Thrums Books

"The Little Minister" by J. M. Barrie was first published in Good Words Magazine, spanning the months January to December 1891. Reckoned to be Barrie's best work, it is one of several novels about the fictional village of Thrums, said to be modeled on Barrie's home town of Kirriemuir. In 1840's Scotland, a young Scottish pastor falls in love with an educated, radiant gypsy girl, who turns out to be a peeress who impersonates a gypsy and smoothes things over between rebellious weavers and the authorities in 1840 Scotland. The play version, produced by the legendary Charles Frohman, was a tremendous success in which the star, according to William Winter's review Jan.10,1897 "expressed impulse, pertness, perversity, caprice, discontent. mischief, longing, self-will, arch and tantalizing sweetness and charmingly irrational contradictions of an impetuous girl." It was made into a RKO movie in 1934 with Katharine Hepburn and John Beal (as the Scottish Minister). According to Maltin's Movie Guide, "Hepburn was radiant."

This scarce novel is one of several books set in the fictional Scottish village of Thrums and written by Sir James Matthew Barrie. Said to be modelled on Barrie’s own home town, Thrums provides the setting for a tragic novel rich in uncanny details of contemporary Scottish life and interwoven with a sad tale that deeply resonates with the life of the author. A must-read for any collector of Barrie’s work and for those who have read and enjoyed his other books set in Thrums, this haunting novel is sure to be remembered and deserves its place atop any bookshelf. James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best known for his timeless play, Peter Pan. Other notable works by this author include: Licht Idylls (1889) and Little Minister (1891). Originally published in 1889, this rare classic is proudly republished here with an introductory biography of the author.