Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8210 in Books
• Published on: 1994-09-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
The tales of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad. When Mole goes boating with the Water Rat instead of spring-cleaning, he discovers a new world. As well as the river and the Wild Wood, there is Toad's craze for fast travel which leads him and his friends on a whirl of trains, barges, gipsy caravans and motor cars and even into battle.

Customer Reviews

A great classic
Mr. Toad, Ratty, Mr. Badger, and Mole are among the many creatures and characters who inhabit Grahame's version of Victorian era England. He weaves their riverbank life and many adventures in magical yet universally appealing style. A great literary classic who will appeal to children and adults alike.
Adrian Praetzellis offers an excellent reading of the novel for librivox.org

Enjoy the imagery and fun in this tale of riverside adventures
The Wind In The Willows starts off following Mole on his adventures, although he fades into the background as the story progresses. The book is an adventure story, primarily for children, but it evokes the English rural idyll very well. It is fun and the character of Toad takes over as the plot develops with mischief and derring-do.

On closer investigation, however, the characters do not all seem to correspond to specific people or types of people (except the technophile Toad and the old military man - Badger). We could not work out what group or social class Rat and Mole were supposed to represent. The world they live in seems incredibly incongruous - Italian sausages available from shops open at all hours, creatures that are mortal enemies being great friends, their interaction with people where they are treated as other people and seem to be a similar size, never working and always having everything available, Mole leaving his life for a couple of years. Toad's escape from prison, re-offending and subsequent freedom seem to condone bad behaviour and it is not clear how he is not tracked the last few miles to his house, when he orders cars and boats from the locality and he is clearly a well known character in the area.

There are a couple of religious / semi-religious experiences, that seem unwarranted, unclear and uncomfortable. They appeared as though Grahame wanted to make some specific point to his child, which does not come across now from the book.

The book is clearly class-ridden with Toad at the top and the weasels at the bottom - The Revolution is put down.

Overall, we felt it was best not examine it too closely and just enjoy the imagery and fun in it.

The Wind in the willows
An endless classic.
You dont need to be old fashioned or a child to read this, it captures every imagination possible, a world of nature!