The Admirable Crichton [Paperback]

J. M. Barrie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

A comedy play. A moment before the curtain rises, the Hon. Ernest Woolley drives up to the door of Loam House in Mayfair. There is a happy smile on his pleasant, insignificant face, and this presumably means that he is thinking of himself. He is too busy over nothing, this man about town, to be always thinking of himself, but, on the other hand, he almost never thinks of any other person. Probably Ernest's great moment is when he wakes of a morning and realises that he really is Ernest, for we must all wish to be that which is our ideal. We can conceive him springing out of bed light-heartedly and waiting for his man to do the rest. He is dressed in excellent taste, with just the little bit more which shows that he is not without a sense of humour: the dandiacal are often saved by carrying a smile at the whole thing in their spats, let us say. Ernest left Cambridge the other day, a member of The Athenaeum (which he would be sorry to have you confound with a club in London of the same name). He is a bachelor, but not of arts, no mean epigrammatist (as you shall see), and a favourite of the ladies. He is almost a celebrity in restaurants, where he dines frequently, returning to sup; and during this last year he has probably paid as much in them for the privilege of handing his hat to an attendant as the rent of a working-man's flat. He complains brightly that he is hard up, and that if somebody or other at Westminster does not look out the country will go to the dogs. He is no fool. He has the shrewdness to float with the current because it is a labour-saving process, but he has sufficient pluck to fight, if fight he must (a brief contest, for he would soon be toppled over). He has a light nature, which would enable him to bob up cheerily in new conditions and return unaltered to the old ones.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809515687
• ISBN-13: 978-0809515684
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,168,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As absolutely wonderful read, May 28, 2003

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Admirable Crichton, The (Paperback)

I have been something of a fan of J.M. Barrie for a long time, and I was quite glad when this book fell into my hands. Barrie is mainly remembered today for his wonderful Peter Pan stories, but his literary talents extended far afield. He wrote this play in 1902 as a social commentary. In it, a haughty, Victorian family is presented, with their upstairs/downstairs, ironclad class prejudices, and no one is more of a supporter of this than their butler Crichton. But, when they are all shipwrecked on a desert island, a new social order is born - what was natural in England is unnatural on the island. And, if they should be rescued, what will happen then?

This play makes an absolutely wonderful read. Mr. Barrie included many sidebars and comments that make the play read just as well as a novel. If you are a fan of pre-1914 British literature (as I am), or just like a cracking good read, then I highly recommend that you get this book!