Peter Pan (1911)

Meh. This barely gets 2 stars--only for the gleefully inappropriate content like the mention of fairie orgies that wouldn't fly in today's kids lit. But the racism and sexism. Woof. ( )

Excellent book for both children and adults. Originally published in 1911 as *Peter and Wendy*, it depicts Peter Pan, "the boy who wouldn't grow up", as a mischievous half-human child, half-fairy who never had parents and who never remembers. His fairy companion Tinker Bell isn't as nice as depicted in Disney. More anon... ( )

Curioso ritrovar in molti dei racconti che vengono comunemente ritenuti adatti ai più piccoli spunti di riflessione che farebbero invidia a molti dei romanzi considerati per "adulti". Ed è lo stesso con questa storia delicata, che non solo riporta ai dolci sogni dell'infanzia, ma sembra anche rammentar a ognuno di noi l'importanza di mantener, nel proprio animo, se non proprio un cuore bambino, almeno la capacità di meravigliarsi, stupirsi, ridere, vedere il mondo oltre le sterili sovrastrutture che noi stessi gli abbiamo imposto. ( )

I have a lot of feelings for this book and have since the first time I read it. I love the way it’s written but I like it best because it’s so bizarrely melancholy and sad. As a kid who liked sad stories, I loved the inherent tragedy of Peter Pan. As an adult who likes sad stories slightly less, I like this book slightly less (and, yes, I find it much more racist than I remembered it being) but I still love that strange, tragical element that makes up so much of the story. Peter Pan is fucking sad. This magical kid kills people, has horrible nightmares all the time, and forgets everybody he ever loved as soon as they’re out of his life. I think Barrie must have been a sad guy. ( )

After my disappointment with the small version of this book that I read earlier this month, choosing to read another version could have ended even more badly, but thankfully the extra-large print size of this copy saved it from being another failure. The lack of a full text for the Peter Pan story is still an issue for me, so there's no way that this can earn a top rating, but the print quality is a lot better in this version. The larger format also helps, because we see a lot more of each painting's details and the bright colours really pop. I wish that they had maybe done the deluxe clothbound version in this size (like they did for Hildebrandt's version of Alice in Wonderland), but considering that I keep finding more versions of this book I can live in hope! ( )