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Hide-and-Seek with Angels: The Life of J.M. Barrie
When James Matthew Barrie died, in 1937, his funeral was an occasion for national mourning. Crowds gathered; reporters and newsreel men came to record the day, and many well-known figures followed the coffin to its resting place in the little churchyard up on the hill. In London, a month later at St Paul's Cathedral a memorial service was held for the Scottish weaver's son who died Britain's playwright extraordinaire.
A succession of novels and long-running plays had brought Barrie enormous wealth, critical acclaim, an hereditary Baronetcy and the Order of Merit. His public following extended to Hollywood where his work was performed by the stars of the silver screen. Unhappily such achievements did little to ameliorate the strains in Barrie's private life. Hampered by a stigmatising divorce, he was also struck by a series of tragic bereavements from which he never fully recovered. At the same time as savouring his public image, Barrie gave no more than a handful of interviews. During his lifetime this inscrutable, enigmatic man succeeded in his desire to remain only partially known.
Barrie was already famous for sophisticated political satires and social comedies when, with the creation of Peter Pan, his immense artistic gift was displayed at its extraordinary best. In the play, where 'All children except one grow up', Barrie had touched on a universal nerve, the problem of growing up. With Peter Pan he created one of the greatest twentieth-century myths and a work of art quite unlike anything that had gone before. It became a part of the common culture of the Western world, and is as relevant today as on that first performance one hundred years ago.
A succession of novels and long-running plays had brought Barrie enormous wealth, critical acclaim, an hereditary Baronetcy and the Order of Merit. His public following extended to Hollywood where his work was performed by the stars of the silver screen. Unhappily such achievements did little to ameliorate the strains in Barrie's private life. Hampered by a stigmatising divorce, he was also struck by a series of tragic bereavements from which he never fully recovered. At the same time as savouring his public image, Barrie gave no more than a handful of interviews. During his lifetime this inscrutable, enigmatic man succeeded in his desire to remain only partially known.
Barrie was already famous for sophisticated political satires and social comedies when, with the creation of Peter Pan, his immense artistic gift was displayed at its extraordinary best. In the play, where 'All children except one grow up', Barrie had touched on a universal nerve, the problem of growing up. With Peter Pan he created one of the greatest twentieth-century myths and a work of art quite unlike anything that had gone before. It became a part of the common culture of the Western world, and is as relevant today as on that first performance one hundred years ago.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 19, 2020
4/5stars
You know how people say the first book you finish sets the tone of the rest of the year? If that's true, I'm glad it was this book! Cause that means I'm going to have a great year of reading books 1. outside my comfort zone (maybe more nonfic and classics???) and 2. that are EXCELLENT.
J. M. Barrie is, weirdly, a name most people don't immediately recognize. He is a Victorian/Edwardian (depending on who you ask) author who wrote the ultra famous "Peter Pan." This biography follows Barrie through his entire life and the author does an absolutely wonderful job of combining humor and serious topics (like how freaking TINY barrie was but then also how he struggled severely with depression and the guilt of many deaths that happened around him), and also the history of barrie with the history of the world and people around him, AND added in a lot of analysis and important discussion about Barrie's works. My mind was absolutely BLOWN several times when the book discussed ideas about Peter Pan and Barrie's works pertaining to his own life.
The only thing I disliked about this was how oversaturated it was with the history of other people not necessarily pertaining to Barrie. While Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Hardy I'm sure are interesting people and I loved watching Barrie's friendship with multiple people who I've heard of or even read from, I really didn't care to read multiple pages about THEM.
But other than that, I really enjoyed this! Hopefully all nonfiction interest me like this one did. If you're a fan of barrie and find that you know nothing about him - highly recommend checking this one out!
You know how people say the first book you finish sets the tone of the rest of the year? If that's true, I'm glad it was this book! Cause that means I'm going to have a great year of reading books 1. outside my comfort zone (maybe more nonfic and classics???) and 2. that are EXCELLENT.
J. M. Barrie is, weirdly, a name most people don't immediately recognize. He is a Victorian/Edwardian (depending on who you ask) author who wrote the ultra famous "Peter Pan." This biography follows Barrie through his entire life and the author does an absolutely wonderful job of combining humor and serious topics (like how freaking TINY barrie was but then also how he struggled severely with depression and the guilt of many deaths that happened around him), and also the history of barrie with the history of the world and people around him, AND added in a lot of analysis and important discussion about Barrie's works. My mind was absolutely BLOWN several times when the book discussed ideas about Peter Pan and Barrie's works pertaining to his own life.
The only thing I disliked about this was how oversaturated it was with the history of other people not necessarily pertaining to Barrie. While Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Hardy I'm sure are interesting people and I loved watching Barrie's friendship with multiple people who I've heard of or even read from, I really didn't care to read multiple pages about THEM.
But other than that, I really enjoyed this! Hopefully all nonfiction interest me like this one did. If you're a fan of barrie and find that you know nothing about him - highly recommend checking this one out!
May 3, 2025
An overly-wordy account of a rather disturbing little man. An honest look at a manipulative genius.
June 24, 2015
The fame of J.M. Barrie's greatest creation has so eclipsed his other works that I would imagine few of us would be able to name a single one other than Peter Pan. To some extent this has obscured what an immense figure he was in the Victorian and Edwardian literary world, what a staggering success as a playwright and novelist. But what a creation to be remembered solely for! Peter Pan is surely one of the meaningful, symbolic and important literary creations of the century, and his enduring popularity and relevance suggests that Barrie tapped into something fundamental at the heart of humanity when he dreamed up the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.
Too often, however, Peter Pan is either seen as J.M. Barrie's alter-ego, the man who never wanted to grow up, or an amalgam of the Llewellyn-Davies boys, the boys Barrie wished would never grow up. The truth, as Lisa Chaney ably sets out in this wonderfully enlightening and enjoyable book, is somewhere in-between. If Barrie was any character in Peter Pan he was all of them. He was just as capable of being the puckish, mischievous Peter as he was the caring, nurturing mother-figure of Wendy. He could be the posturing, threatening Hook and the ridiculous, aspirational Mr Darling. He himself recognised his 'plural personality' and in later life invented a nickname, McConnachie, for one darker aspect of his character.
Few people came away from an encounter with Barrie untouched, and for those whose lives he deftly insinuated himself into, such as the Llewelyn-Davies and later Asquith families, his influence would last a lifetime. Indeed, one could almost say the Llewellyn-Davies boys were both scarred and blessed by their relationship with Barrie, and certainly it would be hard to avoid the conclusion that he was the central figure in all their lives, for better or worse. But then Barrie seemed to determined to make himself the central figure in anyone's life, he was such a forceful personality. Through Chaney's words, Barrie becomes a man who was perhaps hard to like but easy to love.
In all of his plays, Barrie plumbed his own life, his deepest fears and hopes and dreams, for his art, and none more so than Peter Pan. It is telling that Barrie never quite finished refining it, adding to some scenes, cutting others, changing endings and characters. It was decades before it was ever set down in print in any kind of finalised form. In this sense, the play itself is Barrie's alter-ego, rather than the character of Peter.
Too often, however, Peter Pan is either seen as J.M. Barrie's alter-ego, the man who never wanted to grow up, or an amalgam of the Llewellyn-Davies boys, the boys Barrie wished would never grow up. The truth, as Lisa Chaney ably sets out in this wonderfully enlightening and enjoyable book, is somewhere in-between. If Barrie was any character in Peter Pan he was all of them. He was just as capable of being the puckish, mischievous Peter as he was the caring, nurturing mother-figure of Wendy. He could be the posturing, threatening Hook and the ridiculous, aspirational Mr Darling. He himself recognised his 'plural personality' and in later life invented a nickname, McConnachie, for one darker aspect of his character.
Few people came away from an encounter with Barrie untouched, and for those whose lives he deftly insinuated himself into, such as the Llewelyn-Davies and later Asquith families, his influence would last a lifetime. Indeed, one could almost say the Llewellyn-Davies boys were both scarred and blessed by their relationship with Barrie, and certainly it would be hard to avoid the conclusion that he was the central figure in all their lives, for better or worse. But then Barrie seemed to determined to make himself the central figure in anyone's life, he was such a forceful personality. Through Chaney's words, Barrie becomes a man who was perhaps hard to like but easy to love.
In all of his plays, Barrie plumbed his own life, his deepest fears and hopes and dreams, for his art, and none more so than Peter Pan. It is telling that Barrie never quite finished refining it, adding to some scenes, cutting others, changing endings and characters. It was decades before it was ever set down in print in any kind of finalised form. In this sense, the play itself is Barrie's alter-ego, rather than the character of Peter.
August 13, 2012
LOVED this book. I've been studying Barrie since the first time I saw Peter Pan when I was four. It's difficult to find reliable sources, since, as this author notes, Barrie was so different and so much to so many. So much of what is written about him now is written in a psychoanalysis sort of way, and seems OBSESSED with his sexuality, or lack thereof, and its causes. On the other side, many are writing from a perspective of having been a friend of his, since he knew many writers of the day, or of his work so influencing their childhood, and banking on the early and later tragedies of his life. So it's difficult to find a reliable book offering even-handed commentary and insight into a very complicated and multifaceted man.
This is that book. Lisa Chaney very obviously has not only great respect for J. M. Barrie and his work, but also great affection. She is never too harsh with him, or too sentimental. She doesn't gloss over the scandal of his 'affair' with the Llewellyn-Davies family, the assumptions made at the time, or those made after, but deals with them in a frank way, without letting them engulf the rest of the book. Her research is staggering, and though she offers many very clever insights into the plays and the way Barrie's unique mind works, she never over-steps her role of commentator to make assumptions of her own. There are chapters when she becomes harshly critical of Barrie, as any of his friends might have done after spending years in his sometimes overbearing presence. He is to blame for some of the tragedies in his life in many ways, but in many ways, his life was also a product of timing, and fate.
There were weak points in the book, particularly, though the book was written in chronological chapters, within those chapters, Chaney tended to flit back and forth years, so that one minute we are talking about the last words Barrie said before he died, and the next, we're still a good few years from his death. She also had a tendency to repeat quotations, which gave me the weirdest sense of deja vu reading the book. But on the whole this book offers an honest look, with both a critical AND an affectionate eye, at a brilliant, enigmatic, and deeply flawed man who was very difficult to truly know in his lifetime.
This is that book. Lisa Chaney very obviously has not only great respect for J. M. Barrie and his work, but also great affection. She is never too harsh with him, or too sentimental. She doesn't gloss over the scandal of his 'affair' with the Llewellyn-Davies family, the assumptions made at the time, or those made after, but deals with them in a frank way, without letting them engulf the rest of the book. Her research is staggering, and though she offers many very clever insights into the plays and the way Barrie's unique mind works, she never over-steps her role of commentator to make assumptions of her own. There are chapters when she becomes harshly critical of Barrie, as any of his friends might have done after spending years in his sometimes overbearing presence. He is to blame for some of the tragedies in his life in many ways, but in many ways, his life was also a product of timing, and fate.
There were weak points in the book, particularly, though the book was written in chronological chapters, within those chapters, Chaney tended to flit back and forth years, so that one minute we are talking about the last words Barrie said before he died, and the next, we're still a good few years from his death. She also had a tendency to repeat quotations, which gave me the weirdest sense of deja vu reading the book. But on the whole this book offers an honest look, with both a critical AND an affectionate eye, at a brilliant, enigmatic, and deeply flawed man who was very difficult to truly know in his lifetime.
November 26, 2008
Im on page 62 so far and finding it inspiring. Think fivecats would enjoy this one. ;)
Awesome, not only reviews his work of Peter Pan, but many of his (lesser know today) plays and journalism. Good comparative discussion of the period's views on sexuality and childhood. Covers his early life and later years. Interesting to read of his connections with other writers of the period.
Awesome, not only reviews his work of Peter Pan, but many of his (lesser know today) plays and journalism. Good comparative discussion of the period's views on sexuality and childhood. Covers his early life and later years. Interesting to read of his connections with other writers of the period.
March 26, 2015
I wanted to so much to read this book as I was intrigued with the life of J.M. Barrie. I found this book to be painfully boring. Unfortunately the author went into great detail of things that really were not pertinent to the story. I felt the writing was written in a very "academic " and dry way. I was unable to finish!
November 26, 2017
I can't find one bad thing to say about this book: Chaney treated the topic of Barrie's life with great care and sensitivity; she discussed the controversy of his relationship with the Davies in a critical and yet understanding way and I loved how she included a great amount of Barrie's own writing, which seems to me very apt, when referring the life of an author.
I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in Peter Pan and in the story of its creator.
I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in Peter Pan and in the story of its creator.
April 27, 2025
The author is thorough and intense about her subject. There were a lot of details and facts but all in all a satisfying read. I learned so much about J.M. Barrie and was alternately repulsed and impressed.
June 1, 2018
A very well-written and thoroughly-researched biography of the creator of Peter Pan and a vast number of additional plays at the turn of the 20th century.
October 14, 2018
Interesting insight into his life but also goes into details of the original theatrical production. A fascinating read on the whole
March 31, 2019
The book’s cover is a generic photo of JM Barrie that can be found online with a simple google search. The author shared a very informative view of Barrie’s life and the influences on his writing. She obviously did plenty of research and found it necessary to share every little detail she found. This was both a good and bad thing; it provided some great information and facts but also created a very boring and informative tone. Unfortunately, it seemed almost as though she was overwhelmed with informing the reader of these facts that she neglected to keep us informed of when all of it happened. She doesn’t have a very clear layout of her fact timeline and often jumps back and forth multiple years. This was a very informative book but I wouldn’t recommend it to the average curious reader.
August 25, 2009
This is perhaps the second most over-written book I've ever read. Apparently, neither the editor nor anyone else told (or convinced) Lisa Chaney that just because she has material it doesn't necessarily need to be included in the book. Nor does she believe "less is more." Thus, the reader is bombarded time and again with long portions of books or plays, long passages in letters (his or others), and lots and lots of unnecessary (and frequently boring) material on those Barrie knew and on Barrie.
When she wasn't overloading the reader with material, her writing was dry and frequently uninteresting. Perhaps her text just appears that boring because I just finished a big biography by David McCullough, who makes even the driest material fascinating. Chaney seemed very impressed by all the literary figures that Barrie had contact with and was at pains to tell us about every one. Her literary name dropping was uncalled for and unimpressive.
On the positive side I now know more about Barrie than anyone would care to know and have lots and lots of tidbits to drop into cocktail conversation should I meet anyone I think would be even moderately interested.
When she wasn't overloading the reader with material, her writing was dry and frequently uninteresting. Perhaps her text just appears that boring because I just finished a big biography by David McCullough, who makes even the driest material fascinating. Chaney seemed very impressed by all the literary figures that Barrie had contact with and was at pains to tell us about every one. Her literary name dropping was uncalled for and unimpressive.
On the positive side I now know more about Barrie than anyone would care to know and have lots and lots of tidbits to drop into cocktail conversation should I meet anyone I think would be even moderately interested.
January 4, 2021
This is an interesting and apparently balanced look at the life and work of J.M. Barrie. The writer was more prolific than I ever imagined; the man was complex and incredibly layered. In a sense, he was characters in all his plays. The book is accessible, written in a somewhat informal style, yet meticulously documented. Chaney also liberally uses quotations from Barrie’s letters and other writings, along with excerpts from reviews and letters from Barrie’s many correspondents. The only thing missing is a section of photos.
December 5, 2012
A very indepth and well-done book about Barrie's entire life. It also gives background information on all significant characters in his life and the history of his surroundings, which gives the reader a very good picture of the whole scenario.
The only thing I find confusing is the timeline. Lisa Chaney doesn't do a very good job of keeping the reader informed of -when- everything happens, and oftentimes we jump back and forth for a few years.
The only thing I find confusing is the timeline. Lisa Chaney doesn't do a very good job of keeping the reader informed of -when- everything happens, and oftentimes we jump back and forth for a few years.
February 24, 2009
Interesting look at the author of Peter Pan.
November 8, 2011
This book was a very indepth study of J.M Barrie's life. I really enjoyed it, but I realize that it might be too dry for the average reader.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews