Quality Street: A Comedy

by J.M. Barrie

This four-act comedy is an adult fairy tale of sorts, brought to life by Barrie's charming imagination and ability to weave between reality and fantasy. Pheobe Throssel and Valentine Brown are a young couple separated by the Neopoleonic wars for ten years, only to find themselves the unfortunate victims of time and age upon their reunion. This story of lost love, spinsters, secret disguises, and the complexities of human emotion will enchant readers today as much as it did the audiences of New York and London over a century ago.

Genres: Plays, Classics, Fiction, Drama, Comedy, Historical, Ebooks

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1902

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

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely little play, and I love Hugh Thomson's illustrations!

[Perry Whitford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice chockies, shame about the play.

[Riccardo Mainetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un testo teatrale meraviglioso uscito dalla penna e dall'estro creativo di James Matthew Barrie, famoso da noi per aver dato vita al personaggio di Peter Pan/b>. Un testo che ci fa apprezzare ancora di più un autore di grande bravura e talento. Un testo che fa sorridere, a tratti ridere apertamente, il lettore ma che sa anche emozionare e commuovere. Un testo che a breve, portate solo un po' di pazienza e state in campana, sarà disponibile anche in una traduzione italiana.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH: Moving comedy about two sisters, one of whom is in love with a military doctor who goes to the Napoleonic wars and returns ten years later, when she considers herself a thirty-year-old spinster, although she is not always that.

ESPAÑOL: Conmovedora comedia sobre dos hermanas, una de las cuales está enamorada de un médico militar que parte a las guerras Napoleónicas y vuelve diez años más tarde, cuando ella se considera como una solterona de treinta años, aunque no siempre lo es.

[grace!! · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know what happened but also I don’t? It’s a bit confusing to read but would definitely be good onstage!

[Mariangel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Phoebe creía que Brown se le iba a declarar, pero él solo había venido a comunicarle que se alistaba para luchar contra Napoleón. Al reencontrarse tras diez años de guerra, notan cómo han cambiado en ese tiempo.

[Nix · Rating 3 out of 5]

JM Barrie a feminist (kinda), who knew?! The way he did not excuse Valentine Brown for being a dick just because he was the romantic interest, let the audience see and acknowledge he is kind of a dick, and let his heroine be angry with him! The way the makeover is not glamourized! The play has a lot of respect towards women. The only problem, is that one could gather by slighting flirty Livvy and upholding Pheobe ladylikeness Barrie is being... well a dick. No need to slight one kind of femininity to uphold another. But what i think he was saying was that Pheobe's idea of who she should be wasn't nearly as good as who she really was. I believe it is in public domain. I have read it free here

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is easy to say 'but it's the time the story was written; or set' but . . . I've read stories written even earlier than 1901. I'm not going to give the author a 'pass' for this misogynistic weirdness by allowing the defense of 'but it was the time!'. mmphs. The one defense that might work would be that he was doing a parody or a satire of this type of play. If so, the author failed.


Katherine Hepburn as Phoebe in the 1937 film.

[Lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories about the "AUld Licht" in Thrums

[Nellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is just so simple and adorable. (PS: The Phoebe monologue in Act 2 is great for auditioning with!)

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never knew that J.M. Barrie wrote this type of stories! I thoroughly enjoyed the whole concept, time of the novel and is written well and plotted well! It does have a happy ending so it made me happy! Pleasant, happy read!

[Joslins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of Barrie's plays that is also very good. This one makes you think about how we see people only by their appearance and how we need to get beyond that and see the real people.

[Samantha Glasser]

Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31266/...

[Shaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cute. Not the best thing i've ever read, but very typical for the time period i would think. Wanting to be young, pretty and carefree.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

quite fun to read aloud. a farce.

[Gautam Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The play is set at the beginning of the 19th century in the home of two sisters, Susan and Phoebe.

[Samantha (WLABB) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed a title that started with Q and was curious what else Barrie had written. Very much a play of its time. The storyline was light and amusing with some silly fun thrown in there.

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[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet play, though Barrie suffers from the tendency to narrate the story through the stage directions as if he were writing a novel. And perhaps that is always how it should be read. As a play it is very dated--and possibly unplayable now.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was at first kind of confusing who everyone was but it was an entertaining story with some great characters. I loved the descriptions of the people, the balls and the story line was so well writte.

[Madhuparna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute little classic read but not really my cup of tea.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprising joy to read. The meepness was out of this world, but was actually really funny.

[Ellyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised to enjoy this one so much ! This is basically an early 20th century rom com ! This was fun !

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.