Read by Jim Dale

"All children, except one, grow up." Thus begins a great classic of
children's literature that we all remember as magical. What we tend
to forget, because the tale of Peter Pan and Neverland has been so
relentlessly boiled down, hashed up, and coated in saccharine, is
that J.M. Barrie's original version is also witty, sophisticated,
and delightfully odd. The Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael,
live a very proper middle-class life in Edwardian London, but they
also happen to have a Newfoundland for a nurse. The text is full of
such throwaway gems as "Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter Pan when
she was tidying up her children's minds," and is peppered with
deliberately obscure vocabulary including "embonpoint," "quietus,"
and "pluperfect." Lest we forget, it was written in 1904, a relatively
innocent age in which a plot about abducted children must have seemed
more safely fanciful. Also, perhaps, it was an age that expected more
of its children's books, for Peter Pan has a suppleness, lightness,
and intelligence that are "literary" in the best sense. In a typical
exchange with the dastardly Captain Hook, Peter Pan describes himself
as "youth... joy... a little bird that has broken out of the egg," and
the author interjects: "This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof
to the unhappy Hook that Peter did not know in the least who or what he
was, which is the very pinnacle of good form." A book for adult readers-
aloud to revel in--and it just might teach young listeners to fly.

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