General Press

J.M. Barrie

Considered a masterpiece since its first appearance on stage in 1904, Peter Pan is JM Barrie’s most famous work and arguably the greatest of all children’s stories. Humorous, satiric, filled with suspenseful cliff-hangers and bittersweet truths, Peter Pan works an indisputable magic on readers of all ages, making it a true classic of imaginative literature. Ever since Peter Pan flew in through Wendy Darling's nursery window and took her off to Never Land, Barrie's classic adventure story has thrilled and delighted generations of theatre-goers.

Peter Pan

J. M. Barrie

A fabulously redesigned edition of a Michael Hague backlist classic Peter Pan, the book based on J. M. Barrie's famous play, is filled with unforgettable characters: Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up; the fairy, Tinker Bell; the evil pirate, Captain Hook; and the three children-Wendy, John, and Michael-who fly off with Peter Pan to Neverland, where they meet Indians and pirates and a crocodile that ticks. Renowned children's-book artist Michael Hague has brought the amazing adventures of Peter Pan to life. His beautiful illustrations capture the wild, seductive power of this classic book. This newly designed edition will be enjoyed by fans young and old alike.

Peter Pan (100th Anniversary Edition)

Kat Albanese

At the sight of his own blood, whose peculiar colour, you remember, was offensive to him, the sword fell from Hook's hand, and he was at Peter's mercy.

"Now!" cried all the boys, but with a magnificent gesture Peter invited his opponent to pick up his sword. Hook did so instantly, but with a tragic feeling that Peter was showing good form.

Hitherto he had thought it was some fiend fighting him, but darker suspicions assailed him now.

"Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily.

"I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."

This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that Peter did not know in the least who or what he was, which is the very pinnacle of good form.

Can’t remember much tbh but I think I prefer the movie 

‘But, my dear madam, it is ten days till Thursday week; so that by telling you what’s what, we can save you ten days of unhappiness.’

‘Yes, but at what a cost! By depriving the children of ten minutes of delight.’

‘What other way is there in which to look at it?’

sabiduría 

‘But, my dear madam, it is ten days till Thursday week; so that by telling you what’s what, we can save you ten days of unhappiness.’

‘Yes, but at what a cost! By depriving the children of ten minutes of delight.’

‘Oh, if you look at it in that way!’

‘What other way is there in which to look at it?’

some things in this book are quite disturbing to see from an adult’s lens. oh well, i guess that’s why peter never grew up

Syasya Diyana 

Chloé

Sarah Sammis

This time around I read a version uploaded to Project Gutenberg. It's different than what I remember — with entire scenes missing. It's also blunter and more violent.

It’s great when you’ve seen the Disney film before reading the book. Parts of it seem weird when you’re imagining them as the Disney characters rather than the versions of them in the book. Especially with the conflict between Pan and Hook. However in this Pan is completely different to how they portray him in the Disney version (as that’s the only film I’ve seen) because the Book Peter is weird to say.

Despite having a different feel to modern books it was a decent read. Commonly reading it in school also made it a great read.

And still with the 150 page length, I still took a long time to read it.

Maria Shade

I didn’t know what to expect, darker than I first realized. I really enjoyed it though.

Ami Is Dreaming Again

This Elibron Classics title is a reprint of the original edition published by Hodder & Stoughton in London.

Peter Pan and Wendy

Sade A

So i picked up this book because i'd just read All Darling Children and i wanted to see how far from the original the author had strayed from Barrie's work. While Monroe presents Peter Pan as blood thirsty, most times for the sake of it, Barrie presents Peter Pan more as a selfish but brave child who has rather grand adventures with or without the lost boys. 

You would think that such negative qualities would hurt Pan's general lovability and make him less likable but even with the negative, Barrie uses words to make such negative traits seem admirable. Observe:"it is humiliating to have to confess that this conceit of Peter was one of his most fascinating qualities". Being conceited is obviously negative but on Peter it's fascinating. 

You have to wonder at how a boy who "thins out" the lost boys when they seem to be growing, has forbidden others to look in the least like him, who is soley interested in his own cleverness, forgets his friends (view spoiler)[(i mean he even freaking forgot Tinkerbell existed and she drank poison for him, ugh) (hide spoiler)], is ungrateful turns out to be a character children look up to. The peter pan page on G.O.S Hospital page describes Pan as a character "who has been inspiring children and adults alike for over a hundred years" Like its's actually funny. Inspite of all these Character flaws, Jas Hook was somehow a worse character and Villified ( i suppose someone had to be a villian). You might at this point, like to point out that Hook probably was worse and treated his crew deplorably, Let's however not forget that when (view spoiler)[.Peter helped Hook along to his death and took over the jolly roger becoming captain, he treated the boys the same way Hook treated his crew (hide spoiler)] : "some of them wanted it to be an honest ship and others were in favour of keeping it a pirate; but the captain treated them as dogs, and they dared not express their wishes to him even in a round robin. instant obedience was the only safe thing"

Micheal and John's characters were not developed past the fact that they were Wendy's brothers. With or without them the plot would have moved along. I can't in all honesty begrude Wendy's character being that at the time the book was written, that's probably all girls' were taught to do.

All in all, i'm frankly i'm of the opinion that Peter Pan is psychotic. It was an interesting read though and i'm glad i finally got to read the story of Peter Pan.

A beautiful edition of Barrie's classic tale, featuring full-color artwork done in chalk on the cover.

aisha

*4.0*

A solid four stars. I am not familiar with some of the words in classics because I haven't read many, which did get in the way. The extra star I did not give was simply because sometimes it just gets confusing like I would read a sentence and be "what in the world is going on?". It's too fast paced for a fantasy themed book (I guess?) but if it was longer, I would've put it down to stop reading for at least a day. These are based off my personal thoughts and I did think the book was better than the Disney movie. The movie made it seem too cheerful when it really isn't as cheerful. Not a must read, but it's a quick read so might as well pick it up.

eliz

if I could give it nothing it would be zero star. a children's book not made for children. the story in general bothered me a lot, peter pan's selfishness and wendy's selflessness, how all the characters are portrayed to be dumb, the pretend 'mother' thing for the pretend 'children' ...how's that suitable for kids

jess

“peter pan is a fuckboy”
- my english professor, 2018

Phee

peter pan (2003) is one of the most defining movies of my childhood, so reading this and seeing some of my favourite quotes: “to die will be an awfully big adventure” and “‘can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?’ ‘nothing, precious.. they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children’” brought back that same nostalgia. (i also loved how girls/women are seen as smarter or superior by peter and the lost boys even if it is in an old fashioned mother-knows-best kind of way lmao)

that one fairy orgy mentioned was a bit strange tho

jakuzi

Steph L 

I read this book because I was always a big fan if Petr Pan, but I had never read the novel of it. I loved learning about the new things that I never knew about it before.

Kay Jamieson

Love Love Love this book.
Its always been my favorite story. Romance, adventure, exciting and lovely. I identify with Wendy Darling with my entire being.

Celeste Richardson

Actual rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up.

It’s been fifteen years or more since I last read Peter Pan. The ways in which this book informed an entire genre or age bracket of books is fascinating. The amount of retellings, or stories more loosely inspired by this one, that exist in the world is mind-boggling. I don’t know the exact number, but Peter Pan has undoubtedly been the fount from which near-countless other stories have sprung. It’s one of those tales that just about everyone knows to some extent, but it’s fun to go back and see what is in the actual source material. While the story’s influence is undeniable, I have to confess that this is not among my favorite children’s classics. I feel like there’s no one to really root for aside from Mrs. Darling, and Barrie’s writing sometimes feels as though he was trying to hard to be cheeky and clever. But Peter Pan’s staying power is nearly unmatched, and our society would be just a little dimmer without him in it.

Barrie’s writing style is tongue-in-cheek, whimsical nonsense. I love a present narrator, like in a Dickens novel. That’s what we have here, and he has a personality all his own. He sometimes feels a bit forced in comparison to narrators from Dickens or Thackeray, but it was still a fun addition. The writing feels cheeky, for lack of a better word. And yet, there’s also something occasionally mean or malicious about it. The voice can be as unfeeling as it claims that the children within its pages are naturally. I actually found myself comparing it often to Carroll’s writing in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. However, I think the nonsensical setting and plot of Carroll’s novel made this type of tone work a bit more seamlessly with his work. Barrie’s felt off on occasion and wasn’t quite as successful, in my opinion.

There is nothing heroic about Peter Pan as a character. He is, ultimately, an eternal child, and he exhibits more of the failings of a child than the more positive attributes of one. He is selfish, and self-absorbed, and above all, a showboat. He cares about nothing and no one more than himself and being admired. He’s callous and forgetful and more than a little cruel. He’s willfully ignorant, as he fears that learning will lead to him possibly growing up. And yet, despite all of his flaws, he there’s something incredibly magnetic about him. He’s charming when he wants to be, and effortlessly charismatic. The way everyone defers to him drives me bonkers, but I guess that’s just part of his powerful personality. 

Again, Peter Pan is not my favorite children’s classic, but it has definitely stood the test of time. If I were rating for cultural significance, I would give this 5 stars. If I were rating for my own enjoyment, I would give it 3. Thus, I decided to split the difference. This is a whimsical tale in all of its forms, but it’s alway interesting to go back to the original. It gave Peter his wish; with his fame, he will forever be the boy who never grew up.

Illustré et animé par MinaLima

Marine Pilate

Misère de dieu, enfin fini ! Peter Pan est un gros relou bien égoïste,egocentrique et mysogine.
Et le narrateur était bipolaire en plus de ça 🙄
Heureuse de l'avoir terminé pour connaître la vraie histoire du conte Disney mais je ne le relirai pas, c'est sûr !

Ingrid 

4.5 stars. So I finished this book a month ago, and I have been thinking about it almost every day since. Originally I was thinking about giving this book a 3 or 4 star rating, but I as times go by, I'm loving it more and more. I already want to reread it.

The reason for my original lower rating was that the book was really hard to get into, mostly because of the writing. My first language is not English, so reading something written a long time ago in another language was hard, therefor I listened to most of this on audiobooks. The story is way darker than the Disney version. 

The reason for taking off 0.5 stars is because I wanted more. I would love some more backstories. I will definitely be reading some retellings, because I just loved the concept and the characters.

Beloved by generations, this world-famous story of the boy who could not grow up is now adapted as a major motion picture from Universal Pictures, scheduled for nationwide release on Christmas Day, 2003. Reissue.

Ana Matti

I was actually disappointed when I read this book. I thought Peter would be the Peter Disney perceived but no. Disney totally has a different perspective on Peter's character from the book. The Peter Pan in JM Barrie's book seems to me a bit more sinister than what Disney portrayed. 

But in any case it was actually a good book. Every kid dreams of never growing up and that's exactly what Barrie has created. Even I dream of never growing up but alas, we all have to. A great book about growing up, first kisses, family and a mother's undying love for her children

Cristina

Inga Kühn 

"After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but will never afterwards be quite the same boy." 

Dieses Buch ist wo wunderschön! Die Geschichte erscheint nun, nachdem ich Lost Boy von Christina Henry gelesen habe und etwas Zeit zwischen dem letzten Lesen von Peter Pan vergangen ist, nicht mehr ganz so nett und unschuldig. Aber das Gefühl, dass man bekommt wenn man diesen Schreibstil liest ist wunderbar, es ist als würde man abends in eine warme Decke gekuschelt dasitzen und eine Geschichte erzählt bekommen. Das ist es definitiv wert. 

Sarah Ryan

A classic children’s book. It’s a long time since I read this but having watched the Disney version in recent years with my kids I’m amazed at how much a poorer version it is … in the book girls are seen as cleverer than boys and should be waited on, they’re also far too intelligible fall out of their prams which is why there are no lost girls (far cry from Disney’s sexism!). Tinker Bell frequently calls Peter an ass and the narrator calls the children heartless brats for leaving home & their parents. Much more entertaining!

Peter Pan

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