The Little Minister, in Two Volumes (The Kirriemuir Edition)

Complete in two volumes. xliv, [2], 290, [2]; vi, [4], 326, [2] pp. 8vo. The Kirriemuir Edition, named after the author's birthplace. Red cloth, elaborate gilt decorations, gilt titles and top edge, etchings by G.W.H. Ritchie. This edition also features a literary and biographical portrait of J.M. Barrie. A novel by the creator of Peter Pan, and inspiration for the 1934 Katharine Hepburn film, originally "published in 1891 and dramatized in 1897. The Little Minister is set in Thrums, a Scottish weaving village based on Barrie's birthplace, and concerns Gavin Dishart, a young impoverished minister with his first congregation. The weavers he serves soon riot in protest against reductions in their wages and harsh working conditions. Warned by Babbie, a beautiful and mysterious Gypsy, that Lord Rintoul, the local laird, has summoned the militia, the weavers prepare for a fight. During the ensuing melee, Dishart rescues Babbie from the soldiers. Dishart and Babbie fall in love, he never suspecting that she is really a well-born lady who is unwillingly betrothed to the old Lord Rintoul. After many trials, the two live happily ever after." - Encyclopedia Britannica