14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if giving up your pipe means losing more than a habit?
In My Lady Nicotine, J. M. Barrie introduces a London bachelor who treats his pipe like a beloved companion. Looking back on his bachelor days, the narrator gathers scenes of talk, tobacco and friendship. Marriot, Pettigrew and Gilray join him, each bringing his own habits and opinions to the smoking table.
These comic sketches move from a bachelor's devotion to his pipe to the pleasures of shared talk and the pressures of courtship and marriage. Other loyalties threaten the smokers' comfortable circle. Beneath the teasing, Barrie asks what a cherished habit gives us—and what we risk when we let it go.
What you’ll discover
- A bachelor and his pipe Meet a narrator whose faithful companion inspires the tender language usually saved for love.
- Around the smoking table Enjoy Marriot, Pettigrew and Gilray as their habits and opinions feed the gentle comedy.
- Love challenges old loyalties Watch courtship and marriage press against the familiar pleasures of the narrator's circle.
- The comfort of company Discover how a pipe becomes a reason to sit, listen and share an easy silence.
- The cost of habit Look beneath the jokes at the comfort of familiar habits and the difficulty of giving them up.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy gentle British humor, tales of friends and bachelor rooms, comic exaggeration, and a writer who laughs hardest at himself.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Marriage leaves a smoky room behind
- Shared silence becomes a friendship
- Small possessions acquire lives of their own
- Love makes the friends comic actors
- Pretence gets in the way of comfort
- Kind evasions grow into elaborate lies
- Close quarters unsettle the silent friends
- Small conceits expand into comic worlds
- Tenderness holds the jokes together
Who’s who
- The narratorA quiet bachelor who gives up smoking to win his wife, then spends the book remembering the friends and pipes he left behind.
- Jimmy MoggridgeA barrister and struggling writer who lies on the hearth rug and secretly edits a children's column as Uncle Jim.
- GilrayAn actor who tries to look miserable in love and never succeeds, and who is forever tangled in romance and a flowerpot.
- MarriotThe sentimental friend who talks himself in and out of love after midnight, sure that he is a man of honor.
- ScrymgeourA wealthy painter who turns his rooms Japanese, loves comfort too little, and dreads explanations as much as the narrator does.
- PettigrewA married journalist who hides the cigars his wife gives him and who joins the friends only now and then.
- William JohnThe inn servant, faithful to the narrator and his smoking table, who is swept off by the pirate games of a young visitor.
- PrimusThe narrator's schoolboy nephew, a pirate captain in his own mind, who writes cunning letters to win the best Christmas present.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout. The eBook opens when the book texts go online.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
My Lady Nicotine in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
My Lady Nicotine
by J. M. Barrie · 1890
A bachelor swaps his beloved pipe for a wife, then spends the whole book missing the smoky friends he left behind.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
Learn a language with medium classicsSpanishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseEnglishHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeRenews every year · Cancel anytimeHow it works
- Read, large type too
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
“This is the book of my dreams.”
In short
What would you give up for the woman you love? The narrator of My Lady Nicotine gives up his pipe.
My Lady Nicotine at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 20 min2 h 40 min fast, 3 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 47,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1890by J. M. Barrie
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A man trades his pipe for marriage
The book opens with the end of a habit. The narrator gave up smoking because the woman who agreed to marry him made him choose between tobacco and her. He does not pretend it was a noble decision. He was so used to smoke that he felt unfinished without it.
Now he sees smoking through his wife's eyes, and the humor lies in how fast he has changed sides. He adds up two cigars a day and four ounces of tobacco a week, and finds a yearly sum that could buy rugs, a bonnet and a dress. He bans smoking in the house, though his old friends complain.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer. Your place follows you, and you can make the type as big as you like.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1890
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Barrie, J. M. My Lady Nicotine. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/my-lady-nicotine.
Barrie, J. M. (2026). My Lady Nicotine. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/my-lady-nicotine (Original work published 1890)
Barrie, J. M. My Lady Nicotine. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/my-lady-nicotine.
@book{barrie2026my,
author = {Barrie, J. M.},
title = {My Lady Nicotine},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/my-lady-nicotine},
note = {First published 1890}
}
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every eBookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about My Lady Nicotine
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is My Lady Nicotine about?
It follows a bachelor who gives up smoking to please his future wife, and looks back on the friends who shared his Arcadia Mixture tobacco. Each chapter is a comic sketch of a pipe, a quarrel, a muddle or a love affair.
What is the Arcadia Mixture?
It is the blend the narrator and his friends smoke in the book. They claim it makes them quiet, alike and fond of one another, and the narrator refuses to say where it can be bought.
Who are the main characters in My Lady Nicotine?
The unnamed narrator is joined by Jimmy Moggridge, Gilray, Marriot, Scrymgeour and Pettigrew, five friends with different quirks. William John, the inn servant, and the schoolboy nephew Primus also appear often.
The author
J. M. Barrie
1860–1937 · Scottish novelist and playwright
J. M. Barrie was a Scottish novelist and playwright, remembered above all as the creator of Peter Pan. Peter and Wendy (1911), his novelization of the beloved stage play, gave the world Neverland, Tinker Bell, and Captain Hook in their fullest literary form.
“This is the book of my dreams.”
More by J. M. Barrie
See all their booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
