ie They are  NOT coming from overseas !!

The Admirable Crichton

- By J. M. Barrie -

Illustrated with line drawings 

ISBN: -

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, London,  UK 

Published: Originally 1914

Binding: HARDcover with Dustjacket 224  pages  

Condition: UNread & displayed condition! HERE in MELBOURNE! A retired display copy as illustrated!

Edition:  FIRST EDITION: 32nd printing  7th in this format 1951 

TIGHT,  SCARCE   HARDCOVER  ~  IN  MELBOURNE  ... 

WHY do ebayers buy from US?

Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item!!

Remains UNread - it was the display copy instore . It is Tight -  neat, no inscriptions or marks within. Appears as in my photos - this is the exact copy!!  A nicely preserved copy - superb!

No discernible shelf wear to the textured boards themselves - they're as new! The interior is tight and spotlessly clean with 224 pages. THIS copy is the FIRST EDITION:  32nd printing overall and 7th in this format from 1951 - the UK publishing by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 

There are many black and white Photos & Illustrations.

SCARCE title -  A PRECIOUS LITTLE GEM!!   - This is an  UNread copy!!

In original textured pastel blue cloth HARDcover binding, in publisher's dustcover, unclipped- but with some minor edgewear overall the dustjacket is in excellent condition.

(Stored with 2020!)

Measures approx.  5¾  x 4  inches or   19  x  13cms

SYNOPSIS ....

One of the The Plays of J. M. Barrie Series.

The Admirable Crichton is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie. 

The story of the play concerns an aristocratic English family who revert to the state of Nature when shipwrecked on a desert island. While there, they are willing slaves to their former butler, but on return to civilization, the positions are shifted.

About the Author

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan.

The son of a weaver, Barrie studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism, worked for a Nottingham newspaper, and contributed to various London journals before moving to London in 1885. 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. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next 10 years Barrie continued writing novels, but gradually his interest turned toward the theatre.

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. 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.

Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, which continues to benefit from them. 

Very  Interesting read!

Reviews

Hilarious …. It is a light, witty look at society and the class structure - what happens when circumstances change and everything you take for granted is swept away. I've never been sure I agree with the ending - would things really revert to the way they were so completely? - but I still find it a fascinating idea and it always gets me thinking, even though the world we live in is so different from the one this play was released into.

Clever clever clever writing   …… A clever play about the class system in Britain at the turn of the century. An excellent read. Unfortunately a large cast and multiple sets dissuade modern theatres from producing it. Would be great to see it on the stage.

One of the BEST unknown plays  … One Of The Best "UNknown" Plays You Can Find

One of the cleverest plays on liberals and social class I have ever found. Having seen the film, I still never tore of reading or reading this play. The lightness and humor is a lot like Oscar Wilde with a it more polish.

Excellent  …… Barrie has said this played like a comedy to it's original audience. But in the modern world this could easily be seen as a tragedy. It's rich, and frightening look at class structure In Edwardian England.

Brilliant writing  ….. Barrie's wry and cutting satire of the British class system is a delight to read, though one wonders whether its nuances could be successfully staged. Barrie's stage directions are often detailed and provide character insights that would be difficult to convey in performance. Reading them adds considerably to the impact. Anyway, the conceit here is that the ironically-named Lord Loam tries to enforced an artificial equality on his household, once a year requiring his callow and venal children to mingle with the help--and the help to have to endure this. But a sea voyage ends in shipwreck, and two years on a desert island, during which time the class system is turned on its head. Crichton, the butler, rises to the position of authority as the one most competent to lead in such a world--which quickly becomes its own unnatural inversion, Crichton adopting for himself many of the privileges of a Lord, Then com rescue and return to England.... I think this play offers a more caustic take on the class system than might have been evident to the original audience, as Barrie coats it all with a light comedic surface. He's no Wilde, to be sure, but the cynical view of the upper classes is there to be seen. Not sure how well this might play today, but it does remain a pleasant read.

FIVE STARS … A Short yet deeply interesting and thought-provoking ….. this is a very well-written play and much more adult than many of Barrie's other works. I can see why it's earned its classic status. Unfortunately it's not nearly as well-known as it should be, but I've noticed there's been a slight resurgence in its popularity and that it's popping up in a couple of my classes as reading material.