbit feels very lonely. He
wriggles enough so he can get his head out of the opening of the sack. He
thinks, “Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s beauty and become real
if it ended like this?” A real tear trickles down his nose and falls on the
ground.
Where the tear falls a
flower grows. A fairy steps out of the blossom. She says she is the nursery
magic fairy. She says she takes care of all the play things that children have loved.
The fairy carries the rabbit into
the wood. Wild rabbits dance there. She tells them she has brought them a new
playmate. She kisses the velveteen rabbit and puts him down on the grass. He has become a real rabbit.
The next spring the boy goes out
to play in the wood. He sees two rabbits and he notices one of them looks just
like his old bunny. But he didn't know it was his own bunny who had come back to
look at the child who first helped him to be real.
Over the years, “The Velveteen
Rabbit” has been illustrated by many artists including Maurice Sendak and Sarah
Massini. Erin Stead illustrated a special 100th anniversary edition published this year by Doubleday Books for Young Readers. However, the
original illustrator was William Nicholson.
Nicholson’s illustrations are
sparse. They are done in dull colors and filled with shadows. Like the story, his
illustrations are melancholy.
The 2017 edition is intended to
closely reproduce the original children’s book which was published in 1922. On
the title page, the full title is “The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become
Real.”
About the Author
Margery Williams was an
English-American author, primarily of children’s books. She achieved lasting
fame at 41 with the publication of “The Velveteen Rabbit” in 1922. This classic
is her best-known work. She received a Newberry Honor for “Winterbound.”
William Nicholson was a British painter of still-life, landscape and portraits. He was
also a printmaker, a designer for theater, a children’s
book author, and an illustrator.
