WorldLibsLibrariesBooksVisitGlobeShelfSearch

The Wind in the Willows

Kenneth Grahame, 1908

Held by Standard Ebooks, PG 289read here

Read it here about 4 h of reading

Add to a shelf
Your shelves
See your shelves

A Mole leaves his spring cleaning, meets a river for the first time and befriends the Water Rat. Together they row, picnic and visit the vain, car-mad Toad, whose passions end with him in prison. The animals face the Wild Wood, where Badger lives, and an odd night search for Otter's lost son brings them close to the god Pan. In the last chapters Toad escapes disguised as a washerwoman, and his friends retake Toad Hall from the stoats and weasels who have moved in.

Where it happens

  1. Blewbury, Berkshire Grahame moved to an old farmhouse here and wrote the manuscript from his bedtime stories.1
  2. Quarry Wood, Cookham Dean The place Ackroyd suggests as the model for the Wild Wood.1
  3. Mapledurham House, Oxfordshire One of several houses said to inspire Toad Hall.1

Through time

  1. 1900Alastair, Grahame's only child, is born.1
  2. 1908The book is published by Methuen, with Scribner in the US; Grahame retires from the Bank of England.1
  3. 1909Theodore Roosevelt writes to Grahame about the book.1
  4. 1929A. A. Milne's stage version Toad of Toad Hall is produced; the book is in its 31st printing.1
  5. 1931E. H. Shepard illustrates the book.1
  6. 1951The book has reached 100 editions in Britain.1
  7. 1967Pink Floyd name an album after chapter 7, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.1

Who is in it, and behind it

Kenneth Grahame author

Retired from the Bank of England in 1908, the year the book appeared.1

Alastair Grahame subject

Grahame's only child, born 1900, for whom the first tales and letters were written.1

Mole character

Leaves his home for the river and becomes Rat's friend.1

Rat character

A river dweller who takes Mole in and later helps rescue Toad.1

Toad character

Wealthy owner of Toad Hall, known to friends as Toady.1

Badger character

A fearless fighter who helps clear the Wild-Wooders from Toad Hall.1

Pan character

The wild god who appears once, in chapter 7, and looks after Portly.1

E. H. Shepard subject

Illustrated the book in 1931.1

Theodore Roosevelt subject

Wrote to Grahame about the book in 1909.1

What it is about

Home against the wild

The cosy river bank is set against the dangerous Wild Wood, with Toad Hall in between as the home to win back.1

Friendship and loyalty

Rat, Mole and Badger keep rescuing a boastful friend and help him recover his house.1

A god among the reeds

Chapter 7 gives Pan a single quiet appearance, apart from the comic Toad plot.1

Stories that began aloud

The book grew out of bedtime tales and letters to a child.1

In its own words

The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated.
I. Mole's first reaction to the river, near the opening of the book. Read on
“And beyond the Wild Wood again?” he asked; “where it’s all blue and dim, and one sees what may be hills or perhaps they mayn’t, and something like the smoke of towns, or is it only cloud-drift?” “Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,” said the Rat.
I. Rat describes the world beyond the Wild Wood to a curious Mole. Read on
Little Portly is missing again; and you know what a lot his father thinks of him, though he never says much about it.” “What, that child?” said the Mole lightly.
VII. The worry that sends Rat and Mole out on the night of the Pan chapter. Read on
Now the gaoler had a daughter, a pleasant wench and good-hearted, who assisted her father in the lighter duties of his post.
VIII. The gaoler's daughter enters Toad's prison story in chapter VIII. Read on
What haven’t I heard?” “Do you mean to tell me,” shouted the Rat, thumping with his little fist upon the table, “that you’ve heard nothing about the Stoats and Weasels?” “What, the Wild Wooders?” cried Toad, trembling in every limb.
XI. News of the Wild Wooders who have taken over Toad Hall. Read on
You know I shouldn’t like you to blame me afterwards and say I had forgotten anything !” When all was quite ready, the Badger took a dark lantern in one paw, grasped his great stick with the other, and said, “Now then, follow me!
XII. The friends set out to retake Toad Hall in the final chapter. Read on

The shape of the book

12 chapters, 58,401 words. Point at a bar.

How it came to be here

Kenneth Grahame published the book in 1908 with Methuen in Britain and Scribner in the United States. It grew from bedtime stories and letters about a toad that he sent to his young son Alastair, who was born in 1900. Grahame retired from the Bank of England in 1908 and moved to Blewbury in Berkshire. Theodore Roosevelt wrote to him about the book in 1909. By 1951 it had reached 100 editions in Britain. E. H. Shepard illustrated it in 1931.

Free to read elsewhere

Sources

  1. The Wind in the Willows (Wikipedia)
  2. The Wind in the Willows (Standard Ebooks)

Text: PG 289. CC0 (Standard Ebooks).

Holder's record