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The Inconsiderate Waiter
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (1860 – 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland but moved to London, where he wrote a number of successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (included in The Little White Bird), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. Although he continued to write successfully, Peter Pan overshadowed his other work, and is credited with popularising the then-uncommon name Wendy. Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents.
46 pages, Paperback
First published March 29, 2001
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About the author
J.M. Barrie
2,384 books2,232 followersJames Matthew Barrie was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays.
The son of a weaver, Barrie studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism for a newspaper in Nottingham and contributed to various London journals before moving there in 1885. His early Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889) contain fictional sketches of Scottish life representative of the Kailyard school. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next decade, Barrie continued to write novels, but gradually, his interest turned towards the theatre.
In London, he met Llewelyn Davies, who inspired him about magical adventures of a baby boy in gardens of Kensington, included in The Little White Bird, then to a "fairy play" about this ageless adventures of an ordinary girl, named Wendy, in the setting of Neverland. People credited this best-known play with popularizing Wendy, the previously very unpopular name, and quickly overshadowed his previous, and he continued successfully.
Following the deaths of their parents, Barrie unofficially adopted the boys. He gave the rights to great Ormond street hospital, which continues to benefit.
The son of a weaver, Barrie studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism for a newspaper in Nottingham and contributed to various London journals before moving there in 1885. His early Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889) contain fictional sketches of Scottish life representative of the Kailyard school. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next decade, Barrie continued to write novels, but gradually, his interest turned towards the theatre.
In London, he met Llewelyn Davies, who inspired him about magical adventures of a baby boy in gardens of Kensington, included in The Little White Bird, then to a "fairy play" about this ageless adventures of an ordinary girl, named Wendy, in the setting of Neverland. People credited this best-known play with popularizing Wendy, the previously very unpopular name, and quickly overshadowed his previous, and he continued successfully.
Following the deaths of their parents, Barrie unofficially adopted the boys. He gave the rights to great Ormond street hospital, which continues to benefit.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 30, 2022
The Inconsiderate Waiter is J.M. Barrie's not well known, but a brilliant and original short story. The story is told in first-person narrative by an old English gentleman who spends his days idly browsing through a gentlemen's club in London. The gentleman's entitled perspective is often hard and nauseating to read as his views are shocking, and devastating, having in mind the number of prejudices, even hate, he has toward everyone that is not in his aristocratic, rich social class. He has no respect for any person that is not in his social class and considers waiters working in the club to be an irrelevant, lower-class people, whose sole purpose in life is to attain every aristocratic need, dehumanizing them and making them objects created to serve in the world of rich.
But, the unnamed gentleman man becomes closer to a waiter named William, as the waiter's wife becomes very sick, and Willian cannot focus on the job properly as there is the child signaling the state of his wife’s health. For the gentlemen, at first, the waiter's situation is mere incommodity, and he finds the waiter is inconsiderate for burdening him on a calm, relaxing evening with real-life troubles. But as time progresses deep feelings occur in the gentleman and he becomes deeply invested in the waiter's situation, resulting in providing help to his whole family, but not being able to admit his true feeling to himself, wrapping them in a shiny paper of rationalizations.
The story perfectly encapsulates the psychological conflict that we often have, between the integrated world-views we are expected, ought to have, and our authentic emotions and instincts coming from ourselves. Sometimes, when society has a pathology that promotes, the kind, emotional, empathetic, and merciful parts of a person can be repressed. As the protagonist English gentleman of the story, I want to believe there is that part that believes that all men are valuable, even in a man that manifests all kinds of hate and prejudice.
The story also reminded me that there was/is a world where class differences were/are enormous and where Marxist theory is of great importance, even though I'm not a huge fan of it. J.M. Barrie is a brilliant author.
But, the unnamed gentleman man becomes closer to a waiter named William, as the waiter's wife becomes very sick, and Willian cannot focus on the job properly as there is the child signaling the state of his wife’s health. For the gentlemen, at first, the waiter's situation is mere incommodity, and he finds the waiter is inconsiderate for burdening him on a calm, relaxing evening with real-life troubles. But as time progresses deep feelings occur in the gentleman and he becomes deeply invested in the waiter's situation, resulting in providing help to his whole family, but not being able to admit his true feeling to himself, wrapping them in a shiny paper of rationalizations.
The story perfectly encapsulates the psychological conflict that we often have, between the integrated world-views we are expected, ought to have, and our authentic emotions and instincts coming from ourselves. Sometimes, when society has a pathology that promotes, the kind, emotional, empathetic, and merciful parts of a person can be repressed. As the protagonist English gentleman of the story, I want to believe there is that part that believes that all men are valuable, even in a man that manifests all kinds of hate and prejudice.
The story also reminded me that there was/is a world where class differences were/are enormous and where Marxist theory is of great importance, even though I'm not a huge fan of it. J.M. Barrie is a brilliant author.
December 9, 2018
A truly excellent short story. Intelligently written with a great deal of heart and a wry humour.
June 18, 2014
Class hypocrisy Vs. Conscience
How would you feel if your social position demands you to behave one way and your conscience asks you to behave in another way.? When you are so conditioned by the social norms that you fail to recognize the faults in your actions eventhough your conscience pulls you back most of the time. This is a story of a person who faces that dilemma.
His perspective is colored by the social status and culture in which he was born. His views are so conditioned that he fails to recognize even the basic human rights and needs. His thoughts of the so-called lower class of the society is so bad that he can't attribute any sort of civilization to them. This low class is represented in the story by a waiter called William.
Accidental favor or A speck of goodness.?
After reading the story,the problem that I faced was this-Whether the man helped William out of the goodness which is deep inside his heart OR whether he wanted himself to feel better by getting rid of things that cause him unease. I still haven't got a clear answer. But I guess even in the second way,you need to have goodness in heart to feel unease when you see another living being in pain.
One of the best stories I've ever read..
This is one of the best stories I've read in a long while.. I loved the analysis of human mind that's done here.. It feels good when you get to see goodness in a person one considers villain.. There is goodness in everyone,isn't it.?!
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
How would you feel if your social position demands you to behave one way and your conscience asks you to behave in another way.? When you are so conditioned by the social norms that you fail to recognize the faults in your actions eventhough your conscience pulls you back most of the time. This is a story of a person who faces that dilemma.
His perspective is colored by the social status and culture in which he was born. His views are so conditioned that he fails to recognize even the basic human rights and needs. His thoughts of the so-called lower class of the society is so bad that he can't attribute any sort of civilization to them. This low class is represented in the story by a waiter called William.
Accidental favor or A speck of goodness.?
After reading the story,the problem that I faced was this-Whether the man helped William out of the goodness which is deep inside his heart OR whether he wanted himself to feel better by getting rid of things that cause him unease. I still haven't got a clear answer. But I guess even in the second way,you need to have goodness in heart to feel unease when you see another living being in pain.
One of the best stories I've ever read..
This is one of the best stories I've read in a long while.. I loved the analysis of human mind that's done here.. It feels good when you get to see goodness in a person one considers villain.. There is goodness in everyone,isn't it.?!
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
July 29, 2021
WoW, it's a must read, it shows humanity in its weirdest forms yet the author just gets you to love his character, Wonderful.
June 20, 2014
Fantastic read! Definitely recommended to all. The story, although very short, succinctly describes class and social differences as it existed and still exists today while also stating the underlying goodness of a human being.
As I started reading the book, I had nothing my hate in my mind for the protagonist and even at the end of the story, I am not convinced that I really like him. However, at some point I have to admit that my attitude has changed from one of total animosity to a reluctant understanding and even acceptance of his own dilemma and social conditioning.
It is the beauty with which the author has portrayed the complexities of human behaviour and thinking, which has led me to this dilemma. Innate kindness or innate selfishness - are they two sides of a single coin - is the question I ask myself after reading this book. And how different is it really? What one believes to be kindness could merely be a selfish or a self centred action by another. This is what this book explains through this beautiful story. And yet after saying this, I have to pause and wonder, whether the reason behind an action, such as an act of kindness, truly matters? Does not the end justify the means? Or am I living in a realm of blind faith or worse a fool's paradise, where despite such obvious vagaries, I want to believe in the basic goodness of mankind? I think the truth lies somewhere in between and am more convinced of that after reading this book.
Do read it. It is an excellent one!
As I started reading the book, I had nothing my hate in my mind for the protagonist and even at the end of the story, I am not convinced that I really like him. However, at some point I have to admit that my attitude has changed from one of total animosity to a reluctant understanding and even acceptance of his own dilemma and social conditioning.
It is the beauty with which the author has portrayed the complexities of human behaviour and thinking, which has led me to this dilemma. Innate kindness or innate selfishness - are they two sides of a single coin - is the question I ask myself after reading this book. And how different is it really? What one believes to be kindness could merely be a selfish or a self centred action by another. This is what this book explains through this beautiful story. And yet after saying this, I have to pause and wonder, whether the reason behind an action, such as an act of kindness, truly matters? Does not the end justify the means? Or am I living in a realm of blind faith or worse a fool's paradise, where despite such obvious vagaries, I want to believe in the basic goodness of mankind? I think the truth lies somewhere in between and am more convinced of that after reading this book.
Do read it. It is an excellent one!
June 10, 2015
I have never seen a short story accomplish what this story has managed to accomplish: portraying a doubly unreliable narrator. Any reader would pick up on the fact that the narrator comes across as the worst stereotype of a snobbish aristocrat and that whatever comes out of his mouth must be taken with a pinch of salt. What evolves over the course of the story is not so much an Ebeneezer Scrooge-like redemption, but rather the bleeding through of the actual human underneath the pompous exterior. Not only is he an unreliable narrator in the routine sense, but his very unreliability is shown to be unreliable by the end of the story. It's the main conceit of the story, and it's pulled off in such a way that it makes what would seem an impossibly naïve, implausible story a genuinely moving experience, even inspiring.
It subverts some of the tropes of class satire by setting up a clear, one-dimensional antagonist only to show the cardboard cutout for what it is: a front put on by a character conforming to the expectations of his class. In the end, the story is not so much a critique of class as it is a critique of class expectations and norms, a bright-eyed affirmation of the transcendence of human nature. I've scarcely read a more delightful turn in a short story.
It subverts some of the tropes of class satire by setting up a clear, one-dimensional antagonist only to show the cardboard cutout for what it is: a front put on by a character conforming to the expectations of his class. In the end, the story is not so much a critique of class as it is a critique of class expectations and norms, a bright-eyed affirmation of the transcendence of human nature. I've scarcely read a more delightful turn in a short story.
May 21, 2017
I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:
"The past leaves its mark.
A man of propriety,
Even, feels its pull."
"The past leaves its mark.
A man of propriety,
Even, feels its pull."
September 16, 2018
Quite clever
May 23, 2021
One of the cleverest stories I’ve ever read. Recommend to everyone!
March 29, 2024
A horribly uncouth waiter assails a club member until the said club member must defend his respectability by taking distasteful measures.
October 29, 2024
skvelá poviedka
February 12, 2025
Very tightly written. Reminds me of ‘Remains of the Day’, but with a different flavour
March 1, 2025
A very different time.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews