Classic Starts (R): Peter Pan - Hardcover

Barrie, J. M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1402754213 ISBN 13: 9781402754210

Publisher: Sterling, 2009

Synopsis

"All children grow up. All except one." That special child is Peter Pan, and since making his debut on the stage in 1904, this eternal youth has carried boys and girls off to magical, marvelous Neverland. It's a trip that all kids want to make, and with this easy-to-read version of the classic, everyone can fly "second to the right, and straight on

About this title

Review

Though not the first novel she wrote, Sense and Sensibility was the first Jane Austen published. Though she initially called it Elinor and Marianne, Austen jettisoned both the title and the epistolary mode in which it was originally written, but kept the essential theme: the necessity of finding a workable middle ground between passion and reason. The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic--a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion. Commenting on Edward Ferrars, a potential suitor for Elinor's hand, Marianne admits that while she "loves him tenderly", she finds him disappointing as a possible lover for her sister:

Oh! Mama, how spiritless, how tame was Edward's manner in reading to us last night! I felt for my sister most severely. Yet she bore it with so much composure, she seemed scarcely to notice it. I could hardly keep my seat. To hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild, pronounced with such impenetrable calmness, such dreadful indifference!

Soon, however, Marianne meets a man who measures up to her ideal: Mr Willoughby, a new neighbour. So swept away by passion is Marianne that her behaviour begins to border on the scandalous. Then Willoughby abandons her; meanwhile, Elinor's growing affection for Edward suffers a check when he admits he is secretly engaged to a childhood sweetheart. misfortunes and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending forms the heart of the novel. Though Marianne's disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure. -- Alix Wilber, Amazon.com

Review

"A unique achievement—the bringing together of Barrie's various and scattered Peter Pan texts within a single volume. As such it is an absolute gift to Peter Pan devotees, containing as it does much material that is otherwise unavailable to the general reader. An added bonus is the inclusion of numerous contemporary reviews for both the play of 1904 and the later novelization of 1911." - Andrew Birkin, author of J.M. Barrie and The Lost Boys

"This edition of Peter Pan is an exemplary work of scholarship, giving us not only the 1911 edition of the full novelization of this much edited and reproduced story, but also the 1904 slim pantomime version never before published, An Afterthought (1908), and the 1906 novella Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. The reader has in this edition a thorough exposure to this complicated text. Alton has chosen the Appendices carefully and wisely. Her Introduction meticulously covers the complicated history of the writing, editing, performing, and publishing of this famous story. And she provides us with a review of the major critical responses to the story. This edition of Peter Pan is simply the best we have." - Roderick McGillis, The University of Calgary

Edition details

• Publisher: Sterling
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402754213
• ISBN 13: 9781402754210
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Andreasen Dan
• Number of pages: 160