LITERARY GENIUS

Since its introduction in 1904, Peter Pan has come to symbolize childhood innocence and the desire to remain forever young. It is based on the stories told by author J.M. Barrie to the sons of his friend Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies. Barrie got the name for his protagonist from two sources: Peter, the name of one of Sylvia’s sons, and Pan, the mischievous Greek god of the woodlands.
       An account of Barrie’s relation with Sylvia and the creation of his opus magnum may be found in J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys: The Love Story That Gave Birth to Peter Pan, by Andrew Birkin. According to Birkin, Barrie first met Sylvia in Kensington Gardens, a park near his London home. He was a regular favorite of the children who were taken there by their nannies, and it was here that he first entertained the five Llewelyn-Davies children with his stories of pirates and faeries. These stories formed the basis for Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. The play was an enormous success in both the United States and Great Britain.
       Barrie later wrote a novel based on the play and titled it Peter And Wendy. It is this version of the story (today simply entitled Peter Pan) that is best known to readers. Following is an excerpt from this novel. The Darlings have left for a dinner party up the street, and the children have just gone to bed.

FROM PETER PAN
by J.M. Barrie

Chapter 3 – Come Away! Come Away!

       For a moment after Mr. and Mrs. Darling left the house the night-lights by the beds of the three children continued to burn clearly. They were awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wishing that they could have kept awake to see Peter; but Wendy's light blinked and gave such a yawn that the other two yawned also, and before they could close their mouths all the three went out.
       There was another light in the room now, a thousand times brighter than the night-lights, and in the time we have taken to say this, it had been in all the drawers in the nursery, looking for Peter's shadow, rummaged the wardrobe and turned every pocket inside out. It was not really a light; it made this light by flashing about so quickly, but when it came to rest for a second you saw it was a fairy, no longer than your hand, but still growing. It was a girl called Tinker Bell exquisitely gowned in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could be seen to the best advantage. She was slightly inclined to embonpoint.
       A moment after the fairy's entrance the window was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in. He had carried Tinker Bell part of the way, and his hand was still messy with the fairy dust.
       “Tinker Bell,” he called softly, after making sure that the children were asleep, “Tink, where are you?” She was in a jug for the moment, and liking it extremely; she had never been in a jug before.
       “Oh, do come out of that jug, and tell me, do you know where they put my shadow?”
       The loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him. It is the fairy language. You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to hear it you would know that you had heard it once before.
       Tink said that the shadow was in the big box. She meant the chest of drawers, and Peter jumped at the drawers, scattering their contents to the floor with both hands, as kings toss ha'pence to the crowd. In a moment he had recovered his shadow, and in his delight he forgot that he had shut Tinker Bell up in the drawer.
       If he thought at all, but I don't believe he ever thought, it was that he and his shadow, when brought near each other, would join like drops of water, and when they did not he was appalled. He tried to stick it on with soap from the bathroom, but that also failed. A shudder passed through Peter, and he sat on the floor and cried.
       His sobs woke Wendy, and she sat up in bed. She was not alarmed to see a stranger crying on the nursery floor; she was only pleasantly interested.
       “Boy,” she said courteously, “why are you crying?”
       Peter could be exceeding polite also, having learned the grand manner at fairy ceremonies, and he rose and bowed to her beautifully. She was much pleased, and bowed beautifully to him from the bed.