The Modern Library Children's Classics

by Kenneth Grahame

  2. Punch and Judy: combative English puppet play characters. Tenniel’s illustration makes clear that the two Knights are fighting in this tradition of puppetry slapstick.

  3. deal box: made of either fir or pine wood.

  4. sugar-loaf: refined sugar formed as cones. A “sugar-loaf” hat is cone-shaped.

  5. pudding: In British English, “pudding” refers to any dessert.

  6. I’ll tell thee everything I can: First published anonymously in the Train in 1856 as “Upon a Lonely Moor,” Carroll later recycled this nonsense parody of Wordsworth’s “Resolution and Independence, or The Leech-Gatherer” to become the White Knight’s ballad, The Aged, Aged Man. Green indicates that it is the “spirit of [Wordsworth’s] poem” rather than the style or language that is parodied (p. 77).

  7. Rowland’s Macassar-Oil: popular hair oil for men. An “anti-macassar” is meant to protect upholstered furniture from stains that might be left by hair dressed in this manner.

  8. Menai bridge: famous cast-iron bridge opened in 1826 that spanned the Menai Straits in North Wales.

  CHAPTER IX. QUEEN ALICE

  1. papers: for curling hair.

  2. Hush-a-by lady, in Alice’s lap!: parody of the lullaby “Hush-a-bye baby” (generally known as “Rock-a-bye Baby” in the United States).

  3. Wexes it: “vexes it” in a Victorian Cockney accent.

  4. To the Looking-Glass world: parody of song by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), “Bonny Dundee,” included in his play The Doom of Devorgoil, A Melodrama. The song begins

  To the Lords of Convention ’twas Claver’se who spoke,

  “Ere the King’s crown shall fall there are crowns to be broke;

  So let each Cavalier who loves honour and me,

  Come follow the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.

  “Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,

  Come saddle your horses, and call up your men;

  Come open the West Port, and let me gang free,

  And it’s room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!”

  5. to cut: to snub or ignore someone.

  6. dishcover the riddle: The answer to the White Queen’s verse riddle is “an oyster.”

  7. extinguishers: candle snuffers.

  CHAPTER X. SHAKING

  1. The short chapters X and XI enabled Carroll to “force” his second book into twelve chapters in order to mirror his first novel about Alice and perhaps to emphasize its mock-epic qualities. Epics are generally written in twelve (such as Virgil’s The Aeneid and Milton’s Paradise Lost) or twenty-four books (for example, Homer’s The Odyssey).

  “A BOAT, BENEATH A SUNNY SKY”

  1. This terminal poem once again directs the reader back to the trip up the Thames River that initiated the Alice saga and immortalized Carroll’s relationship with the young Alice Liddell. Carroll describes his obsession with Alice as a “haunting” in this intensely personal poem. The poem is an acrostic, a verse form Carroll favored in many of his private letters to child friends, spelling out Alice’s full name down the left-hand margin. Carroll returned to the acrostic form in his prefatory poem for Sylvie and Bruno (1889) as he spelled out the name of one of his favorite child friends, the actress Isa Bowman, and in the dedicatory poem for Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), in which Enid Stevens’s name can be read within the third letter of each line. Stevens called herself Carroll’s “last child-friend” (Cohen, p. 464).

  AN EASTER GREETING

  1. Printed as a separate pamphlet for Easter 1876 and included in The Hunting of the Snark (1876). The letter was also reprinted in the Through the Looking-Glass edition of 1887 and in The Nursery Alice (1889). Carroll’s serious letter to his child readers illuminates the man behind his persona, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was himself a mixture of gravity and frivolity. Cohen calls this letter “a disguised confessional” (p. 403).

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  1. Consider the poem that precedes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, along with the two poems that frame Through the Looking-Glass. What do they reveal about Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s relationship with the real Alice Liddell? Are there details in the stories themselves that seem to be based on real events or aspects of the original Alice, her siblings, and the shy mathematical lecturer at Christ Church who befriended them?

  2. The scholar Hugh Haughton wrote of the Alice books, “They are two of the most original, experimental works of literary fiction in the nineteenth century and have had a huge impact on subsequent fiction and culture.” What makes Lewis Carroll’s use of language, style, and storytelling so extraordinary?

  3. “Alice’s state of mind,” remarked Katherine Anne Porter, “is a fine example of the terrific sense of uncertainty and insecurity of childhood trying to understand an adult world in which very little provision is made for the young.” Do you agree? Are children treated differently today than they were in Victorian England?

  4. According to Bertrand Russell, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland “raises metaphysical points, very interesting logical points, that are good for the older ponderer, but for the young produce only confusion.” Which aspects of the Alice stories seem better suited to an adult audience? What are some of the “metaphysical” and “logical” points that the author raises?

  5. John Tenniel’s original illustrations are as widely praised as Carroll’s unforgettable stories. Do you agree that the artwork enhances the text? Which illustrations are the most memorable? Do any of the pictures conflict with your own imagined view of the world that Lewis Carroll invented?

  6. On a number of occasions, Alice loses her identity. Can you recall specific examples of this, and what do you make of this recurring dilemma?

  7. Throughout Alice’s adventures, how does Carroll explore the themes of social class, education, and proper etiquette in Victorian England?

  8. Published six years apart, how do the two Alice books differ? What elements are common to both stories?

  9. The Duchess tells Alice that “Every thing’s got a moral, if only you can find it.” What lessons may be drawn from the two Alice books?

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  JOHN TENNIEL, born in London in 1820, was the principal cartoonist for Punch for nearly forty years. A prolific, self-trained graphic artist, he provided illustrations for a number of books including The Haunted Man by Charles Dickens, Lalla Rookh, an Oriental Romance by Thomas Moore, and Aesop’s Fables by Thomas James.

  After consulting Tom Taylor, a mutual friend, Dodgson approached Tenniel about illustrating Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. After looking at Dodgson’s amateur illustrated manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, the busy artist agreed to accept the commission in April 1864. It took him a little over a year to complete the forty-two illustrations.

  Dodgson completed the text of Through the Looking-Glass by 1868. After considering several other renowned artists, he again invited Tenniel to do the illustrations. Tenniel agreed to collaborate but insisted that he could not be rushed. Fitting the work in between his regular assignments for Punch and other commitments, it took him nearly three years to complete the fifty illustrations. Through the Looking-Glass was finally published in 1871.

  Knighted for his artistic achievements in 1893 by Queen Victoria, Sir John Tenniel died in 1914.

  Illustration Credits col1

  2004 Modern Library Paperback Edition

  Introduction copyright © 2004 by Anne McCaffrey

  Biographical note and reading group guide copyright © 2004

  by Random House, Inc.

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  eISBN: 978-1-58836-420-3

  v3.1

  J. M. BARRIE

  James Matthew Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, on May 9, 1860, the seventh living child and youngest son of David Barrie, a hand-loom weaver, and Margaret Ogilvy. The death of Margaret’s favorite child, David, in an ice-skating accident played an important role in shaping Barrie’s character. Hoping to ease his mother’s overwhelming grief, the six-year-old Barrie attempted to take David’s place in his mother’s heart. Pleasing his mother would become a guiding principle in Barrie’s life.

  While still at school, the young theater-loving Barrie decided to become a writer. His family persuaded him to continue his education at Edinburgh University, where he could study literature under the famous scholar David Masson. Barrie began to work as a freelance dramatic critic and book reviewer for an Edinburgh newspaper even before he earned his M.A. degree in 1882.

  After graduation, Barrie worked for nearly two years at the Nottingham Journal while continuing to publish ever more widely in quality newspapers and magazines. In 1885 he went to London, determined to live by his pen and to make his mother proud of him. He began to smoke heavily, pacing his rooms and writing feverishly. This overwork paid off financially and personally as he began to regularly place articles in a number of publications and to gain a reputation among literary lights and society men as a “rising young author.” Barrie continued to haunt the theater for professional and social reasons. He worshipped the beautiful actresses he saw onstage, yet his diminutive stature (he stood just over five feet tall) made him painfully shy and insecure with women.

  Barrie’s ambition to be a great author led him to try novels, yet his achievement in this venture, too, was limited at first. His early novels, published in the late 1880s—many with a Scottish setting and theme—faded quickly. The acclaim awarded to his first popular novel, The Little Minister (1891), however, cast a glow upon some of his earlier works. Writing for the stage was Barrie’s next undertaking, and he found success—and someone new to admire—there as well. He met Mary Ansell, a pretty actress, at the auditions for his play Walker, London (1892) and was immediately smitten. Barrie and Ansell would eventually marry quietly in 1894. Although Barrie appeared to idolize Ansell—as he would a number of lovely, intelligent women over the years—the marriage was to be troubled from the first.

  Barrie’s fame and wealth grew steadily as his melodramatic and whimsical novels, such as Sentimental Tommy: The Story of His Boyhood (1896), and charming plays found eager audiences in England and America. In 1896 he was invited to travel to the United States to meet Charles Frohman, a powerful New York theater producer, who became a friend and important business associate.

  In 1897, Barrie was introduced to Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, a society matron who would ultimately dominate his life in myriad ways. The childless Barrie often met her three boys walking in Kensington Gardens with their nurse, and would amuse them with his attentions and adventure stories. The Barries and Davieses soon began to socialize regularly, and Barrie became a fixture in the Llewelyn Davies household, to the chagrin of Sylvia’s husband, Arthur Llewelyn Davies, a struggling independent barrister. Mary Barrie ignored the romantic infatuation her husband had for Sylvia Llewelyn Davies.

  By 1898, Barrie was, by all accounts, one of the leading literary figures of the day. He spoiled the Llewelyn Davies boys—eventually there would be five—and met them almost daily. The story of Peter Pan, which would become Barrie’s most enduring work, was begun in tales told to the boys. Peter Pan, named for Peter Llewelyn Davies, made his first public appearance in a novel for adults, The Little White Bird (1902). Combining some of the elements of traditional Christmas pantomime, stories of pirates and adventure beloved by the Llewelyn Davies boys, a mother-girl based on his own mother, and a hero who, like Barrie himself, never grew up, the play Peter Pan was first produced in 1904. It was a smashing success and would be revived annually during the Christmas season. In 1911, Barrie adapted the play into novel form as Peter and Wendy.

  After the tragic illnesses and deaths of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies in 1907 and 1910, Barrie assumed parental responsibilities for the boys, now age six to seventeen years old, in addition to the financial assistance he had been providing for many years. In the last year of Sylvia’s illness, Barrie received a different shock: his long-suffering wife asked for a divorce and married a man twenty years her junior. Two of the Llewelyn Davies children would die young, multiplying the tragedies of this family: George, the eldest, in the First World War, and Michael, Barrie’s favorite, of drowning, while a student at Oxford, six years after George’s death.

  Although tragedies depressed the private man, the playwright kept busy writing and overseeing productions and accepting accolades. He became a baronet in 1913. During the First World War, Barrie, always generous with his money, financed an unofficial refugee home for women and children in France. He was elected rector of St. Andrews University in 1919, a great honor for the Scotsman. Barrie’s health began to suffer from overwork: his ever-present cough grew worse, and he suffered from insomnia. Heroin was prescribed for his sleeplessness.

  In his later years, although his output of plays slowed, his contributions to literature continued to be recognized. In 1922, Barrie was invested with the Order of Merit at Buckingham Palace. He donated the rights to Peter Pan (play and novel) to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. In 1928, he accepted the invitation to become the president of the Incorporated Society of Authors, succeeding Thomas Hardy. Barrie hired Lady Cynthia Asquith, well-bred and always in need of money, as a secretary to handle his voluminous correspondence. Lady Asquith was the last beautiful woman to receive Barrie’s worship. They worked closely together for almost twenty years, and he left the bulk of his estate to her. Barrie died on June 19, 1937, at the age of seventy-seven.

  LYNNE VALLONE

  TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

  CONTENTS

  Master - Table of Contents

  Peter Pan

  Title Page

  Copyright

  BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  INTRODUCTION by Anne McCaffrey

  A NOTE ON THE TEXT

  PETER PAN

  CHAPTER I · Peter Breaks Through

  CHAPTER II · The Shadow

  CHAPTER III · Come Away, Come Away!

  CHAPTER IV · The Flight

  CHAPTER V · The Island Come True

  CHAPTER VI · The Little House

  CHAPTER VII · The Home Under the Ground

  CHAPTER VIII · The Mermaids’ Lagoon

  CHAPTER IX · The Never Bird

  CHAPTER X · The Happy Home

  CHAPTER XI · Wendy’s Story

  CHAPTER XII · The Children Are Carried Off

  CHAPTER XIII · Do You Believe in Fairies?

  CHAPTER XIV · The Pirate Ship

  CHAPTER XV · “Hook or Me This Time”

  CHAPTER XVI · The Return Home

  CHAPTER XVII · When Wendy Grew Up

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  From drawings by F. D. Bedford

  col1 PETER FLEW IN

  col5 PICTORIAL TITLE-PAGE

  3.1 THE BIRDS WERE FLOWN

  4.1 “LET HIM KEEP WHO CAN”

  4.2 THE NEVER NEVER LAND

  6.1 PETER ON GUARD

  8.1 SUMMER DAYS ON THE LAGOON

  8.2 “TO DIE WILL BE AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE”

  11.1 WENDY’S STORY

  13.1 FLUNG LIKE BALES

  15.1 “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”

  15.2 “THIS MAN IS MINE”

  17.1 PETER AND JANE

  INTRODUCTION

  Anne McCaffrey

  When I was asked to write this introduction to Peter Pan, I immediately went
to one of my usual bookshops in the Dublin area so that I could refresh my memory. I was horrified to find that they didn’t have a copy on their shelves, but they were happy to order one for me. While I was waiting for its arrival, I searched for further information on the net and discovered that there are 1,610,100 entries available for “Peter Pan,” so the mischievous lad is still alive and well in our mundane world.

  It was as well I reread the text, as I had forgotten some of the little niceties that Sir James inserted, winking to be sure some reader would get the point. I also heard faint echoes of my mother’s voice. Sometimes it’s good to reread old books, if only for the nostalgia evoked.

  It was more than seventy years ago that my mother read Peter Pan aloud to my two brothers and me. I still remember two things from that first reading: the directions to the Neverland, which never allowed me to get there (“Second to the right, and then straight on till morning” was a curious way to give directions, I thought at the time), and the magical possibility of reviving a fairy (Live, Tinker Bell!).