Peter Pan (Aladdin Classics) by J. M. Barrie Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Peter Pan (Aladdin Classics)
Book Review: www.freewebs.com/hlgstrider
Summary: 3 Stars
I am not sure if Peter Pan is well written. I am not sure if I could diagram the plot. I am sure I would never have written that story the way Barrie wrote it . . . which is why only Barrie could write Peter Pan. Only Barrie could break literary rules and plot conventions so well to create something so timeless.
Peter Pan is in no way real, but the fantasy of it is in some ways everyone's fantasy. Barries seems to have been every child. He understands them, heartless, beautiful creatures that they are. He knows that Neverland is not always very good and it can be very frightening. It is that place right before we fall asleep that mothers try to soften with night lights, but that can be all too harsh when we are left alone with Captain James Cook, the scurvy dog who is never more sinister than when he is polite.
Barrie is the guardian of children's dreams. His work should never be forgotten.
Book Review: sad, beautiful story
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is all about imagination. I agree that it's really for adults, although not bad for kids. That's because kids are still there, in Neverland, and can't get the point! An important theme in the story itself is just that: the generation gap. This story has layers of symbolism, and nothing is there for its own sake. The most charming, lovely, bittersweet story ever!Book Review: I am youth, I am joy!
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Pan is classic tale of youth and the joy it brings. It is also the tale of the dangers of being too grown up and living life far too seriously.
The Peter Pan you are used to from The Disney Company is not what you find in this classic From J.M. Barrie. I was surprised to find a lot of death and killing in this book, but I suppose Disney had to filter that to younger viewers. I really enjoyed this book and took up reading it because my son was on a Peter Pan kick and I wanted to know as much as I could about him.
Basically, Peter was a boy just like any other but he gave up growing up and decided to remain youthful forever. He is quite conceited and at times down right hateful and selfish, but then again what young person doesn't act this way. At first, I found I disliked Peter and the way he acted. He was too carefree and was only focused on himself, but then I realized that was who and what he represented. Life is a singular event and can only be lived moment by moment. We forget that when we become "grown up" and this book helps us to remember far better and less worrisome days.
Peter Pan is a delightful read and the characters are classics never forgotten. Peter, Captain Hook, Wendy, Mr. Smee, John, Michael, the Lost Boys, and the infamous Alligator live in between these sentences and will forever haunt your soul far after the last page and sentence are absorbed. Read this book and feel young again.
Book Review: The book and the movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book, but I have to admit that I watched the newest 'Peter Pan' movie, starring Jeremy Sumpter, before I actually read the classic. Although the movie including many exact or related lines right from the novel and most of the same major scenes, I found that, in the movie, there was that 'puppy-love glow' between Peter and Wendy that just made the storyline so much more interesting and sweet. The novel does show some sense of that, but not as much as the movie. The whole idea that Peter tries to hide his feelings for Wendy yet act completely irrisistable at the same time...or at the end when Peter and Hook are fighting and Hook makes him realize that he is incomplete and so on. How the movie focuses on 'feelings' in the individual stages of childhood, youth, and adulthood are most interesting and are well demonstrating in the movie. Now, I love this book very much, but I suppose I was a little disappointed when it did not include such things.Book Review: All gay and innocent and heartless
Summary: 4 Stars
It doesn't surprise me particularly that the book "Peter Pan" (or, as it was originally titled, "Peter Pan and Wendy") is not read very often by children. Today kids have their Peter Pan animated movies, live action movies, television shows (of which the less said the better), musicals, stage plays, and what have you. There are a million different versions of the story out there, so it's no wonder the children feel that they don't need to read the original tale. I myself read it for the first time just now at the ancient age of 26, though I had been warned away from it many times. I knew about its more peculiar aspects (for example, that whole business involving Mrs. Darling's "kiss") so these didn't always shock or surprise me. They just weirded me out from time to time. What really did catch me unawares though was the wit in the book. This tale has its peculiarities, no question. But it also has amazing snatches of excellent writing. I just wish it had more of the latter and less of the former.
As every good schoolchild knows (or is liable to learn from Disney) Peter Pan is the boy who does not age. Living in Neverland, a kind of ageless fantasy-burg for kids, he is attended by the silly Tinkerbell, a fairy prone to continually shouting, "You silly ass". When Peter looses his shadow in the home of the Darling family, he meets Wendy for the first time. Wendy is entranced by Peter and with the promise of stories he agrees to take her and her brothers Michael and John with him to Neverland. While there, the kids encounter mermaids, pirates, Indians, and great swashbuckling adventures. They meet the Lost Boys and come face to face with the dreaded Captain Hook. But in the end everyone must grow up. Everyone, that is, but Peter Pan.
INTERESTING FACTS THEY NEVER TELL YOU ABOUT THE BOOK "PETER PAN":
1. Smee is declared to be the only Nonconformist in Hook's crew.
2. The fairies will occasionally stumble, "home from an orgy".
3. Tinker Bell is prone to wearing a negligee.
4. Hook attended private school and is said to bear a resemblance in his manner and dress to Charles II.
5. Peter Pan is an awful bore.
Readers of "Peter Pan" have to face up to several indisputable facts when perusing the tale. First of all, Peter's not that great a guy. I mean, it's a lot of fun to swoop around fighting bad guys and playing around all the time, but Peter's got a nasty streak about him. He's conceited and cruel (laughing when Wendy's brothers plunge out of the sky to their near deaths time and time again). He hates mothers as a rule and even goes so far as to try to trick Wendy into thinking her mother has forgotten her (though he repents at the last minute). He forgets anyone who loves him and is a combination of the worst aspects of all children. This isn't to say that his book doesn't make for interesting reading. I mean, it's not hard to work your way through "Peter Pan" and it has a lot of rewards. Barrie has an odd habit of sometimes getting wrapped up in his own peculiar thoughts for a moment before rushing back to the story in a hurry. The book is thoroughly English, containing such sentences as, "children at play are for ever beaching their coracles". Decipherable, but odd. If it weren't for statements like the ones about Mrs. Darling's kiss (creepy city) it would be an idea book. To my mind, it could stand a thorough editing job. As an author Barrie doesn't really seem sure as to who he's rooting for. One moment he's cruelly mocking Mrs. Darling and the next he's calling the children, "heartless" for leaving her in the first place.
No one familiar with the peculiarities of J.M. Barrie's personal life should be surprised by the book's moral. Mainly, that growing up is bad. This is the kind of moral kids like to hear and grown-ups, who idealize children in unhealthy ways, think is good. J.M. Barrie was perfectly aware of the cruelty of kids, but seemed to think it a good thing. When Wendy, her brothers, and the Lost Boys grow up it's written as a tragedy of epic proportions. For a healthier view of maturity, check out Madeline L'Engle's, "A Wind In the Door". Aside from its moral, however, "Peter Pan" is definitely a classic. It has influenced countless people around the globe for roughly a century. It has become a part of our culture and is vastly adored. I cannot love it wholly because I feel that it is a flawed novel. Nonetheless, I give credit where credit is due and say that it is one of the necessary books to read in the English language. If you have not familiarized yourself with it yet then you are denying yourself access to an important work. Lord, it isn't great, but it's well written and interesting. Few books can say as much.
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