Rose Library › Wisdom Tales: Fairy Stories of the Hidden Path Mystical Tale

Peter and Wendy

J. M. Barrie · 1911 · 47,021 words

A boy who will not grow up opens the window to Neverland, the dreaming country of the child's soul.

Editor’s note: the book's depiction of the 'Piccaninny' tribe uses dated racial stereotypes and terms, reproduced unaltered for historical fidelity and not endorsed by the Library.

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Opening

Chapter I — Peter Breaks Through

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, 'Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!' This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

Of course they lived at 14, and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.

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Contents

  1. Chapter I — Peter Breaks Through
  2. Chapter II — The Shadow
  3. Chapter III — Come Away, Come Away!
  4. Chapter IV — The Flight
  5. Chapter V — The Island Come True
  6. Chapter VI — The Little House
  7. Chapter VII — The Home Under the Ground
  8. Chapter VIII — The Mermaids' Lagoon
  9. Chapter IX — The Never Bird
  10. Chapter X — The Happy Home
  11. Chapter XI — Wendy's Story
  12. Chapter XII — The Children Are Carried Off
  13. Chapter XIII — Do You Believe in Fairies?
  14. Chapter XIV — The Pirate Ship
  15. Chapter XV — 'Hook or Me This Time'
  16. Chapter XVI — The Return Home
  17. Chapter XVII — When Wendy Grew Up

About this edition

Source: Project Gutenberg #26654

Public domain: First published 1911; public domain in the United States.

What’s included: US public domain (first published 1911). Note for UK readers: by a special provision of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) holds a perpetual right to royalties for UK publication and performance of Peter Pan works.

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