J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous....touching....tragic.
Review: A truly inspiring book about the author who couldn't grow up, who wrote about the boy who wouldn't grow up. An excellent resource for anyone who is fan of "Peter Pan." This book is one of the biggest reasons that I found Steven Spielberg's film "Hook" more enjoyable than most people. It is an absolute crime that this book is long out-of-print. Interestingly enough, the author of this book also penned the screenplay for "The Final Conflict," the third film in "The Omen" trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: The Lost Man-Boy
Review: Barrie must be one of the 20th C's most under-rated and misinterpreted writers. This beautiful and haunting book helps interpret his writing, especially that maudlin classic of hopeless nostalgia Peter Pan. Look in this book beyond the fragile elegance of the Edwardian world, and the beautiful children frozen forever in time by Barrie's camera and there's tragedy. Everyone, Arthur, Michael, Jack and especially Barrie himself comes to a sticky end. It well illustrates that old morality tale: be very careful about what you wish for -it may come true. I agree it's a tragedy this book has slipped out of print.

Rating:
Summary: "Don't Turn Up The Light!"
Review: Finally back in print after a quarter of a century, Andrew Birkin's J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys: The Love Story That Gave Birth To Peter Pan (1979) is a fully realized, mesmerizing, and genuinely tragic book that succeeds on every level. As the title suggests, the book is not only a biography of Scottish playwright and novelist J. M. Barrie, but of the Llewelyn Davies family, whose five sons, with Barrie's dead brother, David, inspired the creation Peter Pan, one of Western literature's most enduring and suitably timeless figures. By drawing heavily on Barrie's notebooks as well as his and the Llewelyn Davies family's letters and other correspondence, the text allows the large cast of participants to tell their story in piecemeal fashion. The result, which resembles an elaborate mosaic, is a poignant reflection on tragic events, both those which might have been averted and those, like disease and the Great War, which could not have been.

J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys is also an excellent illustration of Freud's theory of Family Romance in both its constructive and destructive aspects. The sentimental Barrie was deeply tied to and haunted by his own familial relationships, a psychology he brought to and projected upon the Llewelyn Davies family after becoming enchanted by two of their young boys in Kensington Gardens. Barrie was a middle aged and childless man, if a very successful one, at that time in his life, and his manipulative and interloping intrusion into the family has been a subject of speculation by historians and literary scholars ever since.

Though ostensibly nothing less than financially generous and well-intentioned, as Humphrey Carpenter illustrated in Secret Gardens (1985), even Barrie's earliest work inspired by the Llewelyn Davies boys, The Little White Bird (1902, later reissued as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens), contained material which suggested that Barrie's fascination with the boys was potentially inappropriate. In one passage, a very young boy, modeled on George Llewelyn Davies, invites himself into a grown man's bed with language that is simultaneously seductive, hesitant, and tender. The narrator, who stands in for Barrie, accepts the boy's invitation, stating, "It is what I have been wanting all the time," like a breathless, succumbing lover. Climbing into bed, the young boy then sleeps "on and across" the narrator, "retains possession" of the man's "finger," and "occasionally" awakens him to assert that "he was sleeping with me."

So obsessively tied to the Llewelyn Davies boys was Barrie that when his favorite, the sensitive, brilliant, and troubled Michael, drowned under unusual circumstances at 17, Birkin is accurately able to state that Barrie's life was now rendered "utterly pointless" without him; Barrie's comment was "for ever and ever I am thinking of him." Though Michael undoubtedly loved Barrie, he was plagued by night terrors throughout his boyhood, which may have possibly arisen not only from Barrie's passive-aggressive takeover of the boy's family, but from Barrie's own narrowly fixated and smothering love. After mother Sylvia Llewelyn Davies' early death, Barrie went so far as to misrepresent her will in such a manner as to give himself duo guardianship over the children. Not surprisingly, two of the boys, Jack and Peter, neither of whom were Barrie favorites, eyed him with increasing suspicion and thinly-veiled hostility as they grew into adolescence and beyond.

Barrie, however, was not the only presence in the boys' lives guided by inappropriately managed emotion: in later years, their beloved nanny, Mary Hodgson, who detested Barrie and fought a protracted cold war with him over the boys' affections for years, eventually refused to acknowledge their young wives with such vehemence that she induced a miscarriage in one, before finally acknowledging her jealousy and surrendering her position.

Part of the sadness inherent in J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys is the genuine tragedy that arises, against the backdrops of Kensington Gardens, Eton, and the London theater, from the unrelenting destruction of the high Edwardian ideals and truly noble characters that most of those involved embodied. As the numerous photographs attest, the early life of the handsome Llewelyn Davies family was loving, hopeful, relatively prosperous, and enchanted, but the coming years brought disfigurement from facial tumors, cancer, the boys orphaned at early ages, the deaths of vital family members in War World I, and at least one verifiable suicide among them. Barrie's apparently celibate marriage collapsed, and a key figure in his personal and professional life died during the sinking of the Lusitania.

Amidst these tragedies and those of Barrie's youth arose the transcendent figure of Peter Pan, the apparently indestructible boy who, by willfully failing to mature, believes he has discovered a means of permanently avoiding the tragedies inherent in the normal cycle of life. But wayward, thoughtless, selfish, and repeatedly manifesting other unmistakable signs of sociopathology, deluded Peter in fact only condemns himself to an existence of eternal isolation and the repetitious loss of those he chooses as companions, as Peter And Wendy (1911, reissued as Peter Pen and Wendy in 1921 and eventually as Peter Pan) makes evident in the passage in which the Darling children finally return to their parents from the Neverland: "There could not have been a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a strange boy who was staring in at the window. He had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be forever barred."

An even more grueling scene follows in the final chapter, in which, years later, the unreflective Peter visits Wendy, expecting to find a young girl, only to be confronted by a mature women, with children of her own, standing in a dimly-lit room. Vaguely sensing the truth, "at last a fear assailed him," leading Peter to cry out, in a telling phrase that applies to J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys as a whole, "Don't turn up the light!"











Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Biography
Review: I bought a copy of Andrew Birkin's book after seeing "Finding Neverland," which sparked my interest in the real J.M. Barrie. My interest was to uncover some of the truth behind the story of the film knowing full well that films cannot relate all of what happened. I have never seen Peter Pan on the stage and only know the play from film versions, so I was also interested in where Barrie's ideas for his creation came from. This book is more an illustrated biography with each page having one or more photographs. The book traces the life and James Barrie in the initial chapters; his education, family and how he embarked on his literary career. The turning point of the book arrives where Barrie meets George Llewellyn Davies in Kensington Gardens, which leads to his relationship with the Sylvia Llewellyn Davis, her husband Arthur and their growing family.

Mr. Birkin does a magnificent job in setting the stage with his background of the families of Sylvia and Arthur how Barrie's relationship with their five sons developed. He also does a great job tracing the development of Peter Pan. I found my interest flagging, however, after the death of Sylvia, particularly in Mr. Birkin's quoting of letters, sometimes one letter being followed by another and another. I was wishing that he had extrapolated his sources into his own narrative of events and I often skipped reading the letters as they became tedious in advancing his story. Ultimately, J. M. Barrie remains an enigma for me although I know much more about him and his relationship with his boys. The story is also a sad one marked by many tragic events. One cannot help feeling that the lives of the Llewellyn Davies children were blighted by the tragic events of the early deaths of their parents, the First World War and the deaths of George and Michael.

I would recommend this book highly to anyone wanting to know more about J. M. Barrie and Peter Pan but I also think that it is not a definitive book and more could and should be written about this author and his relationships.


Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Haunting -- Stranger and More Moving than Fiction
Review: I first read this book roughly ten years ago. It is still one of my all-time favorites. The beautiful and tragic lives of the Llewellyn-Davies family, and their beauty caught in intimate pictures, reminds one of the Romanovs. This book is a very loving, close portrait of the relationship between JM Barrie--the playwright of Peter Pan (and numerous other plays and books)and an Edwardian family composed of five charming, beautiful, intelligent boys. The boys' parents (one of whom is the daughter of George du Maurier [author of Trilby] -- the boys' cousin is Daphne du Maurier) both die young, leaving them orphans in the care of JM Barrie. The book contains astonishingly beautiful photographs, diary entries, letters, etc. The truth of the story gives it a charm and tragedy mere fiction lacks. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: The Lost Boys Return
Review: I read this book when it was first released and then had to go to a dealer selling used books to track down a copy to buy.
It's a beautifully written book and a haunting real life story.
The icing on the cake of the reissue of the book would be the release of the BBC miniseries on video or better yet, DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, will move you...
Review: J.M. Barrie is truly a genius and Birkin has captured this genius with all of its pain and dysfunction in this great biography. This new large paperback version of Birkin’s book is excellent. It contains all of the material from the original hardcover including a lot of photographs. This newest version also has an updated forward and provides a web link to the Author’s full collection of Barrie writings and photographs.

I originally read the mass market size, paperback of this biography and was very pleased. However, I now realize how much I had missed, in terms of photographs and reproductions. This newest version is a real must-have for those interested in the life and work of Barrie.

Birkin does an extraordinary job of showing us Barrie’s life and work and most importantly his relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family. He does all of this without passing judgement, which in my view is the true test of a good biographer. Too often history and biography falls prey to post-modern sensibilities and correctness.

This story is touching and sad. Read this biography and then re-read some of the classic Barrie novels, they will come to life for you. One of my best reads of the year, highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Excellant piece of work.
Review: This book is a piece of art as far as biography and historical writing is concerned. Birkin allows the reader to follow along with the life of Barrie and his "five" by including many letters, personal papers and beautiful family photographs. The story is truly beautiful and truly tragic, and Birkin wisely knows when to leave well enough alone and let the main "characters" speak for themselves. I can't reccomend this book highly enough, especially for fans of biography.

Rating:
Summary: Sad and Beautiful Story
Review: Wonderful news ... this new edition makes available a book that's been out-of print for much too long.
Birkin completed the book when adapting the story of J M Barrie for a BBC mini-series, The Lost Boys. As well as writing Peter Pan, Barrie was in his time, regarded as a playwright the equal of George Bernard Shaw. That his work quickly fell out of favour may be due to its pathos and close relation to Barrie's own life.
I stumbled across this book over ten years ago, and its poignancy, honestly and power have been with me ever since.
It centres around the Llewelyn Davies family, which became the inspiration for Peter Pan, but went on to have an even more profound impact upon the life of the melancholic Scottish playwright.
As one of the protagonists later wrote, the masses of photographs (extensively reproduced in the book) seem to foretell the whole sad story. Indeed, Birkin's strength is allowing the story to unfold through letters, images and quotation from Barrie's surprisingly autobiographical work. What emerges is the finest of biographies. Peter Pan acquires a whole new sad significance in the light of this book, and it captures the fading Edwardian twighlight exquisitely.
Upon the death of the last of the Llewelyn Davies boys (after first publication), the majority of the material used in the book was bequeathed to Birkin, a ringing endorsement of his sensitive and perceptive retelling of the story.
I cannot recommend this book too highly.

Rating:
Summary: Sad and beautiful story
Review: Wonderful news ... this new edition will make a classic available to new readers.
Birkin completed the book when adapting the story of J M Barrie for a BBC mini-series, The Lost Boys. As well as writing Peter Pan, Barrie was in his time, regarded as a playwright the equal of George Bernard Shaw. That his work quickly fell out of favour may be due to its pathos and close relation to Barrie's own life.
I stumbled across this book over ten years ago, and its poignancy, honestly and power have been with me ever since.
It centres around the Llewelyn Davies family, which became the inspiration for Peter Pan, but went on to have an even more profound impact upon the life of the melancholic Scottish playwright.
As one of the protagonists later wrote, the masses of photographs (extensively reproduced in the book) seem to foretell the whole sad story. Indeed, Birkin's strength is allowing the story to unfold through letters, images and quotation from Barrie's surprisingly autobiographical work. What emerges is the finest of biographies. Peter Pan acquires a whole new sad significance in the light of this book, and it captures the fading Edwardian twighlight exquisitely.
Upon the death of the last of the Llewelyn Davies boys (after first publication), the majority of the material used in the book was bequeathed to Birkin, a ringing endorsement of his sensitive and perceptive retelling of the story.
I cannot recommend this book too highly.