Peter Pan Borders Classics (U)

When J.M. Barrie was six, his fourteen-year-old brother David died in a skating accident. His distraught mother took comfort in the thought that by dying young, David would, at least, always remain a boy. This may have been the germ of Peter Pan.The story of the boy who wouldn't grow up began as a play produced on December 27, 1904. A smashing success from the first, it has remained a holiday staple in England ever since. Barrie expanded the story in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), and novelized the play as Peter and Wendy (1911). Both of these works, along with a later short story, are included here, making this the most complete edition available of the Peter Pan saga.Like the best children's literature, Peter Pan has an edge to it; certainly, Peter's namesake is one of the edgier Greek gods. An analogy with Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland may be instructive: Both authors had trouble with adult relationships and interacted best with children, and both created complex child characters who survive adult-sized trials. And both Alice and Peter will live forever.