- For other meanings, see Winnie-the-Pooh (disambiguation).
.png){kind=link}
The first-edition cover of Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh is a classic 1926 children's book by English author Alan A. Milne, which tells the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh, a silly bear living in the Hundred Acre Wood with his friends Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl and Christopher Robin. It was illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard.
The book consists of ten loosely-connected stories, each told in one of its ten chapters. It is notable for being the first appearance Pooh and the other classic characters of the franchise, except for Tigger, who would be introduced in the sequel, The House at Pooh Corner, also written by Milne. Winnie-the-Pooh has recently gained a third sequel, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, by David Benedictus.
Before the publishing of Winnie-the-Pooh, a similar character named Edward Bear had made appearances in some of Milne's poems. The character who would become Pooh had his first real appearance in "The Wrong Sort of Bees", a story published in the London Evening News in its issue for Christmas Eve 1925, which would later be adapted into the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Winnie-the-Pooh is still considered one of the most time-honored storybooks, especially in the UK. It has been translated into more than 25 languages, including Latin and Esperanto.
The book would later spawn the worldwide famous Disney adaptation of the Pooh franchise, starting in the 1960's when Walt Disney produced three featurettes, based on mixed-together stories from this book as well as its sequel, and later put together in the film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Original Disney stories would follow, spawning the TV series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and several other series, films and merchandise later on. The 2003 Disney movie Piglet's Big Movie returned to the practice of adapting stories from the book, while at the same time clumping them together with an original plot. It is believed that the Disney film Winnie-the-Pooh is another adaptation of Milne's stories.
A version of the book with different chapters depending on what the story is about frequently appears in Christopher Robin's room next to the stuffed Pooh doll as part of Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, where it holds the characters and settings of the story. Here, the animated characters are often seen interacting with the book's elements, such as reading the printed words or hopping from one page to another. The book's pages also appear in Christopher Robin (2018), where it is revealed that the book's Disney iteration retains E.H. Shepard's original illustrations, along with some new ones in the style of those illustrations.
Chapters[]
- In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin
- In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place
- In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle
- In Which Eeyore Loses A Tail and Pooh Finds One
- In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump
- In Which Eeyore Has A Birthday And Gets Two Presents
- In Which Kanga And Baby Roo Come To The Forest And Piglet Has A Bath
- In Which Christopher Robin Leads An Expedition To The North Pole
- In Which Piglet Is Entirely Surrounded By Water
- In Which Christopher Robin Gives Pooh A Party and We Say Goodbye
Each chapter consists of an independent Pooh story, enabling the reader to read them in any order they choose.
Adaptions[]
The first two chapters were adapted into animation with the Disney featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. Similarly, chapter 3 was adapted into Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, while chapter 6 was adapted into Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore. Chapters 3, 5, 9, and 10 have been adapted into Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, while elements of chapter 5, along with adaptations of chapters 7 and 8 are used in Piglet's Big Movie. Chapter 4 (and elements of chapter 5) was adapted into Winnie the Pooh (2011 film). The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episode The Old Switcheroo is shown to be inspired by Chapter 7.