Owing to the screen size of your device, you may obtain a better viewing experience by rotating your device a quarter-turn (to get the so-called “panorama” screen view).
Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works
Science-fiction & fantasy literature: a critical list with discussions.
You can get a site directory by clicking on the “hamburger” icon () in the upper right of this page.
Or you can search this site with Google (standard Google-search rules apply).
(Be aware that “sponsored” links to other sites will appear atop the actual results.)
Search term(s):
Welcome to the Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works web site!
You have apparently come to this page from a link on a search engine or another site. If this is your first visit here, I much recommend that you take a few minutes to look over the introductory material accessible via the red “Introductory” zone of the Site Menu available from the “hamburger” icon in the upper right of this (and every) page. An understanding of the purposes and principles of organization of this site will, I hope and believe, much augment your experience here, for this page and in general. You can simply click this link to get at the site front page, which, unsurprisingly, is the best place to start. Thank you for visiting.
This is a brief discussion of J. M. Barrie and, of course, of some speculative-fiction books by Barrie.
This discussion and list does not necessarily include every book by Barrie: it includes only those books that I both know and like. Just as with the author list itself, omission of a particular item may mean I didn’t think highly enough of the omitted item, or it may simply mean that I have not yet sufficient familiarity with it. (In a very few cases, I have listed some books merely on the strength of my opinion of the author: all such books are clearly marked below, as throughout these lists, with a hash mark (#) before the title so you know what’s what.)
I don’t pretend that this discussion is a deep analysis. My intent is no more than to give you a rough idea of what kinds of tales Barrie tells, how those tales are usually told, and what makes them and Barrie worthy; in sum, to help you rank J. M. Barrie (and the works by Barrie listed here) on your personal literary “to do” list.
A Few Words About J. M. Barrie
Regrettably, I have not yet had an opportunity to write an essay on this author, but the “Other Resources” section below will lead you to some information about the “Notable Books” listed farther down this page.
Peter Pan being so stupendously well known, it is not surprising that there are numerous Barrie sites and pages. The foremost dedicated sites include ANON: the J. M. Barrie Society’s Homepage; the plainly titled site jmbarrie.co.uk; and Sir James Matthew Barrie (a site by David Skipper, who plays Barrie in a one-man stage show).
An especially interesting—if in a morbid way—aspect of Barrie’s life was explored in Piers Dudgeon’s book Captivated: The Dark Side of Never Never Land (see Resources in Print, farther below); it received various extensive reviews, with corollary comments on its subject, from (at least) Justine Picardie in the Telegraph [archived copy], Frances Wilson in The Sunday Times, Tony Rennell in the Mail, and an anonymous reviewer in The Scotsman [archived copy]. In connection with that topic, worth examining for a credible-sounding summary is Cecil Adams’ column “Was the author of Peter Pan a pedophile?”
That is not even close to an exhaustive list of even the longer online articles concerning Barrie, but I reckon it's quite enough to be going along with. For more, as always Google Is Your Friend.
There is also a curiosity, a quasi-biographical novel Kensington Gardens by Rodrigo Fresán (translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer), which sounds quite interesting—see the review Peter Pan and Paisley by “Elizabeth H” (Elizabeth Hand?) in The Washington Post.
(The link above is to the preferred-edition one-volume omnibus; the links below are to the individual books.) The character “Peter Pan” first appeared in an 1902 adult novel by Barrie titled The Little White Bird, in which Peter Pan is described in a story told to a child. In 1904, Barrie wrote the famous play, “Peter Pan”; in 1906, a prose text—like the original description but quite unlike the play—was published under the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens; in 1911, he turned the play into a book called Peter and Wendy, which is now usually just called Peter Pan and is the widely known form of the tale. As with most “children’s books”, publishers repeatedly show their veneration for a classic by chopping it up or dumbing it down, or both; don’t ask me how, or why, you “dumb down” a book meant for, and very successful with, small children—ask a publisher.)
This site is one of The Owlcroft Company family of web sites. Please click on the link (or the owl) to see a menu of our other diverse user-friendly, helpful sites.
Like all our sites, this one is hosted at the highly regarded Pair Networks, whom we strongly recommend—click the link to learn more. (To get 20% off on hosting fees if you move to Pair, use code pairref-FyXypEEk)
(Note: All Owlcroft systems run on Ubuntu Linux and we heartily recommend it to everyone—click on the link for more information).
) in the upper right of this page.
