Peter Pan (The Penguin English Library)

All children except one grow up. It was Friday night. Mr and Mrs Darling were dining out. Nana had been tied up in the backyard. The poor dog was barking for she could smell danger. And she was right - this was the night that Peter Pan would take the Darling children on the most breath-taking adventure of their lives to a place called Neverland a strange country where the lost boys live and never grow up a land with mermaids fairies and pirates - and of course the terrible evil Captain Hook. Peter Pan is undoubtedly one of the most famous and best-loved stories for children an unforgettable magical fantasy which has been enjoyed by generations.The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers editions of the best fiction in English from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War. About the Author James Matthew Barrie was born in 1860 near Dundee in Scotland. He was the son of a weaver. He was educated at Glasgow Academy Dumfries Academy and Edinburgh University. After working as a journalist in Nottingham he went to London and wrote for various newspapers and journals there. Between 1891 and 1902 Barrie published several successful novels and plays.Peter Pan his greatest work was first performed as a play in 1904. Although the original idea forPeter Pan appeared in an earlier adult novelThe Little White Bird the full story version for children was not set down on paper until 1911. J. M. Barrie died in 1937. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER 1 _______ 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 cant 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 righthand corner.   The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling who took a cab and nipped in first and so he got her. He got all of her except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it but I can picture him trying and then going off in a passion slamming the door.   Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows but he quite seemed to know and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.   Mrs. Darling was married in white and at first she kept the books perfectly almost gleefully as if it were a game not so much as a brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darlings guesses.   Wendy came first then John then Michael.   For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her as she