The Little White Bird

The Little White Bird
Author	J. M. Barrie
Genre	Fairytale fantasy, fictional diary, novel for adult readers
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton (UK); Charles Scribner's Sons (US)
Publication date	November 1902 (both)
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	349 (US: Scribner's, 1902)
OCLC	4789092
LC Class	PZ3.B277 Li
Followed by	Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Last updated October 14, 2024

The Little White Bird is a novel by the Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark, aggressive undertones.^[3] It was published in November 1902, by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and Scribner's in the US (and the latter also published it serially in the monthly Scribner's Magazine from August to November).^[1] The book attained prominence and longevity thanks to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest of the book, which introduced the character and mythology of Peter Pan. In 1906, those chapters were published separately as a children's book, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens .^[3]

Plot introduction

The Little White Bird is a series of short episodes, including both accounts of the narrator's day-to-day activities in contemporary London and fanciful tales set in Kensington Gardens and elsewhere.

Plot summary

The story is set in several locations; the earlier chapters are set in the city of London, contemporaneous to the time of Barrie's writing, involving some time travel of a few years and other fantasy elements while remaining within the London setting. The middle chapters that later became Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens are set in London's famous Kensington Gardens, introduced by the statement that "All perambulators lead to Kensington Gardens".^[6] The Kensington Gardens chapters include detailed descriptions of the features of the Gardens, along with fantasy names given to the locations by the story's characters, especially after "Lock-Out Time", described by Barrie as the time at the end of the day when the park gates are closed to the public, and the fairies and other magical inhabitants of the park can move about more freely than during the daylight, when they must hide from ordinary people.^[7] The third section of the book, following the Kensington Gardens chapters, is again set generally in London, though there are some short returns to the Gardens that are not part of the Peter Pan stories. In a two-page diversion in chapter 24, Barrie brings the story to Patagonia and a journey by ship returning to England at the "white cliffs of Albion".^[8]

Characters

Porthos in 1899. 1899-08-08-Porthos.jpg — Porthos in 1899.

Captain W____, the first person narrator, described by the author and filmmaker Andrew Birkin as "Barrie thinly disguised".^[9] Captain W____, although narrating the story, also refers within the story to his own writing of the story, when in the book's conclusion he gives the newly-completed manuscript to the character Mary (mother of David and later Barbara, who has just been born), explaining to her that it is the story of her and her children, which she apparently wanted to write before her daughter was born and which she would have called "The Little White Bird".^[4]
David, A boy child, six years old at the start of the book, but who also appears at younger ages throughout the story, including as a foetus in the womb. The character is based on George Llewelyn Davies, one of several children of the Davies family who provided inspiration for many characters in Barrie's writings.
Mary A____, "The Little Nursery Governess",^[10] David's mother, who shares a name with Barrie's wife (born Mary Ansell) but who according to Birkin, is "closely modelled" on Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. During the story, Captain W____ sees Mary progress from young lover, to newlywed, through pregnancy and the birth of David, and as a young mother. The narrator's feelings expressed towards and about Mary vary from affection to anger and jealousy as he competes with her for David's affections.^[3]^[11]
Peter Pan , a magical boy who escaped from being human as an infant, and ever since has flown about and cavorted with fairies. He differs from the better-known portrayal of the character, primarily being a newborn baby rather than an older child.
Maimie Mannering, a four-year-old girl who becomes one of Peter Pan's main cohorts in the Kensington Gardens part of the story. Her part in the adventure begins when she becomes stuck inside Kensington Gardens after "lock-out time" because the fairies have changed the large clock in the garden to show an earlier hour, in preparation for the fairy ball planned for that night.^[12] The Maimie character is the literary forerunner of the Wendy Darling character of the later Peter Pan play and novel.^[13]
Porthos, a very large St Bernard, based on Barrie's dog of the same name; Porthos was the literary forerunner of the character Nana, a Newfoundland appearing in the Peter Pan play and novel as the Darling family's nursemaid.^[14]

Major themes

The main theme of the book is an exploration of the intimate emotional relationship of the narrator, a childless Victorian retired soldier and London bachelor, with a young boy born to a working-class married couple in the same neighbourhood.^[4] The narrator secretly assists the couple financially, while meeting with the young boy in various "adventures", presented in a disjointed series of episodes in the book in which the narrator seeks to find a feeling of closeness with the boy, expressed as a desire for fatherhood, as well as other less clearly defined ideas. Peter Hollindale, professor of English and Education Studies at the University of York (retired, 1999), has written extensively about James Barrie and the Peter Pan stories. He states that while modern psychology enables readers to find hints of various abnormalities in the story, it also remains "strangely innocent and asexual".^[3]

Literary significance and reception

The Little White Bird is best known for its introduction of the character Peter Pan. Although it is one of Barrie's better-known works based on that association, it has been eclipsed by the 1904 stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up , which introduced the characters of Wendy, Captain Hook, and Tinker Bell, along with much of the Neverland mythos. The later version of the character has been the basis of all popular adaptations and expansions of the material. The stage play became the basis for the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy , later published under the titles Peter Pan and Peter Pan and Wendy. The script of the stage play itself was first published in 1928.^[15]

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Following the highly successful debut of the play about Peter Pan in 1904, Barrie's publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, extracted chapters 13–18 of The Little White Bird and published them in 1906 under the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens , with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.^[16] The text of this version is almost identical to those chapters, with minor changes to the text to read better without the surrounding story.^[17] It was presented as a book for children, many of whom had experienced Peter Pan's exploits in the successful stage play.

Although sometimes described as a prelude or (less correctly) prequel to the better-known story told in the play and novel, there are inconsistencies which make the two stories incompatible with each other. Most significant is the character of Peter Pan himself, who is said to be only seven days old, and there isn't "the slightest chance of his ever having [a birthday]"; in the later story his age is never specified, except that he has his baby teeth and is portrayed as school age.

Related Research Articles

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens, then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 West End "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.

Neverland is a fictional island featured in the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them. It is an imaginary faraway place where Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Captain Hook, the Lost Boys, and some other imaginary beings and creatures live.

Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, in western central London known as the West End. The gardens cover an area of 107 hectares. The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park together form an almost continuous "green lung" in the heart of London. Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tinker Bell</span> Fictional character created by J. M. Barrie

Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelisation Peter and Wendy. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture Peter Pan. She also appears in the official 2006 sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital as well as the "Peter and the Starcatchers" book series by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry.

Peter Pan is a fictional boy who refuses to grow up, created by Scottish author J. M. Barrie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Llewelyn Davies</span> Inspiration for Peter Pan

Michael Llewelyn Davies was – along with his four brothers – the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's characters Peter Pan, the Darling brothers, and the Lost Boys. Late in life, his only surviving brother Nico described him as "the cleverest of us, the most original, the potential genius." He died in ambiguous circumstances, drowning with a close friend – and possible lover – just short of his twenty-first birthday. He was a first cousin of English writer Daphne du Maurier.

Peter Llewelyn Davies was the middle of five sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, one of the Llewelyn Davies boys befriended and later informally adopted by J. M. Barrie. Barrie publicly identified him as the source of the name for the title character in his 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Llewelyn Davies</span> Royal Navy officer

John Llewelyn Davies was the second eldest of the Llewelyn Davies boys, who were befriended by Peter Pan creator J. M. Barrie, and one of the inspirations for the boy characters in the story of Peter Pan. He served in the Royal Navy during World War I. Additionally, he was the first cousin of the English writer Daphne du Maurier.

Wendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of the 1904 play and 1911 novel Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, as well as in most adaptations in other media. Her exact age is not specified in the original play or novel by Barrie, though it is implied that she is about Peter's age as she is "just Peter's size".

Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.

The Davies boys were the inspiration for the stories of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, in which several of the characters were named after them. They were the sons of Sylvia (1866–1910) and Arthur Llewelyn Davies (1863–1907). Their mother was a daughter of French-born cartoonist and writer George du Maurier and sister of actor Gerald du Maurier, whose daughter was author Daphne du Maurier. Their father was a son of preacher John Llewelyn Davies, and brother of suffragist Margaret Llewelyn Davies.

Arthur Llewelyn Davies was an English barrister of Welsh origin, but is best known as the father of the boys who were the inspiration for the stories of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens is a novel by J. M. Barrie, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, and published by Hodder & Stoughton in late November or early December 1906; it is one of four major literary works by Barrie featuring the widely known literary character he created, Peter Pan. Most of the text originally appeared as chapters 13–18 of Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird.

The works of J. M. Barrie about Peter Pan feature many characters. The numerous adaptations and sequels to those stories feature many of the same characters, and introduce new ones. Most of these strive for continuity with Barrie's work, developing a fairly consistent cast of characters living in Neverland and the real-world settings of Barrie's stories.

<i>Peter and Wendy</i> Book and play by J. M. Barrie

Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, often known simply as Peter Pan, is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel titled Peter and Wendy, often extended as Peter Pan and Wendy. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans, and pirates. The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two brothers John and Michael, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family.

Egerton House was a small Elizabethan mansion which stood on the High Street in the town of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in England. Built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it was demolished in 1937 and the site is now occupied by the Art Deco Rex Cinema. As well as its architectural merit, Egerton House was noted for its occupancy by the Llewelyn Davies family and its literary association with J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy du Maurier</span> British playwright and army officer (1865–1915)

Guy Louis Busson du Maurier DSO was an English army officer and playwright. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and the actor Gerald du Maurier.

The statue of Peter Pan is a 1912 bronze sculpture of J. M. Barrie's character Peter Pan. It was commissioned by Barrie and made by Sir George Frampton. The original statue is displayed in Kensington Gardens in London, to the west of The Long Water, close to Barrie's former home on Bayswater Road. Barrie's stories were inspired in part by the gardens: the statue is at the place where Peter Pan lands in Barrie's 1902 book The Little White Bird after flying out of his nursery. Six other casts made by Frampton have been erected in other places around the world.

Mary Ansell was an English actress and author. She was born in Paddington (London), the third child of George and Mary Ansell, who ran and lived over the King's Head pub in Paddington. Ansell's father died in 1875 and the family moved to Hastings, in Sussex.

References

1 2 The Little White Bird in libraries (WorldCat catalog). Retrieved 2014-03-11. Notes published in the Library of English Literature edition (Chicago: Library Resources, 1978).
Perhaps that is a microfiche facsimile of the first British edition, in which case it gives a count of original pages: "viii, 312 p. : 1 map".
1 2 "The little white bird" (first US edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
1 2 3 4 Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. pp. xix.
1 2 3 Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 93. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.
↑ J. M. Barrie. The Little White Bird; or, Adventures in Kensington Gardens (public domain full text no-cost download). Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
↑ Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.
↑ Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford Worlds' Classics. p. 31.
↑ Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. pp. 200–202. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.
↑ Birkin, Andrew (2003). J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.
↑ Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.
↑ Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.
↑ Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. pp. 133–135. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.
↑ Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 80. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.
↑ Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. p. 228.
↑ Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. pp. xxxi.
↑ Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 47. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.
↑ Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. pp. xxix–xxx.

External links

The Little White Bird at Standard Ebooks
The Little White Bird at Project Gutenberg
The Little White Bird public domain audiobook at LibriVox

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Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
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[LEL-1] 1 2 The Little White Bird in libraries (WorldCat catalog). Retrieved 2014-03-11. Notes published in the Library of English Literature edition (Chicago: Library Resources, 1978).
Perhaps that is a microfiche facsimile of the first British edition, in which case it gives a count of original pages: "viii, 312 p. : 1 map".

[LCC-2] 1 2 "The little white bird" (first US edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 11 March 2014.

[hollindale-xix-3] 1 2 3 4 Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. pp. xix.

[birkin-93-4] 1 2 3 Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 93. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.

[5] J. M. Barrie. The Little White Bird; or, Adventures in Kensington Gardens (public domain full text no-cost download). Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.

[6] Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.

[7] Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford Worlds' Classics. p. 31.

[8] Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. pp. 200–202. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.

[9] Birkin, Andrew (2003). J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.

[10] Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.

[11] Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.

[12] Barrie, J. M. (2006). The Little White Bird. First World Library. pp. 133–135. ISBN 978-1-4218-3969-1.

[13] Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 80. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.

[14] Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. p. 228.

[15] Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. pp. xxxi.

[16] Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 47. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.

[17] Barrie, J.M. (1999). Peter Hollindale (Introduction and Notes) (ed.). Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Oxford World's Classics. pp. xxix–xxx.

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