When a Man's Single

by J.M. Barrie

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (1860-1937) was a Scottish novelist and dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, though he penned numerous other plays and novels.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, British Literature

306 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

James 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.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both VS Pritchett and HG Wells credit this book for teaching them how to write. A clever journalist explains to a newcomer how to write articles:

You beginners seem able to write nothing but your views on politics, and your reflections on art, and your theories of life, which you sometimes even think original. Editors won't have that because their readers don't want it. Every paper has its regular staff of leader-writers, and what is wanted from the outside is freshness. An editor tosses aside your column and a half about evolution, but is glad to have a paragraph saying that you saw Herbert Spencer the day before yesterday gazing solemnly for ten minutes in at a milliner's window. Fleet Street at this moment is simply running with men who want to air their views about things in general.'
'I suppose so,' said Rob dolefully.
'Yes, and each thinks himself as original as he is profound, though they have only to meet to discover that they repeat each other. The pity of it is, that all of them could get on to some extent if they would send in what is wanted. There is copy in every man you meet, and, as a journalist on this stair says, when you do meet him you feel inclined to tear it out of him and use it yourself.'
'What sort of copy?' asked Rob.
'They should write of the things they have seen. Newspaper readers have an insatiable appetite for knowing how that part of the world lives with which they are not familiar. They want to know how the Norwegians cook their dinners and build their houses, and ask each other in marriage.'
'But I have never been out of Britain.'
'Neither was Shakspeare. There are thousands of articles in Scotland yet. You must know a good deal about the Scottish weavers—well, there are articles in them. Describe the daily life of a gillie: "The Gillie at Home" is a promising title. Were you ever snowed up in your saw-mill? Whether you were or not, there is a seasonable subject for January. "Yule in a Scottish Village" also sounds well, and there is a safe article in a Highland gathering.'

[OValentyna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Для мене у цієї книги є рівно два плюси:
- я запам’ятаю імʼя автора Пітера Пена
- вона коротка.

В іншому - це сумбурний роман то про одне то про інше, в якому маленьку дівчинку вбивають просто, щоб її дядько поїхав в місто і зробив карʼєру, а ми ніколи не дізнались, що сталось.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of the book resembles and is similar in plot to Martin Eden, although it was written decades earlier: falling in love with a wealthy girl, aspiring to become a writer or journalist, and certain difficulties faced by the main character.
The story is beautifully and skillfully written, showing the worlds of different characters and their thoughts and experiences. It is quite full of various unexpected plot twists, so the tension is maintained until the end and you do not know exactly how everything will end. A lot of funny moments and irony about the contemporary world order, secular rules and the relationship between a man and a woman, which makes it very easy to read.
The differences between the Scots and the English and a bit of their life in a small town in Scotland are wonderfully described.
A good story to relax and distract from thoughts!