Before J.M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan, he wrote My Lady Nicotine. Released in 1890, it was republished in 1926 with A Study in Smoke appended. The book is a series of essays reflecting on Barrie’s days as a smoker, before he gave it up. At the time he compiled My Lady Nicotine, his views toward his previous smoking had changed dramatically, writing “The very smell of tobacco is abominable” and “Nothing is more pitiable than the way some men of my acquaintance enslave themselves to tobacco.”1 Despite his change of heart, the text comes across as nostalgic.
Barrie tells the story of his first cigar, smoked when his brother told him he was now an uncle. He tells of the pipes he enjoyed and the people he smoked them with. Essays are included about his tobacco pouch (which his relatives wouldn’t touch, but would pick up with knitting needles used as tongs) and his smoking table.
In the chapter called His Wife’s Cigars, Barrie tells the story of a friend whose wife kept him supplied with cigars – but they were cigars he didn’t like. She gave him a gift of a certain brand of cigars, and he wanted to please her, so he smoked them and said he liked them. So more of the same cigars came his way. How he dealt with it makes for a delightful story.
If you enjoy short, often humorous, essays that revolve around the use of tobacco, then My Lady Nicotine is the book for you. There isn’t a lot of information about cigars or tobacco included, but it’s a fun book with nicotian themes nonetheless.
My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke is in the public domain and can be read for free on Project Gutenberg.
- J.M. Barrie, My Lady Nicotine, 1890, Chapter 1 [↩]