The Little White Bird

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The Little White Bird

Author J. M. Barrie

Country United Kingdom

Genre Fairytale fantasy, fictional diary, novel for adult

readers

Publisher Hodder & Stoughton (UK)

Charles Scribner's Sons (US)

Publication date November 1902 (both)[1]

Pages 349 (US: Scribner's, 1902)[2]

OCLC 4789092

LC Class PZ3.B277 Li[2]

Followed by Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens 

The Little White Bird is a British novel by 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, although
the latter had released 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]
The Peter Pan story began as one chapter and grew to an "elaborate book-within-a-
book" of more than one hundred pages during the four years Barrie worked on The
Little White Bird.[4]
 The complete book has also been published under the title The Little White Bird, or
Adventures in Kensington Gardens.[5]

Contents

 1Plot introduction
 2Plot summary
 3Characters
 4Major themes
 5Literary significance and reception
 6Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
 7References
 8External links

Plot introduction[edit]
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[edit]
The story is set in several locations; the earlier chapters are set in the town of London,
contemporaneous to the time of Barrie's writing, and 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, are 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[edit]
 Captain W____, the first person narrator, described by author and filmmaker Andrew
Birkin as "Barrie thinly disguised".[9] Captain W____, although narrating the story, also refers
to his own writing of the story, within 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, 6 years old at the start of the book, but who appears at various ages
throughout the story, ranging from an unborn baby in the womb to a baby, infant, and up to
age 6. 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 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
flies about and cavorts with fairies. He differs from the better known portrayal of the
character, primarily being only a week old 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 of the adventure begins when she gets
stuck inside Kensington Gardens after "lock-out time" because the fairies changed the large
clock in the garden to show an earlier hour, in preparation for the fairy ball planned for that
night.[12] The Mamie 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[edit]
The main theme of the book is an exploration of the intimate emotional relationship of
the narrator, a childless Victorian era 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[edit]

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[edit]

Illustration for Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by Arthur Rackham, 1906

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.

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b The Little White Bird in libraries (WorldCatcatalog). 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".
2. ^ Jump up to:a b "The little white bird" (first US edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record.
Retrieved 11 March 2014.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d 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.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c 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.

External links[edit]
 The Little White Bird at Project Gutenberg
  The Little White Bird public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Wikisource has original
text related to this article:

The Little White Bird

show

J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan

Categories: 

 1902 British novels

 Peter Pan
 Literature featuring anthropomorphic characters
 British children's novels
 1902 fantasy novels
 Works by J. M. Barrie
 Novels set in London
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