Better Dead by J. M. Barrie - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

By J. M. Barrie

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Better Dead by J. M. Barrie - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of J. M. Barrie’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Barrie includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘Better Dead by J. M. Barrie - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Barrie’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781788777308

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.

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The Complete Works of

J. M. BARRIE

VOLUME 2 OF 54

Better Dead

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2013

Version 1

COPYRIGHT

‘Better Dead’

J. M. Barrie: Parts Edition (in 54 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 730 8

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

J. M. Barrie: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 2 of the Delphi Classics edition of J. M. Barrie in 54 Parts. It features the unabridged text of Better Dead from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of J. M. Barrie, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of J. M. Barrie or the Complete Works of J. M. Barrie in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

J. M. BARRIE

IN 54 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, Auld Licht Idylls

2, Better Dead

3, When a Man’s Single

4, A Window in Thrums

5, The Little Minister

6, Sentimental Tommy

7, Tommy and Grizel

8, The Little White Bird

9, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

10, Peter and Wendy

The Novellas

11, A Tillyloss Scandal

12, Farewell Miss Julie Logan

The Short Story Collections

13, A Holiday in Bed and Other Sketches

14, Two of Them

15, Echoes of the War

The Plays

16, Ibsen’s Ghost

17, Walker, London

18, Jane Annie

19, The Professor’s Love Story

20, The Little Minister

21, The Wedding Guest

22, Quality Street

23, The Admirable Crichton

24, Little Mary

25, Peter Pan – the Original Play

26, Alice Sit-By-The-Fire

27, What Every Woman Knows

28, Old Friends

29, When Wendy Grew Up – an Afterthought

30, Pantaloon

31, The Twelve-Pound Look

32, Rosalind

33, The Will

34, Half an Hour

35, The New Word

36, A Kiss for Cinderella

37, Seven Women

38, Der Tag

39, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals

40, Dear Brutus

41, A Well-Remembered Voice

42, Mary Rose

43, Shall We Join the Ladies?

44, Barbara’s Wedding

45, The Boy David

The Non-Fiction

46, An Edinburgh Eleven

47, My Lady Nicotine

48, The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island

49, Charles Frohman: A Tribute

50, Neither Dorking nor the Abbey

51, M’connachie and J. M. B.

52, Preface to the Young Visiters

The Memoirs

53, Margaret Ogilvy

54, The Greenwood Hat

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Better Dead

After the success of Auld Lichts, a collection of nostalgic sketches of his home town, Barrie published his first novel, Better Dead, privately and at his own expense in 1888 and it failed to sell. It was published in the shape of a little shilling book with a coloured cover, suggestive of a ‘shilling shocker’, with the device containing a sanguinary sword, a revolver and an anarchical creature with a dagger in his hand. The novel was inspired two years earlier by an article found in a paper published in the St James’s Gazette on April 21, 1885.  The story suggested the formation of a society for ‘getting rid of people who would be better out of the way’. The narrative introduces the character Andrew Riach, a young Scotsman who has come to town intending to become the private secretary to a member of the Cabinet, and if time permitted, he proposed writing for the Press.

Barrie as a young man, 1894

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

TO

FREDERICK GREENWOOD

INTRODUCTION

This is the only American edition of my books produced with my sanction, and I have special reasons for thanking Messrs. Scribner for its publication; they let it be seen, by this edition, what are my books, for I know not how many volumes purporting to be by me, are in circulation in America which are no books of mine. I have seen several of these, bearing such titles as Two of Them, An Auld Licht Manse, A Tillyloss Scandal, and some of them announce themselves as author’s editions, or published by arrangement with the author. They consist of scraps collected and published without my knowledge, and I entirely disown them. I have written no books save those that appear in this edition.

I am asked to write a few lines on the front page of each of these volumes, to say something, as I take it, about how they came into being. Well, they were written mainly to please one woman who is now dead, but as I am writing a little book about my mother I shall say no