Peter Pan in Scarlet

Peter Pan in Scarlet

First UK edition
Author Geraldine McCaughrean
Illustrator Scott M. Fischer (US)
Cover artist David Wyatt (UK)
Tony DiTerlizzi (US)
Language English
Publisher Oxford University Press (UK)
Margaret K. McElderry (US)
Publication date
 October 5, 2006
Preceded by Peter and Wendy

Peter Pan in Scarlet is a novel by Geraldine McCaughrean. It is marketed as the "official sequel" to J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy (1911), authorised by Great Ormond Street Hospital, to whom Barrie granted all rights to the character and original writings in 1929. McCaughrean was selected following a competition launched in 2004, in which novelists were invited to submit a sample chapter and plot outline.[1] The book continues the story of the Lost Boys, the Darling family, and Peter Pan, in 1926 during the reign of George V and following World War I.

The book was released internationally on 5 October 2006. The first United Kingdom printing consisted of a standard run of approximately 30,000 copies, and a limited edition of 1,500 copies with a specially printed bookplate, individually numbered, and signed by the author. Five copies of a special edition, leather bound in a slipcase were also printed, one of each went to the author, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Oxford University Press, HM The Queen (Patron of Great Ormond Street Hospital) and the last one was auctioned at the book launch. In Britain it was released with a cover illustration and interior silhouettes by David Wyatt, and in the United States with a cover illustration by Tony DiTerlizzi. The US edition features interior silhouette illustrations by Scott M. Fischer. The book was also released in audio format in the UK and US.

A new edition, fully illustrated in colour by David Wyatt, abridged by Geraldine McCaughrean for younger readers, was published in the UK in October 2008 by Oxford University Press.

Plot summary

The novel sees the return of Wendy Darling, her brother John, and Nibs, Slightly, Tootles, the Twins and Curly, who were once Peter Pan's Lost Boys and were adopted by Mr and Mrs Darling at the end of Peter and Wendy.

The novel opens with John Darling suffering from vivid, realistic dreams about Neverland. The former Lost Boys and Wendy have also been having similar dreams, and Wendy realises that bombs from the Great War have punched holes through their world into Neverland and dreams and ideas are filtering through. Wendy tells the former Lost Boys, now known as Old Boys, that they must find a way of returning to Neverland to help Peter Pan return both worlds to normality. In order to fly, they need fairy dust so Wendy finds a baby and waits for its first laugh. They come across the fairy Fireflyer, a lying fairy who eats non-stop who tells them that in order to get back to Neverland, they must go back to being children. To do this, they must wear their children's clothing. Tootles turns into a girl because he only has daughters. Nibs decides not to come at all because he would miss his children too much.

Peter has been dreaming of the Darlings as well, but when they and their Newfoundland puppy (a descendant of Nana) finally return to Neverland, he seems indifferent. He does not even notice that Nibs is absent, nor that Michael Darling is dead (apparently having died in World War I). He is concerned only with having the best adventure in the world. When the Neverwood catches fire, Peter and company escape the island by way of the Jolly Roger, renamed the Jolly Peter. While on board, Captain Pan discovers the late Captain Hook's second-best coat and finds a treasure map of Neverland in the pocket. Sensing an adventure coming on, he immediately wants to head to the mountain of Neverpeak to claim James Hook's treasure. Peter allows the mysterious circus master Ravello, whose circus has been destroyed in the fire, to join his crew as his valet. Ravello urges Peter to wear the red coat.

During the journey, Peter grows more and more irritable. He develops a harsh cough, and it seems that whenever he wears the coat he is grouchiest. He banishes Fireflyer for eating up the food supply, and when he finds that Slightly is growing older, he banishes him as well to the Nowhereland, home of all the Long Lost Boys Peter has banished in times past.

The hike up Neverpeak is particularly arduous. When the band finally reaches the summit of Neverpeak, Peter is impatient to get at the treasure, because he has a feeling there is something inside he wants so much. Inside the treasure chest, each child finds what they have been wishing for on the way up, including Tinker Bell, wished up by Fireflyer, but the gang is puzzled to discover Peter wished for Eton treasures. He looks like a young version of Captain Hook, complete with long black hair and Eton tie. Peter is horrified that he is no longer himself, at the same time that Ravello reveals his true identity as James Hook, who has survived being swallowed up by the crocodile.

Hook seeks revenge and reveals that he served as his valet so he could make Peter to become like him when Peter wears Hook's old pirate coat. Hook explains that because he is a grown up, he is no longer able to wish, so he needed Peter to wish for the treasures Hook has wanted all his life. He cut off Peter's shadow so the boy could not fly, combed the imagination out of his hair, and choked him with the white Eton tie. Peter refuses to believe he has become Hook, despite the evidence and is horrified, while the band is shocked by the revelation.

Hook tries to trick Peter by asking him what he wants to be when he grows up, when Slightly suddenly appears. Slightly, who has been dogging the band's trail all along, warns Peter not to answer, because if you do, you have betrayed childhood and "looked ahead" to adulthood. Peter feebly banishes Hook to Nowhereland, but to no avail. The league is stuck on the mountain in a blizzard, with no fire and no way to get down. Then the other outcast appears — Fireflyer, who, to impress the newly revived Tinker Bell, plunges into the brush and starts a fire.

Peter, who has cast off the hated coat, has become cold and ill in his flimsy tunic. He falls to the ground in a coughing fit, and is soon taken up dead. Tootles insists they need a doctor, so Curly Looks Ahead, growing up and becoming a doctor. He makes an incision over Peter's chest, and draws out a long dusty strand. It is revealed that the cause of Peter's demise was a strand of common London fog brought in on the children's clothes.

Warmed by the fire and heartened by Peter's renewed health, the league finds the courage to go down the mountain but the danger is not yet over. Peter is confronted by the banished Long Lost Boys at the foot of the mountain, where he, John, and Wendy are thrown in the quicksand to sink. Luckily, they manage to pull themselves out, but in the meantime, Ravello has returned with his circus animals. The animals are about to devour Peter and the Explorers, when a band of warring fairies descend and smother the animals. Hook is enraged, and vows to fight the weaponless Peter who is again saved, this time by the puppy who attacks Hook. The latter is about to die, when Wendy sees that all he needs to heal is a bit of sleep. She gives him a goodnight kiss, and tucks the dying man under his tattered red coat.

The children manage to escape without harm, and even find a way home with help from Mr. Smee. Peter unwillingly remains on the island. He cannot fly anywhere, because his shadow has not yet grown back. Wendy's farewell words to Peter are, "I think your mother only shut the window to keep out the FOG!"

Unbeknown to Peter, sleep restores Ravello as James Hook. The story ends with Hook recalling the Past and anticipating revenge.

Characters

Themes

Peter Pan in Scarlet is centered around the idea of "clothes making the man". This theme first appears when the adult Darlings don their children's clothing in order to become children themselves (this is exaggerated in the case of Tootles, who puts on a dress and becomes a girl). Later, Peter Pan discovers Captain Hook's second-best coat, and decides to wear it; Peter then morphs into a form of Captain Hook, even growing long dark curls and inheriting his temper. Only when Peter removes the coat does he become himself again. Later, it is revealed that Ravello, who is clad in unravelling clothes, is really Hook. When Ravello again wears his second-best coat, he is hardened and returns to the form of Captain Hook.

Another theme that is stressed in the novel is "time passing where no time should have passed". In Neverland, the land of summertime, it has turned autumnal and scarlet. This is supposedly due to Hook's poison, but it is suggested in the afterword that it may be caused by the war tearing holes in the veil that separates the island from the real world. It is stated that for a few ticks, time has passed in Neverland and caused it to age. Ravello is also exposed to forbidden time when he is trapped inside the crocodile. He should be dead, but he is forced to live a stenching life in a "crocodile tomb", that causes him to decay into a living rag.

Further themes are mother-love, healing and growing up.

Adaptations

Unlike the original play, which took several years to be adapted into other media, Great Ormond Street Hospital was quick to arrange for Peter Pan in Scarlet to be adapted.

Stage

A stage version of Peter Pan in Scarlet, adapted and directed by Theresa Heskins, opened at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme on 23 July 2016 before moving to the Oxford Playhouse in August 2016.

Radio

A radio adaptation of the book was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 shortly after its release, on 14 October 2006. It starred Robert Glenister as the Narrator, Daniel Mays as Peter Pan, Kate Maberly as Wendy, and Roger Allam as Ravello.

Cast:

Music composed by David Pickvance; producer/director Celia de Wolff.

Film

A movie based on the book is being produced by a consortium of Headline Pictures, the UK Film Council, and BBC Films.[2] No release date has yet been announced.[3]

Continuity with Peter and Wendy

In the book it states that characters require a shadow to fly. However, in the original book when Peter's shadow is taken from him in the Darling home, he is able to fly away from the house to escape being caught, and later return to collect the shadow back. (The original book states that no one can fly until he has had the fairy dust sprinkled on him. Nothing is said about needing to have one's shadow in order to fly.)

The original novel contains an epilogue in which Peter meets the grown-up Wendy and takes her daughter Jane to Neverland. In the sequel this second meeting is never referred to; indeed, it is mentioned that Jane has never met Peter Pan and thinks of Neverland as "just a bedtime story". It can therefore be assumed that Peter Pan in Scarlet takes place before this epilogue which means that Michael may have been killed in World War I.

Peter Pan in Scarlet directly contradicts another of Barrie's works, the short story/speech titled Jas Hook at Eton, which confirmed that Hook was raised not by a neglectful mother but by his doting aunt, who spoke of him as though he could do no wrong. This carries over into Peter and Wendy, where Hook and the other pirates are shown to be strongly reverent and respectful of mothers, while Peter seems to hate all mothers save Wendy, even forbidding the subject of mothers until her arrival. In Peter Pan and Scarlet, the exact opposite is stated.

References

  1. ↑ "How This Book Came About", Peter Pan in Scarlet, preface.
  2. ↑ BBC - Press Office - Peter Pan In Scarlet
  3. ↑ Peter Pan in Scarlet (2012). Internet Movie Database. Confirmed 2011-07-11.
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