Peter Pan

Last night we finished Through the Looking Glass.

I can't believe I'd never read it before. I knew some of the passages inside-out, they've been quoted so often.

(You get a lot of Alice quotes in both philosophy and computer science departments, so I've had a bunch of both. And the third-most-frequent quoter of Lewis Carroll is probably psychology departments, so I've had a triple-whammy dose of a book I'd never read before this month.)

Tonight we begin Peter Pan.

Benmaman has pointed out that the protagonists of what we've read so far have been girls. The alternative title for Peter Pan is "Peter and Wendy" so we'll see.

I gave myself a sneak preview while searching for the next thing to read and the opening paragraph blew me away:

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, 'Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!' This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end."

- papa