Publisher's Synopsis
Tommy and Grizel, by Sir James M. Barrie (1900). This is a clever and baffling character-study of Thomas Sandys (whom the author first introduced to the public under the guise of "Sentimental Tommy"), and of Grizel, who adores him and studies his every act and motive. Tommy is a unique and original creation possessed of a genius which unfits him for practical life. He is a creature of ever-varying moods who may be loved but never understood and still less approved of. Grizel, who is a paragon, is destined to have her career blighted by her love for this erratic genius, with his gift at writing and his fatal gift of making-believe. She realizes that Tommy does not love her, and yet she loves and honors him for his effort to make her think he does. To Tommy "all the world's a stage" and he is cast for leading lover. He knows by instinct how to make direct appeal to every woman's heart and he cannot resist the constantly recurring temptation to exercise his power.
