Some thoughts on motherhood from the pen of J. M. Barrie and some thoughts on J. M. Barrie from my keyboard...

I've recently realized that J. M. Barrie was a genius. I liked Peter Pan when I read it as a nine-year-old, but for whatever reason, I never revisited it until last week, when I took the audiobook, read by Jim Dale, out from the library. (Incidentally, Jim Dale is also a genius.) Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. What an understanding the man had of children, of mothers, of men and women, of girls and boys... what an outrageous sense of humor yet what heart-wrenching poignancy... and what sentences! To a writer, his sentences and word choice and mastery of the English language is all but intoxicating.

But enough from me. The passage speaks for itself...

'I know such lots of stories.'

Those were her precise words, so there can be no denying that it was she who first tempted him.

He came back, and there was a greedy look in his eyes now which ought to have alarmed her, but did not.

'Oh, the stories I could tell to the boys!' she cried, and then Peter gripped her and began to draw her toward the window.

'Let me go!' she ordered him.

'Wendy, do come with me and tell the other boys.'

Of course she was very pleased to be asked, but she said, 'Oh dear, I can't. Think of mummy! Besides, I can't fly!'

'I'll teach you.'

'Oh, how lovely to fly.'

'I'll teach you to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go.'

'Oo!' she exclaimed rapturously.

'Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.'

'Oo!'

'And, Wendy, there are mermaids.'

'Mermaids! With tails?'

'Such long tails.'

'Oh,' cried Wendy, 'to see a mermaid!'

He had become frightfully cunning. 'Wendy,' he said, 'how we should all respect you.'

She was wriggling her body in distress. It was quite as if she were trying to remain on the nursery floor.

But he had no pity for her.

'Wendy,' he said, the sly one, 'you could tuck us in at night.'

'Oo!'

'None of us has ever been tucked in at night.'

'Oo,' and her arms went out to him.


'And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has any pockets.'

How could she resist....

And while mothering is on our minds, do please click over to my book review blog to read some more brilliant thoughts on the topic; I'm hosting a Mother's Day Weekend feature with the lovely writer-mamas Rosanne Parry, Lindsay Eland and Lindsay Leavitt. They very generously agreed to write guest posts—all of which are print-out-and-hang-on-the-fridge-to-keep-you-inspired worthy. :) I'll be posting one a day, and I'd be very grateful if you'd stop over to leave a comment to thank them for sharing their inspiration!

P.S. The image is from Trina Schart Hyman's illustrations of Peter Pan, the loveliest edition I have seen!