I'm going to nominate
The Little White Bird by J.M. Barrie (First Pub. 1902)
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The best description I've found is from GrannyGrump's post in the MobileRead thread linked above:
Quote:
“The Little White Bird” is a novel for adult readers, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark, aggressive undertones.
This book is a series of short episodes, including accounts of the narrator's day-to-day activities in contemporary London, as well as fanciful tales set in Kensington Gardens and elsewhere; with the two main characters being the first-person narrator Captain W—— (“Barrie thinly disguised”), and the boy David (based on George Llewelyn Davies, one of several children of the Davies family who provided inspiration for many characters in Barrie's writings). The main theme of the book is an exploration of the emotional relationship of the narrator, a childless Victorian-era retired soldier and London bachelor, with a young boy born to a working-class married couple in his neighbourhood.
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Many places emphasise that the middle chapters of this book were extracted to be published as
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, but for me those chapters are less of a draw than the developing relationship between the narrator and the young couple. The early chapters and the final, in particular, I found quite touching.
I'm nominating this on the basis of "I'll be There for You" aspect of the theme rather than the "Best Friends" aspect. And...
I wanted an excuse to nominate it because I would like to hear others thoughts about this story. I'm guessing that the narrator's motives and morals could - in these modern cynical times - come into question, because there is something of the stalker in the man's behaviour. But can we see him as a well intentioned stalker? There is, I think, much to talk about in this book.