Besides Peter Pan, Which Other Of JM Barrie's Works Is About A "Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up"�?

Before Barrie wrote the famous Peter Pan, he produced two early novels which contained strong autobiographical elements and offered a darker version of a Peter-Pan like figure who never really becomes a man. These are "Sentimental Tommy" first published in 1896, and "Tommy and Grizel" in 1900.

"Sentimental Tommy" is about a boy whose fantasy world is stronger than reality; his lies and dramatisations are both the despair and delight of his friends and his loyal sister, Elspeth. Its sequel sees the (physically, but not emotionally) adult Tommy, now a well-known novelist, passionately courting his childhood friend Grizel. She falls in love with him, but Tommy, who has only been playing at being a "lover" abandons her as soon as their dream world of courtship looks like becoming real. The story takes a grim turn as Grizel is driven into mental breakdown by his callousness; he tries to make amends, but in the end Grizel has to accept that Tommy is incapable of the kind of love she wants from him.