Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Reviewed by Sarah
Avaliable here and here and here
Start date: June 24, 2009
Finish date: June 25, 2009
Star Rating: 8 stars
Movie Rating: G


"What is it?" [Wendy] asked, anxious about him at once.

"I can't help you, Wendy. Hook wounded me. I can neither fly nor swim."

"Do you mean we shall both be drowned?"

"Look how the water is rising."

They put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight. They thought
they would soon be no more. As they sat thus something brushed against
Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, "Can I
be of any use?"

It was the tail of a kite, which Michael had made some days before. It
had torn itself out of his hand and floated away.

"Michael's kite," Peter said without interest, but next moment he had
seized the tail, and was pulling the kite toward him.

"It lifted Michael off the ground," he cried; "why should it not carry
you?"

"Both of us!"

"It can't lift two; Michael and Curly tried."

"Let us draw lots," Wendy said bravely.

"And you a lady; never." Already he had tied the tail round her. She
clung to him; she refused to go without him; but with a "Good-bye,
Wendy," he pushed her from the rock; and in a few minutes she was borne
out of his sight. Peter was alone on the lagoon.

The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of
light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a
sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the
mermaids calling to the moon.

Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A
tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on
the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and
Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock
again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was
saying, "To die will be an awfully big adventure."



I didn't realize how short this book was--the audio recordings are each about 5 hours long. (And I thought Scarlet Pimpernel, at 8 hours, was a quick one.)

It was interesting to read/listen to this after seeing so many movies based on it. (The Disney Cartoon, the Live Action film, Finding Neverland, and Hook are the ones that come to mind.) To see which parts each movie chose to use, and how, and which weren't used at all... very interesting.

The main theme or subject of this book is very easily summed up in a single word: childhood. This book is about childhood: its innocence, beauty, and its impermanance.

A very fun, quick book. I intend to come back to it and look at it more closely.