TUESDAY 19 MARCH 2024
7PM to 8PM
Open to all. Hosted online using Zoom Meetings.
TICKETS: Free, booking required.
ACCESSIBILITY: Live subtitles are available using Zoom's Live Transcript function.
The Really Popular Book Club is Cambridge University Libraries' book group. Everyone is welcome to come and discuss a really popular book with the group, library staff, and an expert on the novel. Hosted on Zoom, the book club is completely free and open to everyone, people attend from all over the world.
The Really Popular Book Club celebrates the huge range of books at Cambridge University Library. We have more than 8 million books and as a legal deposit library we keep a copy of every book published in the UK, and have done since 1710.
All children, except one, grow up… Peter Pan and his adventures in Neverland with the Darlings have delighted generations. But is J.M. Barrie’s famous creation all childhood innocence, or something stranger? Join Dr Sarah Pyke, Munby Fellow 2023–24 and researcher of 20th-century children’s books, to revisit this children’s classic. This session is being hosted as part of the Cambridge Festival.
To aide the conversation, we have prepared three 'thinking points' to consider when reading Peter Pan:
1. In chapter one, we are told by the narrator that “There never was a simpler, happier family until the coming of Peter Pan”. Do you agree?
2. Peter tells Wendy that she is “wrong about mothers”. What does Peter Pan have to say about mothers and mothering?
3. As well as sequels, spin-offs and adaptations in various media, Peter Pan has given his name to a psychological complex, a type of collar, and a brand of peanut butter, as critic Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has pointed out. Why do you think Peter Pan has endured in so many guises over the past century?
If you haven't attended one of our book club events before, you can find more information at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/bookclub.
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie is available in paperback, hardback, audio and ebook formats, borrowable from public libraries or to purchase. To see what printed and digital copies are available from Cambridge University Libraries (borrowable by University staff and students), search iDiscover.