There is possibly a dramatic potential for a stage version of the story of Saul, David, and Goliath, and, indeed, some elements of that potential are felt in reading The Boy David. Now, as the author of Peter Pan, Barrie was on familiar territory, but it appears not to be what he intended. But Barrie's own formalized dialog is no more realistic than that he replaces, and thus the entire enterprise takes on the character of a fairy tale for children.

A foreword by Harley Granville-Barker suggests that Barrie sought to anchor the story in a reality more conducive to drama than mythic or poetic King James Version language would allow. It tells a story of the biblical David and his friendship with King Saul, who both loved and feared him. Barrie was a wonderful writer (and creator of Peter Pan). Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, which continues to benefit from them. This play quickly overshadowed his previous work and although he continued to write successfully, it became his best-known work, credited with popularising the name Wendy, which was very uncommon previously.īarrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. In London he met the Llewelyn Davies boys who inspired him in writing about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (included in The Little White Bird), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 'fairy play' about this ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. During the next 10 years Barrie continued writing novels, but gradually his interest turned toward the theatre. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist.

His early works, Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889), contain fictional sketches of Scottish life and are commonly seen as representative of the Kailyard school. He took up journalism, worked for a Nottingham newspaper, and contributed to various London journals before moving to London in 1885. The son of a weaver, Barrie studied at the University of Edinburgh. Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan.

Sir james barrie