Negative Space: J. M. Barrie
- Art Thou Afraid His Power Shall Fail?
- For years I had been trying to prepare myself for my mother’s death, trying to foresee how she would die, seeing myself when she was dead. Even then I knew it was a vain thing I did, but I am sure…
- Barbara
- When Oliver disappeared from the life of the Gardens we had lofted him out of the story, and did very well without him, extending our operations to the mainland, where they were on so vast a scale…
- A Confirmed Spinster
- So long a time has elapsed, you must know, since I abated of the ardours of self-inquiry that I revert in vain (through many rusty doors) for the beginning of this change in me, if changed I am; I…
- The Cricket Match
- David wanted to play on a pitch near the Round Pond with which he is familiar, but this would have placed me at a disadvantage, so I insisted on unaccustomed ground, and we finally pitched stumps in…
- David and I Set Forth Upon a Journey
- “Come this time, father,” he urged lately, “for it is her birthday, and she is twenty-six,” which is so great an age to David, that I think he fears she cannot last much longer.
- David and Porthos Compared
- “Dear Madam [I wrote]: It has come to my knowledge that when you walk in the Gardens with the boy David you listen avidly for encomiums of him and of your fanciful dressing of him by passers-by,…
- A Day Of Her Life
- I should like to call back a day of her life as it was at this time, when her spirit was as bright as ever and her hand as eager, but she was no longer able to do much work. It should not be…
- The Dedication
- “Madam” (I wrote wittily), “I have no desire to exult over you, yet I should show a lamentable obtuseness to the irony of things were I not to dedicate this little work to you. For its…
- An Editor
- A devout lady, to whom some friend had presented one of my books, used to say when asked how she was getting on with it, ‘Sal, it’s dreary, weary, uphill work, but I’ve wrastled through with…
- The Fight for Timothy
- I have the acquaintance of a deliciously pretty girl, who is always sulky, and the thoughtless beseech her to be bright, not witting wherein lies her heroism. She was born the merriest of maids, but,…
- A Fistful of Barrie
- Peter Pan and other works of J. M. Barrie combined into one file for use on a portable device.
- The Grand Tour of the Gardens
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The Gardens are bounded on one side by a never-ending line of omnibuses, over which Irene has such authority that if she holds up her finger to any one of them it stops immediately. She then crosses…
- Her Maid Of All Work
- And sometimes I was her maid of all work.
- Her Marriage, Her Clothes, Her Appetite, and an Inventory of Her Furniture
- So they were to be married directly. It was all rather contemptible, but I passed on tolerantly, for it is only when she is unhappy that this woman disturbs me, owing to a clever way she has at such…
- How My Mother Got Her Soft Face
- On the day I was born we bought six hair-bottomed chairs, and in our little house it was an event, the first great victory in a woman’s long campaign; how they had been laboured for, the pound-…
- The Inconsiderate Waiter
- I date his lapse from one evening when I was dining by the window. I had to repeat my order “Devilled kidney,” and instead of answering brightly, “Yes, sir,” as if my selection of devilled…
- An Interloper
- The adventure began with David’s coming to me at the unwonted hour of six P.M., carrying what looked like a packet of sandwiches, but proved to be his requisites for the night done up in a neat…
- J. M. Barrie
- J.M. Barrie’s “Peter and Wendy”, “Margaret Ogilvy”, and “The Little White Bird”.
- Joey
- So I took David to the pantomime, and I hope you follow my reasoning, for I don’t. He went with the fairest anticipations, pausing on the threshold to peer through the hole in the little house…
- The Last of Timothy
- He asked compassionately if there was anything he could do for me, and, of course, there was something he could do, but were I to propose it I doubted not he would be on his stilts at once, for…
- The Little House
- In a kind of way every one may see it, but what you see is not really it, but only the light in the windows. You see the light after Lock-out Time. David, for instance, saw it quite distinctly far…
- The Little Nursery Governess
- While I am lifting the coffee-pot cautiously lest the lid fall into the cup, she is crossing to the post-office; as I select the one suitable lump of sugar she is taking six last looks at the letter;…
- The Little White Bird
- An earlier work of Barrie’s that also involves Peter Pan and Kensington Gardens. Less sarcastic than Peter and Wendy.
- Lock-out Time
- When you were a bird you knew the fairies pretty well, and you remember a good deal about them in your babyhood, which it is a great pity you can’t write down, for gradually you forget, and I have…
- Margaret Ogilvy
- J.M. Barrie reminisces about his mother, in typical Barrie fashion.
- My Heroine.
- When it was known that I had begun another story my mother might ask what it was to be about this time.
- A Night-Piece
- He slouches from the house, always her true lover I do believe, chivalrous, brave, a boy until to-night; but was he ever unkind to her? It is the unpardonable sin now; is there the memory of an…
- A Panic In The House
- I was sitting at my desk in London when a telegram came announcing that my mother was again dangerously ill, and I seized my hat and hurried to the station. It is not a memory of one night only. A…
- Peter and Wendy
- “Peter and Wendy” is the novel form of J. M. Barrie’s wonderful play, “Peter Pan”.
- Peter Pan
- Of course, it also shows that Peter is ever so old, but he is really always the same age, so that does not matter in the least. His age is one week, and though he was born so long ago he has never…
- Peter’s Goat
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“I hope you have had a good night,” he said earnestly.
- Pilkington’s
- Where the girls go to I know not, to some private place, I suppose, to put up their hair, but the boys have gone to Pilkington’s. He is a man with a cane. You may not go to Pilkington’s in…
- The Pleasantest Club in London
- Not, however, that you will see David in his perambulator much longer, for soon after I first shook his faith in his mother, it came to him to be up and doing, and he up and did in the Broad Walk…
- R. L. S.
- These familiar initials are, I suppose, the best beloved in recent literature, certainly they are the sweetest to me, but there was a time when my mother could not abide them. She said ‘That…
- The Runaway Perambulator
- “He says tick-tack to the clock,” Irene said, trying to snare me.
- A Shock
- No sooner was she hid from him than she changed into another woman; she was now become a calculating purposeful madam, who looked around her covertly and, having shrunk in size in order to appear…
- Sporting Reflections
- Why did I not think of this in time? Was it because I must ever remain true to the unattainable she?
- The Thrush’s Nest
- It reached the island at night; and the look-out brought it to Solomon Caw, who thought at first that it was the usual thing, a message from a lady, saying she would be obliged if he could let her…
- What I Should Be
- My mother was a great reader, and with ten minutes to spare before the starch was ready would begin the ‘Decline and Fall’ - and finish it, too, that winter. Foreign words in the text annoyed her…
- What She Had Been
- What she had been, what I should be, these were the two great subjects between us in my boyhood, and while we discussed the one we were deciding the other, though neither of us knew it.
- William Paterson
- Fairy me tribber is what you say to the fairies when you want them to give you a cup of tea, but it is not so easy as it looks, for all the r’s should be pronounced as w’s, and I forget this so…
More Information
- J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys• (paperback)
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This is a fascinating collection of documents and historical bits about J. M. Barrie, his failed marriage, and his guardianship of the five Llewelyn Davies boys (who formed the inspiration for the Lost Boys). It includes quotes from letters from the boys to Barrie as they grew up, went to public school, and later to war. It’s an inspiring book. (Andrew Birkin)
