Cover of Dear Brutus

Dear Brutus

  • Free to read
  • 1 hour to read
  • 3 chapters
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"Dear Brutus" by J. M. Barrie is a fantasy play written in 1917. On a magical Midsummer Night, dissatisfied guests gather at the mysterious Lob's house, where an enchanted wood appears. Inside, they experience alternate versions of their lives, exploring what might have been if they had made different choices. When they return to reality, each character must confront the question posed by Shakespeare: whether their faults lie in circumstances or in themselves.

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  • English drama
  • Fantasy drama

Read the opening

Act I

The scene is a darkened room, which the curtain reveals so stealthily that if there was a mouse on the stage it is there still. Our object is to catch our two chief characters unawares; they are Darkness and Light.

The room is so obscure as to be invisible, but at the back of the obscurity are French windows, through which is seen Lob's garden bathed in moon-shine. The Darkness and Light, which this room and garden represent, are very still, but we should feel that it is only the pause in which old enemies regard each other before they come to the grip. The moonshine stealing about among the flowers, to give them their last instructions, has left a smile upon them, but it is a smile with a menace in it for the dwellers in darkness. What we expect to see next is the moonshine slowly pushing the windows open, so that it may whisper to a confederate in the house, whose name is Lob. But though we may be sure that this was about to happen it does not happen; a stir among the dwellers in darkness prevents it.

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Contents

  1. Act I
  2. Act II
  3. Act III

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About this edition

This free edition of Dear Brutus by J. M. Barrie comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #4021, released 2003-05-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Plays/Films/Dramas, British Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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