Margaret Ogilvy

by J.M. Barrie

A portrait of Barrie's mother, with insights into the effects of his brother's tragic early death

Genres: Biography, Classics, Memoir, Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays.

The son of a weaver, Barrie studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism for a newspaper in Nottingham and contributed to various London journals before moving there in 1885. His early Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889) contain fictional sketches of Scottish life representative of the Kailyard school. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next decade, Barrie continued to write novels, but gradually, his interest turned towards the theatre.

In London, he met Llewelyn Davies, who inspired him about magical adventures of a baby boy in gardens of Kensington, included in The Little White Bird, then to a "fairy play" about this ageless adventures of an ordinary girl, named Wendy, in the setting of Neverland. People credited this best-known play with popularizing Wendy, the previously very unpopular name, and quickly overshadowed his previous, and he continued successfully.

Following the deaths of their parents, Barrie unofficially adopted the boys. He gave the rights to great Ormond street hospital, which continues to benefit.

Reviews

[Ebster Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if I didn't have any knowledge of the author's other work (Or even if he'd never produced any other writing then this book) I would still count this as one of the most precious things I've ever read.

At first I assumed the author was white-washing his depiction of his relationship with his mother, which would have been understandable and frequently happens. After the death of a loved one, our thoughts are drawn most often to recollection of their many positive qualities and tender moments that we shared with them. This story, I think, goes a bit deeper then that.

The basis of the relationship between Jim and his mom wasn't that she was an exemplary mother (though I am sure Jim would say that she was), the relationship seemed to be based in empathy, understanding and acceptance.

As a child, Jim is introduced to a side of his mother that children rarely see (at least until their parents are elderly and vulnerable). It has a profound affect on his worldview as well as his relationship with his mother. He sees her as a whole person, and accepts her entirely.

Margaret is at first uneasy about Jim becoming an author. Its not something she ever concieved of him doing, and it was really precious to see her acceptance grow and eventually evolve into defensiveness of his work.

Towards the end, you know that he's going to recount her final months and her death soon, which was enough to make me retreat to a private room while reading just in case I seniment got the better of me. I'm glad I did, because the tragidy unexpectedly reached waterworks-levels.

This book holds a very special place in my future library. Somewhere between "Watership Down" and "Daughter of the Flame". It made me want to treasure my loved ones. But, if you don't love your mother, you might not like this book.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The past is roaring in her ears like a great sea. This beautifully describes my 95 year old mother. Perfect example of why reading is so beneficial. He can make something sad be so lovely. I loved this book about his love for his mother.

[Mery_B · Rating 3 out of 5]

No he oído otra risa como la suya desde mi alegre infancia: la risa de la mayoría de nosotros envejece y se deteriora juntamente con el cuerpo, pero la suya se mantuvo alegre hasta el final, como si volviera a nacer cada mañana.

[5t4n5 Dot Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just read The Little White Bird and Peter Pan , it struck me that there may have been a little more to the characters than at first appears.

The character of Peter Pan was based on James' brother, David, who died aged 13 (so never grew up), leaving the 6 year old James having to try and fill his shoes for his mother. So it made me wonder who Hook was based on. At first i thought Hook represented the parents but having read this book i've totally had a change of mind.

So my thoughts on the matter are thus... I suppose the clue is in Hook's first name, also James. The hand that gets cut off by Peter, a metaphor for the part of James' childhood, and life, that was taken from him the day his brother died. The hand is then fed to the ticking crocodile that follows Hook around wanting to consume the rest of him because it likes the taste - so is this another metaphor concerning the inevitable ticking clock of life, and that James felt the loss of his brother was continuously haunting and wanting to consume more of him and his family?

Then there's Wendy, which having read this book cannot be based upon anyone other than Margaret Ogilvy herself. He mentions in the book how after his brother died, other local women who lost children would come to her to talk. Again, Wendy and the lost boys - the lost boys representing the children of the other women who went to join his brother David in heaven (Neverland).

But all that aside, this book was a heartfelt view into James' home life and very much his relationship with his mother - who he obviously cared about immensely - and is an absolute must read for all fans of J.M. Barrie's writing. The book also covers James' early literary career and what made him want to become a writer. So a very worth while read.

So what's next? After 3 books in a row, i'll be taking a literary break away from Peter Pan, Neverland and J.M. Barrie as i've got a big 'to read' folder on my Kindle that's continuously nagging to get read. But i'll definitely be coming back to these three topics in my reading in the not too distant future.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was amazing. I wouldn’t know where to begin.

[Martyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've not read much J.M. Barrie. Having read this I don't feel particularly inspired to go all out to collect all his works. But I might be interested to get a copy of Auld Licht Idylls, which sounds like it might be a suitable companion volume to Margaret Ogilvy. It's also many years since I read A Window in Thrums, which I don't think I enjoyed all that much at the time. But I feel that perhaps now, at my age, and having read Margaret Ogilvy, I would be in a position to appreciate that book better and so it might deserve a second reading.

Some people call this account of J.M. Barrie's mother sweet. I'm not sure that I would. She certainly comes across as a bit of a character, but I'm not sure quite how likeable a character she is. Barrie makes her amusing in the way he describes her funny and odd attitudes and manners and behaviours, her pride, her stubbornness, but she's a bit too devious and deceptive and manipulative for my liking. I don't think I would have much enjoyed having her as my mother! She certainly seemed to know just how to say the right thing to take the wind out of her son's sails, to crush his spirits, to kill any pride, to undermine any sense of achievement or self-worth he may have had. Personally I found her behaviour to be frequently rather cruel.

But it's a short and simple book which isn't without charm and it paints an interesting picture of what life was like for people in that locality (Kirriemuir) in that generation. There are some aspects of the book which strike one as a bit odd, though. Probably it was because the people were still alive at the time of writing the book, but certain members of the household ended up getting pushed right into the background and for the most part one thought it was just J.M. Barrie and his sister and their mother who lived alone together. For much of the book I was assuming Barrie's father must have died when Barrie was young - and then he suddenly reappears in Margaret Ogilvy's old age alive and well. Likewise, when one assumes Barrie and his sister alone were bearing all the burden of caring for their mother, as well as running the household, it turns out there were other siblings living in the house too, who were allowed to remain invisible for about the first ninety percent of the book. So it is rather a skewed picture of the family homelife which is portrayed in these pages. But be that as it may, while not presenting the full picture, it does present an interesting portrait or character study of Barrie's mother. The account of Margaret Ogilvy's attitude towards Robert Louis Stevenson was perhaps the highlight of the book.

[Camille Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

J.M. Barrie's childhood through his imaginative eyes is just as magical as any of the fiction he writes. Although in further reading, many who were close to him criticized how he portrayed his family life, claiming that he elaborated for the benefit of a good story, yet how are we to judge the way he perceived his own childhood and mother? I love the way that after that terrible tragedy she wore a shawl always, as if something was forever over her shoulders, and that she seemed small then. Whether or not she did wear a shawl is questionable, but the illustration in his writing makes the biography of his mother so dear and intimate.

[Glenda Harwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gibberish!

I would not recommend this book to any one. I gave up after the first few pages and after leafing through thinking that surely there most be logical thought somewhere. It really makes me think of a bad recording that starts reverses skips and repeats, again everlasting. How this got printed is beyond me.

[Nathan Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style seemed off to me and was a little hard to get used too. I enjoyed the conversations with his mother; her personality and wit shined jumped off the page. The last chapter touched me in a way a book hasn't in quite some time.

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable tribute to his mother and siblings.

[Terrie Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet and touching memoir of the author's mother.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and eminently readable biography of Margaret Ogilvy, written by her son, J. M. Barrie.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really sweet book :) Although Barrie wrote it about his mother, reading it I felt I learned a lot about him as well. My only perception of Margaret Ogilvy before reading this was of her in mourning over the death of her son David, because that's what they mention about Barrie's relationship with her in biographies of him. Although Barrie says she never got over the death of David, as the book went on, she grew cheery again. Barrie really portrays her as a quirky aging Scottish woman, with a lovely sense of humor and interesting mannerisms.
A major critique that I've heard of this book is that Margaret Ogilvy herself was not a remarkable woman, just a regular one, and that it was odd Barrie should write a book about her; the book displays how even the most "regular" or "unremarkable" of women are remarkable in their own right. On thing that made her so in my eyes is how much Barrie cared for her, how he interacted with her, wanting to make her happy.
"Did you ever notice what an extraordinary woman your mother is?" Barrie's father asked him. And in her own peaceful way she was. This book reminds me of the beauty in even the most ordinary seeming lives, the amazing depth in every human soul, the gentleness in Margaret Ogilvy's particularly.

Yes, I think it's accurate to say I really liked this book. Bits of it were confusing, but the delightful combination of direct memories from one of my favorite authors and how his mother received his work and ("It's that weary writing!") were overall an absolute joy.

[Ken Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like so much about Barrie’s writing is his ability to be earnest, while also being playful. Seriously whimsical. He has a whimsical way of observing the world, specifically people and their many ridiculous habits. I wondered how Barrie’s writing in Margaret Ogilvy, a nonfiction book about his mother, would be different from his writing in Peter Pan, a fantasy about a boy who lives with fairies on an island where he never grows up. I was surprised by how similar the two works are to each other in terms of voice. Barrie is able to make his descriptions of his domestic life shine as bright as his descriptions of fairy dust and mermaids. I think this is because he finds both worlds just as enchanting as the other. The magic of Barrie’s writing is not in their fantastical elements, but in his love for his characters and the various things they do to fill their days.

This book also gives such important context to Barrie's life and what led him to write Peter Pan in the first place, revealing the story as the tragedy that it truly is.

[Surreysmum · Rating 2 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1984. I read the Scribner's, 1897 edition:]. You might think that an entire volume of mother-worship (Margaret Ogilvy was Barrie's mother) would be a bit much to take. In fact, Barrie keeps the touch fairly light, the anecdotes of his mother's extreme partisanship very amusing, and the tone of love and genuine respect apparently sincere. Only at the end, where he tells us of the death of his self-sacrificing sister as well as his mother does the thing threaten to become unbearably lachrymose and sentimental. Barrie is a whimsical writer, and of course he is shaping and selecting, and there is much to recognize in that amiable portrait.

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great good read. It is told from Margaret Ogilvy's son who is also the real author of the book. He tells the story of why he believes his mother is such a good person starting with when his old brother dies when he is a small boy all the way up to her death when he is a man and an author. He also notes that in every one of his books the female is written thinking of his mother. Interesting book for sure and I am thinking of getting another one of his books just to read about the female counterpart in his book.

[Brad Lucht · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the 1915 hardcover published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

I was motivated to read "Margaret Ogilvy" after reading a couple biographies of James Barrie for my Scots book club.

Barrie wrote this as an homage to his mother, for whom he cared so much. It isn't necessarily written well, but it was definitely written from the heart.

His elder brother quit speaking to him after the publication, as he felt it contained too many personal stories.

[Keli Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touching tribute to a well-loved mother and a testament to the sacred nature of motherhood as Barrie saw it. Enjoyable anecdotes. Valuable for a better understanding Barrie's writing and life. (Available through Project Gutenberg)

[Samantha Glasser]

Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/342/34...

[Lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barrie's biography of his mother