Peter Pan

J. M. Barrie’s novel, first published as Peter and Wendy, of Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up, who flies Wendy Darling and her brothers away to the Neverland, home of the lost boys, the fairy Tinker Bell and the pirate Captain Hook.

Start reading17 chapters, about 49,000 words

Famous quotes

• All children, except one, grow up.

  Peter and Wendy (1911), Ch. 1In context

  • Children
  • Youth

• Two is the beginning of the end.

  Chapter IIn context

  • Age
  • Children

• Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John’s, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it.

  Chapter IIn context

  • Children
  • Comedy

• ‘Second to the right,’ said Peter, ‘and then straight on till morning.’

  Chapter IIIIn context

• ‘How clever I am,’ he crowed rapturously, ‘oh, the cleverness of me!’

  Chapter IIIIn context

  • Comedy
  • Pride

• ‘I don’t want ever to be a man,’ he said with passion. ‘I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the fairies.

  Chapter IIIIn context

  • Children
  • Youth

• You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.

  Peter and Wendy (1911), Ch. 3In context

  • Children
  • Laughter

• ‘No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don’t believe in fairies, and every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.

  Chapter IIIIn context

  • Children
  • Faith

• ‘To die will be an awfully big adventure.’

  Chapter VIIIIn context

  • Life & Death

• “If you believe,” he shouted to them, “clap your hands; don’t let Tink die.”

  Peter and Wendy (1911), Ch. 13In context

  • Faith

• When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies.

  Chapter XVIIIn context

  • Children
  • Laughter

• When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter’s mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.

  Peter and Wendy (1911), Ch. 17In context

  • Children

Contents

1. Chapter IPeter Breaks Through
2. Chapter IIThe Shadow
3. Chapter IIICome Away, Come Away!
4. Chapter IVThe Flight
5. Chapter VThe Island Come True
6. Chapter VIThe Little House
7. Chapter VIIThe Home Under the Ground
8. Chapter VIIIThe Mermaids’ Lagoon
9. Chapter IXThe Never Bird
10. Chapter XThe Happy Home
11. Chapter XIWendy’s Story
12. Chapter XIIThe Children Are Carried Off
13. Chapter XIIIDo You Believe in Fairies?
14. Chapter XIVThe Pirate Ship
15. Chapter XV‘Hook or Me This Time’
16. Chapter XVIThe Return Home
17. Chapter XVIIWhen Wendy Grew Up