Peter Pan Read Online Free PDF Page B

the novel does not end this way. In the final chapter Peter is not alone, and the narrator explains the importance of flights into fantasy and mothering. In fact, Wendy is the one who looks out the window in envy as her daughter Jane flies off with Peter to Neverland. The narrator tells us that Margaret, Jane’s daughter, will do the same, “and so it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.”
    As we know, children are not gay and innocent and heartless. As we know, we cannot generalize about children and childhood. But Barrie is not afraid to generalize, and he does this by creating a confident and wise narrator. The narrator speaks almost as if he were a professional child and family psychologist and knows all there is to know about children and their imaginative realms and the necessity to keep fantasy alive.
    Once he created Peter Pan, Barrie wanted his readers and viewers to keep returning to him and to all the writings about him. He did not mind the various spectacles made out of his symbolic figure, and probably would not have minded all the films and artifacts that have followed because he had fixed the story as history and commentary in
Peter and Wendy.
Ironically, Peter, who declares in the play and in the novel, “I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things…. I don’t want to be a man,” has been brought to schools beginning with an authorized school edition of the novel in 1915 (and countless school productions of the play) and is known more through adulterated versions than through the definitive edition. The imaginative spirit that Barrie created to oppose institutionalizationbecame institutionalized and commercialized throughout the twentieth century. Nevertheless, Peter Pan, like his creator, is an intrusive and unpredictable figure who keeps returning to doctor our reality and to cart away those people still willing to believe in the power of fairies.

Suggestions for Further Reading
SELECTED WORKS BY J. M. BARRIE
    Margaret Ogilvy.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1896.
    Sentimental Tommy.
London: Cassell, 1896.
    Tommy and Grizel.
London: Cassell, 1900.
    Dear Brutus.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923.
    Mary Rose.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1924.
PETER PAN WRITINGS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
    Barrie, J. M.
The Little White Bird.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1902.
    —–.
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.
Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906.
    O’Connor, Daniel S., ed.
Peter Pan Keepsake.
The story of
Peter Pan
retold from Mr. Barrie’s fantasy, foreword by W. T. Stead. London: Chatto and Windus, 1907.
    —–.
The Peter Pan Picture Book.
Illustrated by Alice B. Woodward. London: Bell, 1907.
    Herford, O.
The Peter Pan Alphabet.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1907.
    Drennan, G. D.
Peter Pan, His Book, His Pictures, His Career, His Friends.
London: Mills and Boon, 1909.
    Barrie, J. M.
Peter and Wendy.
Illustrated by F. D. Bedford. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911.
    O’Connor, Daniel S.
The Story of Peter Pan
, a reading book foruse in schools, illustrated by Alice B. Woodward. London: Bell, 1912.
    Chase, Pauline.
Peter Pan in the Real Never Never Land.
London: Horace Cox, 1913.
    Edmonstron, Maysie.
The Duke of Christmas Daisies and Other Fairy Plays.
Adapted from
The Little White Bird
of Sir J. M. Barrie. London: Wells, Gardner, Darton, 1914.
    Barrie, J. M.
Peter Pan and Wendy
, the story of
Peter Pan
extracted from
Peter Pan and Wendy
, illustrated by F. D. Bedford, authorised school edition. London: Henry Frowde, Hodder and Stoughton, 1915.
    Hassall, J.
The Peter Pan Painting Book.
London: Lawrence and Jellicoe, 1915.
    O’Connor, Daniel S.
The Story of Peter Pan for Little People
, simplified from Daniel O’Connor’s story of Sir J. M. Barrie’s fairy play, illustrated by Alice B. Woodward. London: Bell, 1919.
    Byron, May.
The Little Ones’ Peter Pan and Wendy
, retold for the nursery, illustrated by Mabel Lucie Attwell. London: