Peter Pan

By J. M. Barrie

Read the original adventures in Neverland!
If your children love the many adaptations of Peter Pan or if you're just one of those children who never grew up, join Peter, Wendy and all of the Lost Boys for J.M. Barrie's original adventure in Neverland.
This digital edition from Xist Classics features a
beautifully formatted and professionally proofed version of the original text.

Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xist Publishing
• Release date: Oct 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781623957209

J. M. Barrie

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright. Born in Kirriemuir, Barrie was raised in a strict Calvinist family. At the age of six, he lost his brother David to an ice-skating accident, a tragedy which left his family devastated and led to a strengthening in Barrie’s relationship with his mother. At school, he developed a passion for reading and acting, forming a drama club with his friends in Glasgow. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he found work as a journalist for the Nottingham Journal while writing the stories that would become his first novels. The Little White Bird (1902), a blend of fairytale fiction and social commentary, was his first novel to feature the beloved character Peter Pan, who would take the lead in his 1904 play Peter Pan; or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, later adapted for a 1911 novel and immortalized in the 1953 Disney animated film. A friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, George Bernard Shaw, and H. G. Wells, Barrie is known for his relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family, whose young boys were the inspiration for his stories of Peter Pan’s adventures with Wendy, Tinker Bell, and the Lost Boys on the island of Neverland.

Book preview

Peter Pan

J. M. Barrie

Xist Publishing

TUSTIN, CA

Originally Published in 1911

Cover Design by Jacob Lee

ISBN: 978-1-62395-720-9

This edition published in 2014 by Xist Publishing

PO Box 61593

Irvine, CA 92602

www.xist publishing.com

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the address above.

Peter Pan/ Barrie, J.M.

ISBN 978-1-62395-720-9

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 it 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

Reviews for Peter Pan

[bettesbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was so fun to read, my introduction to Peter Pan was in 1955 when Mary Martin did the TV presentation. This follows what I remember of the TV performance as I remember it. It brought back so many nice memories.

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5

This was better than I expected. The ending brought it all full circle. A nice little touching piece with the theme of childhood intertwining with the yarn.

[schmerguls · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

23 (re-read) Peter Pan or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up, by J. M. Barrie. This was on Starrett's 1955 list of "books which will live", and I forgot to check my list of books read and so read it. It seemed so familiar, but I did not think I had actually read it. But I did--tho probably not in play form, as this was. It is so saccharine, I really cannot say as an adult it is worth reading. (read Aug. 8, 1998)

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although the story was very familiar to me, I don’t recall ever reading the book before. I saw the Mary Martin version on TV as a child. It struck me this time around how odd the plot is, with everyone expecting Wendy to assume the role of mother to Peter and the Lost Boys. Things have changed in the century since this book was written. Infant and child mortality was a lot higher in the early 20th century than it is now. Women’s mortality from childbirth (or other causes) was also a lot higher then. Children who had lost their mothers, or who had friends or relations who had lost their mothers, might see themselves among the motherless children of Neverland. The story may not resonate with 21st century children in the same way, and that’s a good thing.

[vykic37 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Find this review and more at On The Shelf!I absolutely LOVE Tinkerbell, and I am ashamed to say I had never readPeter Panonly seen the Disney version, so I decided to change that and grabbed the audiobook from the library. I thought it was so good and I am glad I finally decided to read it. The language is much different from nowadays of course, but it was still really great. Well-written and very fun, Barrie created a marvelous story for kids and adults. The Neverland world is so creative and must have been such a pleasure for Barrie to write. A little bit of the humor slipped by me since it was written so long ago, but not much. I really enjoyed the reader as well, especially when he did the classic nasally Captain Hook voice we all know so well! The characters were really great as well. The lost boys were adorable and Peter was so stubborn. The only character I really didn’t care much for was the father because he was so incredibly whiny and at one point argued with the youngest child just like a little kid. I liked the way the story ended and I even saw a bunch of references from the movie Hook that I never knew were from the book. If you like classics, this is a must read book! Fun, well-written, wonderful classic, fast read, one for my library!

[sprainedbrain · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I knew the basic story of Peter Pan; still, I was a little surprised at just how dark the book is. I loved the writing style, and the adventure and excitement, but the ending and Peter in general made me sad.I tried to read this with my 6-year-old, but had a hard time keeping his interest. He loved the illustrations and interactive elements of this gorgeous edition.

[angelarenea-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've always loved the story of Peter Pan and finally got around to reading the book. I think that it brought out the character of Peter more than I was used to and I really enjoyed that.

[beammey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love this edition of the story. The illustrations added so much to it and kept me so intrigued with what was happening. Minalima did a GREAT job and I can't wait to see what book they come out with next. That said, this is a children's classic and if you're looking for the Disney version of the story this is not it, though they didn't stray too, too far from the original. I would recommend this story to anyone. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[laurochka-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A children's classic I couldn't believe I'd never read! This Peter is a much darker and more sinister version than my perceptions from popular culture but this gives the original story a different dimension. I very much enjoyed it in a melancholy kind of way.

[kat_hooper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Totally charming! Jim Dale's audio narration is superb!

[pepperwings · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this *after* reading about how sad J.M. Barrie was, and his mother, after losing his teenage brother. It puts a weird spin on the entire story, and it already seems quite dated ("redskins" "Indians") and surreal even without the fantastic elements. Why was the dog the children's nanny?It's a fun story, but there were just sad and odd undertones throughout, it was hard to forget the psychology and sadness around it.

[jscape2000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'd never read Peter Pan before, and coming to it for the first time as an adult, I found it to be wonderful. It straddles that old world line of horrible old children's stories. It has moments that are far more Brothers Grimm than Disney; the Lost Boys are unrepentant killers and they are killed in turn, while Tiger Lily, Tinkerbelle and Wendy are winkingly far more away of romance than Peter. I was less charmed by the relentless patriarchy of the only female characters being shoehorned into a mother role by every boy or man in sight. I would have liked one adventure where Wendy was her own hero.

[bensdad00 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Somethingh about Victorian novelists - they come up with great idea but execute them terribly - Peter Pan and Dracula are two iconic figures that are virtually unreadable in the original

[terris-7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the original Peter Pan story written in 1911. It is so funny, and I really enjoyed it! After seeing all the movies and stories over the years, it was interesting to read the original author's words. I would recommend this one!

[themulhern · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hilarious, satirical, wierd. The reviewers who complain about the stereotypical Indians, pirates, etc. seem to have failed to notice that what Barrie was describing was an Edwardian boy's fantasy of adventure. It is called Neverland for a reason.

[lukerik-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Don't be fooled: this is the novel reprinted under the title of the play. If you're looking for the play try OUP's Peter Pan and Other Plays.I am given to understand that Barrie tinkered with the story over a thirty year period, so that although the play premièred before the novel, the text as published in 1928 represents Barrie's final conception. The novel is a snapshot of an earlier vision. There are distinct differences. In the play Peter is clearly dead. There were a couple of suggestions here that Barrie had that in mind, but Neverland appears to be more a place of the imagination. The play is crystallised and the novel more fluid. Which you prefer is very subjective. I prefer the play, but don't want to underrate the novel which is written with great charm and real moments of magic.

[lilyroseshadowlyn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A delightful tale for the young and young at heart. Adapted and retold many times in film and other books, the story of Peter Pan is one that will live in our hearts forever. If you've enjoyed any of the adaptations, I highly encourage you to go back to the source and read the original.

[dustandshadow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have always loved the story of Peter Pan, whether it was represented in book, play, movie. It took me an exceedingly long time before I read this book. I have a lot of classics to get through. I loved recognizing a line from a play or movie that I had heard before. The magic of this is astonishing and I look forward to sharing it with my children... although I will try to stress that they should not become little Peter's. :)

[vwhitt_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The children’s classic is a rather difficult read. Most of us know that it takes place in the British home of the Darlings. The three children (Wendy, John, and Michael) leave their home with Peter Pan for Neverland. There, Wendy becomes the mother for Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. They get into tons of mischief, and in some cases kill the enemy (something the cartoon would never depict). Eventually, the children get homesick. They all (Lost Boys included) fly back to London where they grow up. But that doesn’t stop Peter Pan from coming back ad visiting Wendy. Details: This book was written to interest children in grades 4-6 and is on a 6.1 reading level.

[klefort_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the classic story of Peter Pan, a lost boy who lives in Neverland. Peter meets Wendy, Micheal, and John on the mainland. With the help of a little fairy dust, they all fly to Neverland, where they spend "many moons" with the other lost boys who have no mothers. Wendy takes over the position as their mother and the group go on many adventures, battling with Captain Hook, whom Pan kills in the end. Peter Pan never wants to grow up and he never does. In the end, the entire group goes back to the mainland where they eventually grow up, but Peter stays behind, going back for Wendy once a year until she is grown. Wendy marries and has a daughter named Jane and being how Wendy is too big to fly, Peter takes Jane once a year instead.This is a classic novel including everything from a fantasy world with pirates, fairies, and mermaids to flying and never growing up. It fits the definition of a fairy tale perfectly. It is a must have on every book shelf.

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Peter Pan surprised me in a lot of ways. For one thing, it's actually a very disturbing book. When Wendy realizes that John and Michael are forgetting their past life, I get scared right along with her. There's also a surprising amount of bloodshed going on, though nothing too graphic.It's written beautifully. There are so many places where the narrator's snide comments startle me into laughter or make me pause and think for a few moments.It's a wonderful adventure that's a bit surreal and a bit tragic and a bit scary, but beautiful and lovely and fun too.

[paulavev · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So familiar is the tale of a boy who soars through the sky, propelled by happy thoughts and pixie dust, with a tireless spunk and refusal to grow up. However, only those who read the original Peter Pan will meet the ruthless, selfish fiend of a character who kills pirates and despises the thought of his mother. Barrie's Pan considers life itself to be an adventure and seamlessly jumps from one escapade to the next, often forgetting his accomplices and leaving them to fend for themselves! It is not until he and his Lost Boys of Neverland meet Wendy and her brothers, John and Michael, that he begins to understand the foreign concepts of care, responsibility, and a mother's love. In telling the story of Peter and Wendy, Barrie uses an eloquent, fantastical writing style. The reader consistently feels an air of magic and mischief as Barrie blends illustrative descriptions and sarcastic humor to bring to life imagination and creativity. Each of the seventeen chapters conveys a new tale and is written with the ideal length for a bedtime story. Given its early twentieth century origin, the text contains some language that may be unfamiliar to adolescent readers. The imagery, however, is so powerful that one lost sentence will not detract the reader from the message as a whole. Such a mystical atmosphere is amplified further in this 100th Anniversary Edition by Michael Hague’s vivid, full-page color illustrations interleaved throughout the novel. With Peter Pan, Barrie's own childlike tendencies and innocent writing style have come together to create a timeless children's hero and classic book for all ages.

[tlhelen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie is a well known classical book. All children grow up but one, Peter Pan. Peter lives in the Neverland. One day, in one of his trips to hear stories told in the Darling's house he gets caught and loses his shadow. When he returns to get back his shadow, Wendy is awoken by the sounds of Peter crying. Wendy helped Peter sow on his shadow and Peter realising the importance of a mother figure asks her to go with him and be his mother and mother to the lost boys. Wendy and her two brothers were very excited and with a bit of fairy dust they fly their way to the Neverland. In the version of the book I read there were two stories; Peter in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. This book was one of the most confusing books. I had watched the movie and cartoon versions of Peter Pan and so I was expecting something similar. However, when I first start reading the narrators are the Davies brothers and they talk about things like baby castle where the most sought up baby lives by herself and all these baby attractions in the kensington gardens, it felt like I was reading the wrong book. Finally when I read the name Peter Pan I was relieved, but not for long. Peter Pan was completely different to what I was expecting. Firstly he was only a week old, he wore no clothes, he rode a goat, he lived with the birds because everyone was a bird who flew to their parents' home and there turned into humans.This is definitely not the story that I know and it really just seemed like Barrie was a bit loopy. When I reached the story of Peter and Wendy I was ever so confused. Peter Pan finally seemed to resemble the ones from the movie but what happened? I thought that the first story was an introduction or background story to how Peter Pan came to be but he was much older in Peter and Wendy and he didn't live with the birds any more. I found out later that these were two completely separate stories written by Barrie. One could say that it was partially my fault for being ignorant on the stories but I really don't see why an author would write two or three stories with the same character and yet completely different tales. It wasn't as if this was a sequel showing Peter when he grew up because Peter Pan does not grow up. Peter Pan may seem like an innocent title but it is not for young children. The book is very violent. Peter Pan seems to love war, blood and gore. It turns out that it was Peter who gave Hook his Hook. And Hook while he seems like a lovable baddie in the movies really wants to kill a boy who is no more than a little kid who still has all his baby teeth. Secondly the book is very stereotypical and quite racist to American Indians. I'm sure it didn't occur to J.M. Barrie how disrespectful he was being when writing about the Indians, just like he wrote the stereotypical pirates and mermaids. The Indians are described as being inferior, and quite stupid, even making Peter Pan the 'Great White Father'. Now we know that this racism is not something we teach our children. Also, going back to Peter in Kensington Gardens the fairies are said to have blue necks. Their blue necks aren't just something magical and pretty but they are quite gruesome and something quite scary to be telling children. Barrie writes that it was considered royal and beautiful to have blue neck so they would cut themselves and let their blue blood cover their neck and then dry. This is definitely not beautiful!I knew Peter Pan was a bit of a show off but never would I have thought that I would actually say that I hate Peter. Reading the book just got me really frustrated at the character. Peter Pan is one of the most stuck-up and annoying characters EVER!! He believes he is better than everyone else and he believes so much in make believe that he basically starves everyone by having make belief dinner and lunch. He is also very forgetful and when he goes back to get Wendy at spring time he gets angry that she grew up when really he was the one that didn't come for a few years. Peter Pan also got the children in trouble various times. When he could have remained quiet and everything would just go away he has to go and play games with Hook giving away their disguise. Peter Pan nearly locked out Wendy and her brothers. He is seriously so selfish. He may only be a fictional character but I really just wanted to go yell some sense at him. I would recommend this book to others but only because it is a classic and it is always good to know the original story behind movies. It was hysterical but not in the way it should be; I was laughing almost through the whole of Peter in Kensington Gardens because of the nonsense that was said. If you do decide to read remember to throw out any ideas and concepts you have for Peter Pan. Read with a blank canvas, as if you have never hear the name Peter Pan or else the story will just get confusing and strange since the movie and the book doesn't completely match up.

[ccostakis_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This classic tale is in its original format in this story, written by JM Barrie. It follows a magical boy, Peter Pan, and his adventures in Neverland as he refuses to grow up! Wendy, John and Michael soon join him for an adventure fighting pirates! This book would be good for middle school students, though it is slightly different (and more violent) than the Disney version.

[stefany_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Most people are familiar with the basics of the story of Peter Pan. However familiar you may be, however, if you are a fan of juvenile literature this is one that you should read.It's not really that the storyline or adventures are that much different than what I knew of them or expected them to be, but to hear the story through J.M. Barrie's own words gives a slightly different tone and perspective to the tale that I was previously lacking. Barrie has a wonderful way with painting pictures with his phrases and a quirky sense of humor that comes through in the text.To be honest, I was a little put off by this quirkiness when I first started the story and during the first chapter was kind of wondering if it was going to be too odd for me. But, I stuck to it and was quickly rewarded as the story moved on and, it seemed, Barrie got carried on the winds to Neverland along with the children.A great adventure story and a classic for the ages that also has some keen insight into human behavior and the realities of growing up.A side note on this particular version: If you have access to the edition "illustrated" by Raquel Jaramillo, I would recommend reading it over a non-illustrated version. Her computer and art enhanced photos add an even more magical atmosphere to the story and are beautifully done.

[something_-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was curious to read the original story of Peter Pan, since I only knew the Disney version of it. I can now say I like the book more than the movie.

The story itself was enchanting. There was action, caricate situations and some heart-touching moments all in one. Peter was a child in every sense of the way. I'd say my favourite character here was Hook though, I found him more interesting and deep than the rest (maybe because he was an adult). I wouldn't mind if the characters were explored a bit more in this book.

I read some reviews saying this version was rather dark, racist and sexist. I mostly disagree, specially about the dark part. In my opinion there was no description that might be unsuitable for children. It does has some sexism, and something that some people may call racism, but I didn't found it nowhere near as bad as some opinions I've heard made me expect.

The only reason why I didn't give it 4 stars was because I felt like there was something missing. I don't know exactly what, but I'm sure it has to do with the fact that this is a story meant specially for children (and a marvelous one at that). But since I'm not a child anymore, I think the "style" of the story doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to, although it remains a great tale for every age.

[alanthompson-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the finest children's books of all time, Peter Pan is a very pleasant read for adults as well. Its hero is a boy who never grows up, and his foes--pirates and Indians-- appear likewise immortal. The other characters--Wendy, Michael the Lost Boys--do grow up, providing Barrie the opportunity to reflect on the bittersweet loss of childhood so familiar to his older readers.

[amberthehuman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, that was racist. I'd been meaning to read this for a long time - and now I have finally done it! It's a little sadder than I expected. Barrie occasionally reminds you of the very sad parents. I'd rather that the time Wendy, John and Michael were gone for were a long time in their world, almost no time in reality. But I can't have everything the way I want it.

[ajaygx · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Must read for boys and girls..

[elosoblanco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Barrie's novel is worth a look if the Peter Pan you know is the highly adulterated flying boy of Disney fame. It's also worth a look if you've always considered Peter Pan to be a story aimed only at children. While the whimsy of Neverland and flying children does lend itself well to a "Children's Lit" tag, the comments of the story's narrator lends a subtext to the novel which should not be missed, and the roles being played by Pan, Wendy, and Hook are also worth looking at if you'd like to glean a deeper meaning from a "kiddie novel." What Barrie has done is create two beautifully separate realms, or snapshots, of childhood and adulthood, and he allows us to venture into and through them with Wendy and the Lost Boys. Definitely worth a read, for young and old. I highly recommend this book.