"All children, except one, grow up." Since Peter Pan first flew into the pages of literature, he has enchanted and endeared himself to generations of children that, unlike him, did grow up, and to adults who never fully lost the innocence, joy, and excitement of youth.
First written as a play in 1904, "Peter and Wendy" was published as a book in 1911. I have seen several movie and television adaptions of this lovely story, but none fully do justice to Barrie's amazing wit and incomparable style. It is a wondrous testimony to its author that after one hundred years people still read and love his masterpiece. Perhaps this is because Peter Pan is not merely a child's book: it is much more. Its themes, the depth of its characters, and its insight into life fascinates us just as much as the tale.
I have included a couple of excerpts from this timeless book that I hope encourages you to read and cherish "Peter and Wendy":
'[Mrs. Darling] 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 it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.
'The way Mr. Darling won her [Mrs. Darling] 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.'*
And about a special place in Neverland, Barrie writes . . .
'If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing.'*
* Barrie, James M. Peter Pan and Wendy. United Kingdom: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911. Print.
First written as a play in 1904, "Peter and Wendy" was published as a book in 1911. I have seen several movie and television adaptions of this lovely story, but none fully do justice to Barrie's amazing wit and incomparable style. It is a wondrous testimony to its author that after one hundred years people still read and love his masterpiece. Perhaps this is because Peter Pan is not merely a child's book: it is much more. Its themes, the depth of its characters, and its insight into life fascinates us just as much as the tale.
I have included a couple of excerpts from this timeless book that I hope encourages you to read and cherish "Peter and Wendy":
'[Mrs. Darling] 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 it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.
'The way Mr. Darling won her [Mrs. Darling] 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.'*
And about a special place in Neverland, Barrie writes . . .
'If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing.'*
* Barrie, James M. Peter Pan and Wendy. United Kingdom: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911. Print.
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