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    Peter Pan
    Peter Pan
    Peter Pan
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    Peter Pan

    Written by James Matthew Barrie

    Narrated by Samuel West

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    "I’m youth, I’m joy… I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg." The story of the little boy who refused to grow up has captured the imagination of generations of children (and the adults they grew into) since its publication in 1904. Peter Pan flies in through the bedroom window one night and teaches Wendy, John and Michael to fly. He lures them away from their home and parents and takes them away to endless adventures in the magical Neverland, where they meet the wicked captain Hook and a host of other characters. Funny, charming, touching and incisively observant as to the ways of children and adults, Peter Pan is an unforgettable story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateOct 1, 1996
    ISBN9789629543808
    Author

    James Matthew Barrie

    J.M. Barrie, the son of a weaver, was born near Dundee, Scotland, in 1860. He was a journalist and novelist and began writing for the stage in 1892. Peter Pan, first produced in London on December 27, 1904, was an immediate success. The story of Peter Pan first appeared in book form (titled Peter and Wendy, and later Peter Pan and Wendy) in 1911. Barrie died in 1937, bequeathing the copyright of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, a hospital for children.

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    Reviews for Peter Pan

    4/5

    166 ratings134 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Somethingh about Victorian novelists - they come up with great idea but execute them terribly - Peter Pan and Dracula are two iconic figures that are virtually unreadable in the original
    • 4/5
      I re-read this recently, and it was actually much better than I'd remembered from my childhood.
    • 2/5
      Loved this as a child! I wanted to fly so much I was afraid to look over high bridges for fear I would jump off.
    • 4/5
      I've always loved the story of Peter Pan and finally got around to reading the book. I think that it brought out the character of Peter more than I was used to and I really enjoyed that.
    • 4/5
      The story of a three children who travel to Nederland with Peter Pan, the boy who won’t grow up. They go on to have some amazing adventures. This is such an amazing adventure that I’ll personally recommend for advanced readers.
    • 4/5
      reminding me once again what it means to be a child - innocent, imaginative, and vile all rolled into one. It also confirmed why the ending to Hook is probably the most tragic ending to a movie EVER.
    • 4/5
      I adore books full of whimsy and charming turns of phrase on every page, so for the most part, I greatly enjoyed Peter Pan. I think the book hooked me when Barrie explained Neverland as an imaginary map visible to children until adult landmarks gradually overlap the map, leaving Neverland and its wonders forgotten. It’s such a beautiful cartographic metaphor for childhood, and from that point on, I was invested in Barrie’s ruminations on growing up and what children need (basically, they need moms), despite some boring parts and sexist qualms.

      As for the low points, and I recall this same criticism from my Disney watching days, the time spent in Neverland is not entertaining. I prefer the beginning and end, when the children are plotting their escape to and from Neverland, to the lagging doldrums in the middle of the book when the children are living in Neverland.

      I was also immensely annoyed by the book’s sexism. I understand that a major theme of the book is the necessity of mothers for young children, but because of this theme, to be a woman in Peter Pan, you must be either A) maternal B) desirous of male companionship (and thus jealous of other women). A combination of A and B is probably preferable (Wendy, who both mothers the Lost Boys and serves as a (chaste) female companion for Peter, is the closest to being an ideal woman).

      The book wears its sexism quite freely. The reason Wendy goes to Neverland is because she “tempts” Peter with her knowledge of bedtime stories. Oh, and the Lost Boys need their pockets darned. Later, Wendy only returns to Neverland to do Peter’s spring cleaning. It saddens me that only the little boys are depicted as having careless fun. Wendy’s brothers get to kill pirates and parade around the island, but Wendy is always a mother, always a caretaker. The other main female character is Tinkerbell, who is mute and terribly envious of Peter’s attention to Wendy. Also off-putting is the initial description of Tinkerbell as “a girl exquisitely gowned in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could be seen to the best advantage.” Why do we need to see a tiny young girl’s body sexualized??? It’s disturbing how sexist this book is, but it seems to be largely ignored since it’s a children’s classic.

      I found it interesting that Peter, the eponymous character, is a horrible, selfish, obnoxious, cocky brat. Although he is the supposed hero of the story, Peter is described as domineering and heartless, as all young children often are. Wendy manages to overcome her sexist role and, in my opinion, is the real hero of the book. I wish the book still bore its original title, Peter and Wendy, because that more accurately represents the true protagonist and somewhat ameliorates the sexism.

      Yet, I still rated this book 4 stars in spite of those many caveats due to the final chapter, “When Wendy Grew Up,” which absolutely completes the book. The chapter is a tour de force on the bittersweet occurrences of growing up, yet it was absent in the original Peter Pan play. I’m glad it was added to the published novel because juxtaposing how Wendy grows up and is actually quite happy about it though occasionally nostalgic for Neverland, next to the immutable, everlasting boyhood of Peter, who will always be alone, is incredibly moving. Books concerned with growing up often depict the loss of childhood as the great loss of every individual’s life, the moment when we lose ourselves to a life of interminable monotony. But Barrie, in a children’s book no less, pioneers a different theme. In Peter Pan, he essentially shows us that we do not want to be like Peter Pan. For all the charms of childhood, adulthood is an equally exciting stage; perhaps there are no pirates or mermaids, but there are plenty of other adventures. We must simply grow up to discover them.
    • 5/5
      This is a fun story much more interesting than the Disney version. I thought I knew this story until I read this to my students. It is meant to be read out loud as if it were a bed time story, I love Barrie's creation of Tinker Bell her sassiness is lost in other adaptations (not for the prudish). It is wonderful how Barrie captures the spirit of what is important to children both the manipulative machinations of how boys think and how girls carry themselves. I recommend this heartily but as a story that is read to your children; all will be delighted in the tales.
    • 4/5
      Peter Pan, Wendy Darling, Captain Hook, Smee, Tinker Bell and all other now famous characters make, what I believe to be, their first appearance here. Pan leads Wendy and her brothers off to Neverland and they have many adventures. And the narrator has a lot of opinions about what happens along the way. All the movie adaptations make the story light and magical and innocent, but this book is actually very creepy in parts. There are some unsettling aspects, such as the idea that mothers flip through our thoughts when we're asleep and take out the bad ones or that Peter might just forget you after taking you on an adventure, leaving you stuck. There's the fact that battles are bloody and real and many other things that make this not the nice neat children's story that I expected it to be. None of that even addresses the problematic representation of the "Indians," who are said to be of the "Picaninny" tribe. According to wikipedia, the term was once affectionate, which may be how Barrie thought of it when writing — but it has long been thought of as derogatory at this point, so that part doesn't hold up well. That aside, Peter Pan is a great magical, adventure story. The characters are semi-one dimensional, but that suits the fairy tale tone. There's a reason the story has become a popular classic.
    • 5/5
      I had never read Peter Pan as a child, and I'm so glad I did now. I thoroughly enjoyed the charming prose, and also how it really speaks to a child's imagination. I wish I had read this aloud to my children when they were young, because they would have eaten up the adventures of Peter and the boys fighting Hook and the pirates. Barrie gets how a child thinks -- or doesn't think -- about implications of the wild times they love to play at. I'm sure this is a fantastic read aloud.
    • 2/5
      Another classic children's book which I only just got around to reading. And it's another one that doesn't really live up to expectations. I found the idolisation of motherhood to be cloying, the portrayal of the 'redskins' just embarrassing and Hook's Eton-educated angst about Good Form and Bad Form particularly strange. And as for Smee, a lovable pirate who gouges people out with a corkscrew motion of his cutlass, well, words fail me.I read the Project Gutenberg ebook version, which someone has edited to explain Barrie's use of words. I found the edits rather distracting and unnecessary and on some occasions just plain wrong. I doubt that when Barrie wrote about the battle at Slightly Gulch "It was a sanguinary affair" he really meant "it was a cheerful affair", for example.I'm glad that the proceeds of the book's copyright went to a children's hospital, and that Disney managed to make an entertaining movie out of the book. But the book itself I'll be happy to never read again.
    • 5/5
      A little darker than I was expecting - Peter and the boys kill and they don't think about it. Read it first before deciding to read it to your child.
    • 5/5
      The sentences were not always clear in meaning, but given the age of the story it is understandable. Much to my surprise, I knew the story very well before reading. Disney (where I knew the story from) did not detour completely from the original story as usual. A very nice, quick read.
    • 3/5
      Plot: 3 stars
      Characters: 3 stars
      Style: 3 stars
      Pace: 3 stars

      Had a review, logging out by mistake ate it. Better than The Little White Bird only because the plot didn't meander quite as far at random, but not what I'd thought it would be. Disney definitely sanitized this, but instead of being shocked, all I could see was how weak Wendy constantly was. She could have been a puppet, for all the difference it made, being nothing more than a "mother" Mary figure. Still, it served the purpose it needed to for the story, so... there's that, at least.
    • 5/5
      Peter Pan is a childhood favorite. I used to watch the movie so many times my dad had to make about five copies so I wouldn't ruin the original tape. I love the idea of Neverland and the Lost Boys. I think a part of everyone never truly wishes to grow up and take on adult responsibilites and Peter Pan represents this desire. One difference between the Disney animation and the book is the part involving the thimble and the kiss. Peter Pan misnames the two and believes a kiss is a thimble and visa versa.I think Peter Pan is a childhood favorite and classic for all.
    • 1/5
      This was one of the first books I read in preparation for my first year as an English undergraduate. It was part of a module called Landmark Texts, focusing on books that had influenced other similar works, as well as numerous film adaptations.We were informed by our tutors that "Peter Pan" wasn't strictly a children's story. Certainly there are adult themes, which sits somewhat creepily with me, considering the amount of child characters that are involved.Anyway, maybe this would've appealed to me had I read it in childhood, though it's hard to say. I can say that as an adult I was glad to see the back of it.
    • 5/5
      Find this review and more at On The Shelf!I absolutely LOVE Tinkerbell, and I am ashamed to say I had never readPeter Panonly seen the Disney version, so I decided to change that and grabbed the audiobook from the library. I thought it was so good and I am glad I finally decided to read it. The language is much different from nowadays of course, but it was still really great. Well-written and very fun, Barrie created a marvelous story for kids and adults. The Neverland world is so creative and must have been such a pleasure for Barrie to write. A little bit of the humor slipped by me since it was written so long ago, but not much. I really enjoyed the reader as well, especially when he did the classic nasally Captain Hook voice we all know so well! The characters were really great as well. The lost boys were adorable and Peter was so stubborn. The only character I really didn’t care much for was the father because he was so incredibly whiny and at one point argued with the youngest child just like a little kid. I liked the way the story ended and I even saw a bunch of references from the movie Hook that I never knew were from the book. If you like classics, this is a must read book! Fun, well-written, wonderful classic, fast read, one for my library!
    • 4/5
      I can't believe I've never actually read Peter Pan until now. I'd seen the Disney version, but this is both more charming and more sinister than that. There are lots of sweet little details, like mothers tidying up their children's thoughts, and the kiss on the corner of Mrs Darling's mouth.

      But Peter is a monstrous sort of figure when you get past the romance of Neverland. He's a wild boy, selfish and cocky. Instead of being a kind of example of innocent childhood, he almost brings to mind the boys from Lord of the Flies. Near the end, it says that he nearly stabs Wendy's baby! And he steals other children.

      Of course, the moral of the story is that children need mothers. It's just charming enough to get away with the moralising.
    • 4/5
      This is a necessary read if you care about fantasy, children's, British or coming of age literature. What happens when our " gay, innocent and heartless" children leave the nest? What happens if they don't? What does it take to survive childhood? This is vastly different than the Disney movie. Peter is villainous himself and somewhat demented. And so is Tinkerbell more than just stubborn. This is worth a read. On a side note, I think Johnny Depp may have used it as inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow, as Barrie writes that "pirates have a touch of the feminism in them".
    • 3/5
      Good as expected based on seeing the Disney classic and "Hook". The book has some much deeper plots and violence than expected. Some is good and some is bad.
    • 4/5
      While I am sure most children do not appreciate the humor of this great classic, as an adult I can't help but love it. From the images of a mother "tidying her children's minds" each night to the asides about grammar when writing, this is just a fun read. Yes, Peter is a jerk but he is loveable and you want to shake him as a mother does a obnoxious little boy.
    • 5/5
      I never read this book growing up, but am enchanted by it as an adult! In particular I love the descriptions of the children's home life before going to Neverland.
    • 4/5
      Because Peter Pan is such a well loved, well (over?) produced story, everyone knows the basic plot: three kids unhappy with the way their father has treated the family dog run away with an orphan boy to his Neverland (not to be confused with Michael's Never Land Ranch). Peter and his Lost Boys are looking for a mother and they think they have such a figure in Wendy, one of the Darling children. It's a magical adventure full of danger in the form of pirates, "redskins" and a ticking crocodile. Even the fairies and mermaids are not to be trusted.Upon rereading Peter Pan I was surprised by how slow the story moved in certain sections. Because of the glossed-over, dumbed-down, glitzed-up theater/movie/storybook versions that have popped up over the years I had forgotten Barrie's original 1911 language and long since deleted details. It was hard to picture reading this aloud to a young child. Peter Pan seemed slightly evil (being described as cunning and sly), Tink seemed downright dirty as she responded to her own jealousy over Wendy (gleefully leading Wendy to her death). True to fairy tale form, it does have a happy ending. Sort of.
    • 2/5
      From what I heard read to me as a younger person, I loved this book. However, after listening to it on my own at a much older age, I did’t see the same things in it I saw then. It's not the same kind of book to me. It's still an reasonable book, but it's not quite like I had remembered. Interesting how that works.
    • 3/5
      About 50 years ago I saw the Broadway show starring Sandy Duncan as Peter Pan. It was much better than the book! 176 pages 3 stars
    • 5/5
      Much deeper than the movies with serious meanings behind the silliness and fun. A classic and a must read.
    • 3/5
      The first thing to strike me about this book was actually how violent it was! Somehow, I expected the violence to be as "play" as I've always believed it to be. Alas, when the pirates and indians fight, it is to the death. And Peter himself is quite the callous bastard! It really takes the whole level of "what if the violent games children play were made real" scenarios to a point you'd never see Disney go! :)It truly is a fascinating read, however, regardless of things like the "narrator" sometimes interrupting the flow of the story, or the vengefulness of Tinker Belle. There are still plot points I can see Disney make use of in future movies so JM Barrie's ideas will still be feeding future generations.
    • 5/5
      My mom once told me that as a child I wouldn’t sleep until she read me Peter Pan. It usually took three or four reads since I was a child who didn’t care much for sleep. My mom had the story memorized and said if she turned the page too early, I would stop her to let her know she wasn’t done with the page yet. Apparently, I also had the story memorized. :-) The version I was read while tucked snuggly in bed was not this version but rather an illustrated book probably courtesy of Disney. Whatever version of the book I was read as a child, this one held true for me and every bit of it was fantastic.Peter Pan is a young boy who simply refuses to grow up. He lives in Neverland with the Lost Boys, the Piccaninny tribe, the mermaids, pirates, a ticking crocodile, and of course, Hook. Peter is the captain of the boys and they do whatever he tells them to. One night, he meets Wendy and her two brothers, Michael and John, and takes them all away to Neverland to share in his adventures.One thing I noticed about the book was the violence. There’s open talk of killing Hook, Peter is not shy about telling anyone that he cut off his hand, and that he plans to finish him. While no one says what happens to the Lost Boys that get too old, one doesn’t have to look very far for the reason for their disappearance. Peter is extraordinarily arrogant (Maybe that’s not the right word for describing a child; cocky?) and nothing happens without his say. Even when danger lurks, not one of the Lost Boys questions his authority even when they are told to kill the pirates. That astounded me and made me happy to see that Barrie didn’t dumb this story down. Bad things happen in life and he brought it down to a level that was understandable for a child. As an adult, I obviously have a different view but was interested in the way he portrayed Peter and the fact that even though he was just a boy, he was a boy with responsibilities for others even if he didn’t think much about it in those terms. Well, at least until he brought in Wendy to be the mother which solved some of his responsibility issues.Wendy is playing the mother of the Lost Boys and Peter is somewhat the father as Wendy does say to him often how wonderful their boys are. It’s slightly odd but I overlooked my wiggly feeling about it. The boys so badly want someone to love them, and when Wendy comes along, they cling to her like no one else. It’s almost sad how starved they are for love and attention. She delights in telling them stories of her parents and tests them frequently so her brothers will remember.Most of all, this story is all whimsy. It’s beautifully told with an almost poetic quality to it at times. It can be harsh and it can be so simple in the way it describes the games the children play. It’s both amusing and sad reading it as an adult.I did a few Google searches to find out more about Barrie and it turns out the idea for Peter Pan is based on a brother who died in childhood. In his mother’s eyes, his brother always remained 14 years old, the age at which he died. That made me so very sad but if this was the way he finally managed to immortalize his brother, it’s a wonderful tribute.I wondered how I would feel about this story as an adult and I can honestly say that for me, it will always be a favorite. It’s magical and I’m glad I got around to reading it again. I had a whole new perspective as an adult and it gave me a greater appreciation for the story. I do wonder what my mom would think of it now though…
    • 5/5
      I obviously knew the story but never actually read the J.M. Barrie original until recently and was pleasantly surprised by what a great read it was. I think we tend to think of classic stories as known, boring and old-fashioned not realizing that there are reasons they became classics. The writing, as well as the story, of Peter Pan are magical weaving the reader into the story with the narration that is lyrical, witty and engaging. Tim Curry's reading on the audiobook is a treat. He plays the roles of narrator and characters well drawing listeners in to the magical story.
    • 3/5
      When I began reading Peter Pan, I was stunned at how much children's literature has changed since this book was written. I actually felt uncomfortable reading it to my kids. The author seems very much convinced that children should be seen and not heard, and the book says things like, "Children are such naughty creatures; they are selfish and only care for themselves. They should be thankful that adults are willing to love them." Well, that's paraphrasing, but these are the sorts of ideas the book puts forth. However, I don't think this book should be forgotten. It's a treasure of classic literature because it truly is an enchanting and wonderful tale. I recommend it for those who wish to expand their knowledge of classic literature, but not for a parent searching for a read-aloud bedtime tale.