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    Peter Pan: (Peter and Wendy)
    Peter Pan: (Peter and Wendy)
    Peter Pan: (Peter and Wendy)
    Ebook230 pages2 hours

    Peter Pan: (Peter and Wendy)

    By James Matthew Barrie

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and Peter and Wendy are the stage play and novel (respectively) which tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland with Wendy Darling and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and the pirate Captain Hook. The story was written by Scottish playwright and novelist J. M. Barrie, inspired by his friendship with the Llewelyn-Davies family.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Classics
    Release dateNov 8, 2013
    ISBN9781627936392
    Author

    James Matthew Barrie

    J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie (1860--1937) was a novelist and playwright born and educated in Scotland. After moving to London, he authored several successful novels and plays. While there, Barrie befriended the Llewelyn Davies family and its five boys, and it was this friendship that inspired him to write about a boy with magical abilities, first in his adult novel The Little White Bird and then later in Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 play. Now an iconic character of children's literature, Peter Pan first appeared in book form in the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, about the whimsical adventures of the eternal boy who could fly and his ordinary friend Wendy Darling.

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    Reviews for Peter Pan

    3.5/5

    124 ratings119 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Maybe I would have enjoyed this book more if I'd read it as a child, but as an adult I found it just annoyed me, tremendously, especially the character of Peter. I think this is one case in which the Disney adaption was better than the source. Seriously.
    • 3/5
      About 50 years ago I saw the Broadway show starring Sandy Duncan as Peter Pan. It was much better than the book! 176 pages 3 stars
    • 4/5
      Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie is the classical tale of Peter Pan that boy who could not grow up and his adventures in Neverland with Wendy, lost boys, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. The book have beautiful illustration throughout and is written like a beginners chapter book The first chapters of Peter Pan begins with Peter Pan visiting Wendy, John and Michael Darling, later with Tinkerbell who help the children fly with the help of fairy dust to Neverland . In Neverland the children met the Lost Boys, the Natives and Captain Hook and set sail on a fun adventure. The theme of this book is childhood and imagination which is shown through the character Peter Pan.
    • 4/5
      I was pleased with how close this is to the stage play (a favorite of my childhood). After Peter Pan in Kensington Park, I expected this to suck. Color me pleasantly surprised.
    • 4/5
      I probably don't need to say much about this one, right? Classic vintage children's fare: a charismatic yet dangerous young main character, a small army of assorted children, lots of adventures, some dubious attitudes towards women and Native Americans, a dose of tongue-in-cheek humour and plenty of magic. I actually really enjoyed it!
    • 3/5
      When I began reading Peter Pan, I was stunned at how much children's literature has changed since this book was written. I actually felt uncomfortable reading it to my kids. The author seems very much convinced that children should be seen and not heard, and the book says things like, "Children are such naughty creatures; they are selfish and only care for themselves. They should be thankful that adults are willing to love them." Well, that's paraphrasing, but these are the sorts of ideas the book puts forth. However, I don't think this book should be forgotten. It's a treasure of classic literature because it truly is an enchanting and wonderful tale. I recommend it for those who wish to expand their knowledge of classic literature, but not for a parent searching for a read-aloud bedtime tale.
    • 4/5
      In this classic tale of the boy who never grows old Wendy, is whisked away to Neverland to become the mother of aband of lost boys. She faces many adventures and dangers as she tries to take care of this group of rowdy boys. Great book.
    • 5/5
      This copy is really beautifully done, the pictures are really beautiful. As far as the story, does it really need a review?
    • 5/5
      Peter Pan is a childhood favorite. I used to watch the movie so many times my dad had to make about five copies so I wouldn't ruin the original tape. I love the idea of Neverland and the Lost Boys. I think a part of everyone never truly wishes to grow up and take on adult responsibilites and Peter Pan represents this desire. One difference between the Disney animation and the book is the part involving the thimble and the kiss. Peter Pan misnames the two and believes a kiss is a thimble and visa versa.I think Peter Pan is a childhood favorite and classic for all.
    • 2/5
      I stopped reading after 50 pages -- a bit twee for me. Although I like that Tinker Bell (like all true fairies) is a rotter.
    • 4/5
      Another strange story I list among my favorites and keep coming back to. I don't really think children can fully appreciate the story.
    • 4/5
      This was a lot of fun to read. Much better and very different than the Disney version or any of the other Hollywood attempts, predictably.
    • 3/5
      The story of the boy who never grows up. Having listened to Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson's wonderful prequels to Peter Pan (Peter and the Star Catchers and Peter and the Shadow Theives), I wanted to listen to the original - I never had. Well, I really didn't like it. The reader was good, but Peter is a little brat. I think Disney improved on Peter.
    • 4/5
      Because Peter Pan is such a well loved, well (over?) produced story, everyone knows the basic plot: three kids unhappy with the way their father has treated the family dog run away with an orphan boy to his Neverland (not to be confused with Michael's Never Land Ranch). Peter and his Lost Boys are looking for a mother and they think they have such a figure in Wendy, one of the Darling children. It's a magical adventure full of danger in the form of pirates, "redskins" and a ticking crocodile. Even the fairies and mermaids are not to be trusted.Upon rereading Peter Pan I was surprised by how slow the story moved in certain sections. Because of the glossed-over, dumbed-down, glitzed-up theater/movie/storybook versions that have popped up over the years I had forgotten Barrie's original 1911 language and long since deleted details. It was hard to picture reading this aloud to a young child. Peter Pan seemed slightly evil (being described as cunning and sly), Tink seemed downright dirty as she responded to her own jealousy over Wendy (gleefully leading Wendy to her death). True to fairy tale form, it does have a happy ending. Sort of.
    • 3/5
      No wonder this book is a classic. It is a brilliant story about a boy who never grew up.It is a tiny bit hard to read and a little confusing at parts, but if you read it through you will be glad you did.
    • 5/5
      still one of my favorite light reads. great book for anyone :D
    • 5/5
      I obviously knew the story but never actually read the J.M. Barrie original until recently and was pleasantly surprised by what a great read it was. I think we tend to think of classic stories as known, boring and old-fashioned not realizing that there are reasons they became classics. The writing, as well as the story, of Peter Pan are magical weaving the reader into the story with the narration that is lyrical, witty and engaging. Tim Curry's reading on the audiobook is a treat. He plays the roles of narrator and characters well drawing listeners in to the magical story.
    • 3/5
      This was a tough one to read aloud. I read the book, to myself, several years ago but didn't really remember it all. If I had, I don't think I would have chosen to read it aloud. The first few chapters were rather boring and very old-fashioned. Once Peter entered the picture, the story picked up and ds became interested. But then once again, the narrative would seem to just go on and on about nothing until something happened in the plot every once and a while. I found the writing very didactic, conceited and smug and just downright difficult to read out loud. I could just imagine the author chuckling at how witty he thought himself. I have to say the 7yo enjoyed this much more than I. I asked him twice (once near the beginning and once at the mid-point) if he'd like me to stop reading this book and he said no. So he, at least, got something out of it. I have always enjoyed reading the classics to my children but have to say this is one that has not stood the test of time very well.
    • 3/5
      I loved the beginning and end of this book, with the poignant reflections on the pain both of letting children grow up and of losing them before they're grown, but feel uncertain about the middle. I remembered pretty quickly why I stopped reading this aloud to my daughter when she was four or five when the Lost Boys shot Wendy out of the sky.

      The whole thing is just so violent, what with killing pirates and being eaten by crocodiles and Tinkerbell's homicidal jealousy of Wendy. My inclination is to shy away from the book because of this, but when I sat and really thought about it, it's really a sort of childish violence. It reads like the kinds of games my otherwise nonviolent children play together around the house as they work out the intense emotions of childhood and try to make sense of their world.

      This book reminds me that my own kids have the same kind of melodramatic, violent imaginary play going on as they pretend to hunt and skin animals and protect their couch cushion fort from enemies. I think I feel uncomfortable with the book because I've not figured out just how to reconcile my own children's sometimes not-so-peaceloving playtime themes.

      Well, whatever my own hangups are with the book, my kids enjoyed it. I can psychoanalyze myself on my own time.
    • 4/5
      A fun re-read, which had everything to do with the book being offered for free as an e-read, watching the "Once Upon a Time" Peter Pan subplot on Netflix , and reminiscing about my childhood, and nothing to do with the rather dreadful redo of the play that aired while reading this. I just can't unseen Christopher Walken's Captain Hook being carried off stage left by his band of pirates. I'd forgotten how much fun Barrie's language is, and how charmingly the story tells itself.
    • 4/5
      An odd little book. Short and sweet, but with some quite dark images. The character of Peter is very well imagined.
    • 3/5
      Plot: 3 stars
      Characters: 3 stars
      Style: 3 stars
      Pace: 3 stars

      Had a review, logging out by mistake ate it. Better than The Little White Bird only because the plot didn't meander quite as far at random, but not what I'd thought it would be. Disney definitely sanitized this, but instead of being shocked, all I could see was how weak Wendy constantly was. She could have been a puppet, for all the difference it made, being nothing more than a "mother" Mary figure. Still, it served the purpose it needed to for the story, so... there's that, at least.
    • 4/5
      A children's classic, much beloved by thousands of kids who have never even read the book (thanks to Disney and Tinkerbell). I finally got around to reading it and discovered that, unsurprisingly, the story was much more complex than the cartoon movie version might lead you to believe. We learn a lot more about the Darling family, including the mother and father who are just caricatures in the Disney version, and the theme of not wanting to grow up is fleshed out as Barrie examines the pros and cons of staying forever young. Peter Pan is at once the light-hearted and mischievous imp we all love, but he is also tragic in his eternal youth. Did you ever wonder what happened to the Lost Boys? Or what the family reunion was like when Wendy and her brothers finally return home? Or what became of Wendy as she inevitably grew older? Read the original to find out.The illustrations in this particular edition are gorgeous, one reason I sprang the extra money for a hardcover book. They capture the charm and wonder of Neverland, the whimsy of the story. A wonderful story on both fronts, and well deserving of being called a classic. *On a side note, I believe that the recent live action film version does a much better job of capturing the original spirit of the story.
    • 5/5
      The most beautiful, delicately illustrated, unabridged edition I've ever seen. No need to comment on the content. Everyone knows how wonderful the story is.
    • 5/5
      Having been a fan of Peter all my life since listening to the Mary Martin musical soundtrack at a tender age, I am surprised that it took me so long to actually read the original, unabridged story. It is, as an actor from the most recent film version put it, "The most famous book nobody's ever read."I find the book incredible...besides sheer entertainment value and a magical quality that will keep the kids mesmerized, it is packed with odd psychological symbolism that many adults will recognize as the author's venting of his own childhood traumas. A brief look into Barrie's bio makes a lot of the stranger things in Pan far more understandable, if undoubtedly tragic. Barrie does have a rather flippant way of engaging the reader, teasing and goading much the same way as his mischeivous, conscience-less hero. But he also writes with poetic beauty, filling his characters with rich and quirky descriptive elements such as Peter being somehow very like the unnattainable kiss Mrs. Darling keeps in the right-hand corner of her mouth (which only he is then able to get). The book does betray the social conventions of its time in Wendy's attitude toward motherhood (which is only problematic if you are a raving feminist) and a bit more uncomfortably in its depiction of the Indian culture on Neverland. These elements need not detract from the story if one is careful to put them in context for its young readers. The recent film adaptation, although closest of all the films in its adherence to character, is misleading in its interpretation of the story being about the sexual awakening of adolescence. The hidden theme of the book is overwhelmingly the innocence of childhood - innocence in the sense not of inherent goodness, but in inherent un-self-consciousness. Peter is a symbol of eternal childhood, not human at all, and as such is incapable of reciprocating or even understanding Wendy's budding romantic notions. He is selfish, but not self-aware. Ultimately, he is the lament of one man who lost his own mother too soon, and consequently never grew up himself. Be assured, however, that all this goes right over the heads of young readers, and even adults will only catch it by reading critically and analytically. Brilliant literature that deserves its place as a long-beloved children's classic
    • 4/5
      I read this book somewhat late in life, simply because I thought it was a children's book. Not that I am against reading children's literature, but I really thought that I was too old for this book. Man, was I wrong! This book is actually very adult. Peter's life, how he will always be a child, and will always be alone, made me cry. And the illustrations in this particular edition were gorgeous.
    • 5/5
      This is a timeless classic that will have any reader wishing they could be ten again. I found the major themes of the book to be about what it means to grow up, and the fear of losing your childhood wonder. Moreover, I have a very personal connection to this story as it was the one book I and my great grandmother loved to read together. Lastly, because this was originally a play the book really relies on dialogue and think it would be a wonderful to use it for readers theater within upper elementary.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written. This book was exactly how I imagined it would be. A boy who refuses to grow up technically kidnaps a bunch of children and takes them to a land where they too can never grow up. Also there are pirates, mermaids and Native Americans, because if you can't find Native Americans in Neverland then where can you find them?
    • 5/5
      The sentences were not always clear in meaning, but given the age of the story it is understandable. Much to my surprise, I knew the story very well before reading. Disney (where I knew the story from) did not detour completely from the original story as usual. A very nice, quick read.
    • 5/5
      Peter Pan is every child's dream world written onto paper. Barrie perfectly captures the "innocent and heartless" mind of a child in the book. I think for young readers they embrace the belief in Neverland and for young adults they will to believe it all to be true. The descriptive nature of Peter Pan causes students to visual Neverland and the world that it is in the books and in their minds. To weave together subjects in a class room I think Peter Pan is a great book to do so. In a reading class the students will be challenged to read this book but also hopefully enjoy it. Using the "second to the right and straight on till morning" directions students could apply this to geography and practicing directions with landmarks. For a science lessons students can be directed to look to the sky and find the constellations Peter Pan and the children's flight went through. Since Peter Pan is such a fun tale for students I think they would enjoy lessons shaped around the book.

    Book preview

    Peter Pan - James Matthew Barrie

    Chapter 1

    PETER BREAKS THROUGH

    All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever! This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

    Of course they lived at 14 [their house number on their street], and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there is was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.

    The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.

    Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.

    Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darling's guesses.

    Wendy came first, then John, then Michael.

    For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand and calculating expenses, while she looked at him imploringly. She wanted to risk it, come what might, but that was not his way; his way was with a pencil and a piece of paper, and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin at the beginning again.

    Now don't interrupt, he would beg of her. I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; I can cut off my coffee at the office, say ten shillings, making two nine and six, with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven, with five naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven -- who is that moving? -- eight nine seven, dot and carry seven -- don't speak, my own -- and the pound you lent to that man who came to the door -- quiet, child -- dot and carry child -- there, you've done it! -- did I say nine nine seven? yes, I said nine nine seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on nine nine seven?

    Of course we can, George, she cried. But she was prejudiced in Wendy's favour, and he was really the grander character of the two.

    Remember mumps, he warned her almost threateningly, and off he went again. Mumps one pound, that is what I have put down, but I daresay it will be more like thirty shillings -- don't speak -- measles one five, German measles half a guinea, makes two fifteen six -- don't waggle your finger -- whooping-cough, say fifteen shillings -- and so on it went, and it added up differently each time; but at last Wendy just got through, with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles treated as one.

    There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's Kindergarten school, accompanied by their nurse.

    Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking around your throat. She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. It was a lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them back into line if they strayed. On John's footer [in England soccer was called football, "footer for short] days she never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain. There is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom's school where the nurses wait. They sat on forms, while Nana lay on the floor, but that was the only difference. They affected to ignore her as of an inferior social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. She resented visits to the nursery from Mrs. Darling's friends, but if they did come she first whipped off Michael's pinafore and put him into the one with blue braiding, and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash at John's hair.

    No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, and Mr. Darling knew it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily whether the neighbours talked.

    He had his position in the city to consider.

    Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feeling that she did not admire him. I know she admires you tremendously, George, Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then she would sign to the children to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed, in which the only other servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget she looked in her long skirt and maid's cap, though she had sworn, when engaged, that she would never see ten again. The gaiety of those romps! And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so wildly that all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had dashed at her you might have got it. There never was a simpler happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.

    Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.

    I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.

    Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents, but on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have each other's nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles [simple boat]. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.

    Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real. That is why there are night-lights.

    Occasionally in her travels through her children's minds Mrs. Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter. She knew of no Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than any of the other words, and as Mrs. Darling gazed she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance.

    Yes, he is rather cocky, Wendy admitted with regret. Her mother had been questioning her.

    But who is he, my pet?

    He is Peter Pan, you know, mother.

    At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him, as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. She had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and full of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person.

    Besides, she said to Wendy, he would be grown up by this time.

    Oh no, he isn't grown up, Wendy assured her confidently, and he is just my size. She meant that he was her size in both mind and body; she didn't know how she knew, she just knew it.

    Mrs. Darling consulted Mr. Darling, but he smiled pooh-pooh. Mark my words, he said, it is some nonsense Nana has been putting into their heads; just the sort of idea a dog would have. Leave it alone, and it will blow over.

    But it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs. Darling quite a shock.

    Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him. It was in this casual way that Wendy one morning made a disquieting revelation. Some leaves of a tree had been found on the nursery floor, which certainly were not there when the children went to bed, and Mrs. Darling was puzzling over them when Wendy said with a tolerant smile:

    "I do believe it is that

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