2021 October: The Sword in the Stone/Peter Pan

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

We have two magical books for our reads during this Halloween month.
The first is Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.

The other is The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White.

And both have Disney versions.
If you have a chance to read either book, you'll see how true they were to the book.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I'm going to read The Sword in the Stone since I've already read Peter Pan.

[Annette]

I read Peter Pan not too long ago. My going-in opinion was tainted by the Disney movie. I look forward to seeing the comments.

It has been a long time since I read The Sword in the Stone- long, long before GoodReads. I liked it then; maybe I’ll be able to squeeze in a reread.

[Book Nerd, Purple Book Horse]

Old books can be so weird by todays standards. (view spoiler)[Let's poison the dog! That'll be a riot! (hide spoiler)]

[Georgina]

I’m reading The Sword in the Stone, but as usual I’ve tried to squeeze to many in this month so I’m running behind! I have to admit to loving the Disney version of this, but I’m finding the book a little disjointed and hard to get into. It seems more a collection of stories about Warts adventures rather than one continuous story. I am enjoying it, but I keep losing focus.
Also in my kindle copy there’s a chapter about Wart transforming into an ant, but in the audiobook (I switched to try to catch up) he turns into a snake instead. Does anyone know why these chapters would differ from one version to the other?

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I didn't get a chance to read The Sword in the Stone.
Can any of our members answer Georgina's question?

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

I haven’t read Sword in the Stone yet. I read Peter Pan a year or two ago and was disturbed. The original story is much darker than the Disney movie.

[Mike]

I read Peter Pan in January and was taken by how melodic the writing was, prose that read like verse. It wasn't sustained throughout, but I noticed it in a few lengthy passages early on but I think it's occurences become infrequent if not absent by the end.

I was surprised by the darker elements too, but all credit to Disney who certainly did a good job brightening the story up, much like their adaptations of Grimm fairy tales. Personally I prefer the darker versions!

I read The Sword in the Stone when I was younger as part of The Once and Future King but I suspect what I remember is largely from the Disney adapation, especially as I watched it recently with my children. The copy I read was my father's from when he was a teen and is now being read by my teenage daughter. A well loved & read copy!

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I prefer the darker versions of the fairy tales. I was born in Germany and lived there until I was six, when my parents emigated to Canada.
I just took the darker elements for granted, except for the big, bad wolf-but he got what was coming to him.

[Jay]

I've read Peter Pan a few months back and was also quite taken aback by how dark it was. I definitely find the character Peter Pan himself thoroughly unpleasant. He was immature, selfish, and egoistic. I didn't like the tone of the ending, as well as Wendy's daughter continuing to slave after him.