Peter and Wendy

by J.M. Barrie

There never was a simpler happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.

Here we go again, and I'm never getting over this story <3

Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time.

This pretty much just explains my own mind even now

with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose.

J.M Barrie your descriptions are an absolute treasure

On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We, too, have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.

I'm in tears :')

Occasionally in her travels through her children’s minds Mrs. Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter.

Him <3

There were odd stories about him; as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. She had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and full of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person.

Oh this is so much more beautiful and sad when thinking about the backstory behind this novel 😭

just the sort of idea a dog would have.

And people say classics aren't funny

He did not alarm her, for she thought she had seen him before in the faces of many women who have no children. Perhaps he is to be found in the faces of some mothers also.

Ouch </3

He was a lovely boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees; but the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all his first teeth.

The idea ofskeleton leaves as clothing still just amazes me so much, how incredibly beautiful

it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole tone of the house.

British problems

there was something in the right-hand corner of her mouth that wanted her not to call Peter names.

The kiss y'all—stop my heart can't take this

Nana wagged her tail, ran to the medicine, and began lapping it. Then she gave Mr. Darling such a look, not an angry look: she showed him the great red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs, and crept into her kennel.

OH POOR SWEET THING :(

Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever.

I might just cry forever over the beauty of this book

“I was crying because I can’t get my shadow to stick on. Besides, I wasn’t crying.”

PETER YOU TWAT I love you

“Oh, I shan’t cry,” said Peter, who was already of opinion that he had never cried in his life.

I love how this book is just 90% Peter Pan being the cockiest boy that has ever lived

“How clever I am,” he crowed rapturously, “oh, the cleverness of me!”

There he goes again

“Wendy,” he continued, in a voice that no woman has ever yet been able to resist, “Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys.”

Facts

“I don’t want ever to be a man,” he said with passion. “I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the fairies.”

This is literally my dream too, Peter. Unfortunately, much to my dismay, I have already grown up, and don't live near Kensington gardens.

“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”

J.M Barrie can I marry your mind please and thank you

No one could ever look quite so merry as Peter, and the loveliest of gurgles was his laugh. He had his first laugh still.

The idea of the laugh of a child being so much lovelier because it's so much more innocent and pure and comes from a place of true joy is the saddest and most wonderful thing

“You just think lovely wonderful thoughts,” Peter explained, “and they lift you up in the air.”

I know he was teasing them here, but I have always loved to take this line as a metaphor for how your thoughts control how you feel.

“Second to the right, and straight on till morning.”

<3

there was always the possibility that the next time you fell he would let you go.

I feel like this alludes to the end of the book and also how Peter lets people go once they grow up... now I'm sad

Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.

This honestly sounds like it would be so much more manageable

They were going round and round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the same rate.

Peter Pan is a literal comedy

Let us pretend to lie here among the sugar-cane and watch them as they steal by in single file, each with his hand on his dagger.

I love how the author includes himself and us as part of the story... people just don't do this anymore??

As time wore on did she think much about the beloved parents she had left behind her?

:')

By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense. What was the colour of Mother’s eyes, and so on. Wendy, you see, had been forgetting, too.

This is so heartbreaking </3

Which of these adventures shall we choose? The best way will be to toss for it.

I love Barrie's narration style so so much!!!