chanelearl 's review for:

Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie

5.0

---

I remember wanting to read this book when I was a kid and thinking it was too long for me. When I finally read it, I thought it was actually pretty short. I was impressed with how faithful most of the plays and movies were to the original. One thing that was certainly changed was the violence. At one point in this book Peter Pan is killing pirates and the lost boys are counting how many he kills (I think he ends up with 15 or 16 kills). Another thing that is often lost in adaptations is the humor of the narrator, who says interesting and funny things all the time. I really liked his descriptions of Smee (who cleans his spectacles after killing instead of his weapon), and his declaration that "some like Peter and some like Wendy, but I like [Mrs. Darling] best of all." The parents are more developed in the book than in any adaptation I have ever seen.

The thing that surprised me the most about this book was the character of Peter himself. I haven't ever understood him fully. He isn't really a hero, although he is heroic at times. He has "good form," but he is selfish, conceited, forgetful and capricious. He completely forgets tinker bell ever existed, and has no lasting interest in anybody other than himself. I always saw him as a more caring and friendly character, but really, he is a small child and hasn't developed the necessary attributes of a true hero. It was interesting to be confronted with a favorite character who is so different than I had previously understood.