Read The Wind in the Willows Online
Authors: Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows (29 page)
—from
Forum
(January 1909)
A. A. MILNE
It is what I call a Household Book. By a Household Book I mean a book which everybody in the household loves and quotes continually ever afterwards; a book which is read aloud to every new guest, and is regarded as the touchstone of his worth. But it is a book which makes you feel that, though everybody in the house loves it, it is only you who really appreciate it at its true value.
—from
Not That It Matters
(1919)
PETER GREEN
TheWind in
the Willows
...
is a good deal more than the simple fun Grahame said it was. At bottom it is a book about Us and Them, River-Bankers versus Wild Wooders. The ethics are simple and revealing. If you face up to your responsibilities in the squirearchy, and don’t go haring off in motor-cars (which exposes you to criticism from the lower orders), you can live a nice happy bachelor existence for ever, having enormous picnics and messing about in boats—presumably on the proceeds of your investments.
—from
The Spectator
(November 27, 1959)
Questions
1. A reviewer writing in
The Nation
about
The Wind in the Willows
asked whether it was designed “for children, for grown people, or for grown-up children.” Who would you say this book is for? Is it for the child in the grown-up, or for the adult in the child?
2. A. A. Milne said of
The Wind in the Willows
that “the young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character. We can’t criticize it, because it is criticizing us.” What gives the book so much power that it can divide the world into those who get it and those who don’t? What type of person likes The Wind in the Willows, and what type doesn’t?
3. In 1981 Jan Needle published
Wild Wood,
a Marxist take on
TheWind in the Willows.
(The proletarian weasels, stoats, and ferrets take over Toad’s home and rename it Brotherhood Hall.) Is there any justification for this variation in the original? Is there an economic critique built into the original?
4. Is
The Wind in the Willows
based on a common adult fantasy? If so, how would you express it? What do you think about the relative absence of females? Would you describe the novel as “escapist”?
FOR FURTHER READING
Selected Works by
Kenneth Grahame
Pagan Papers.
London: E. Mathews and John Lane, 1893.
The Golden Age.
London: John Lane, 1895.
Dream Days.
London and New York: John Lane, 1898.
“Preface.”
The Cambridge Book of Poetry for Children.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916.
The Reluctant Dragon.
New York: Holiday House, 1938.
My Dearest Mouse:
“The Wind in the Willows” Letters.
London: Pavilion with the Bodleian Library, 1988. Introduction by David Gooderson. Facsimiles and transcriptions of Grahame’s letters to his son, Alastair, from May through September 1907; the letters contain a fragment of chapter 6 and most of chapters 8, 10, 11, and 12, dealing with Toad’s adventures.
Biographies
Chalmers, Patrick R.
Kenneth
Grahame:
Life, Letters and Unpublished Work.
London: Methuen, 1933. An official biography, published a year after Grahame’s death in consultation with his wife, Elspeth Grahame.
Graham, Eleanor. Kenneth Grahame. London: Bodley Head, 1963; New York: Henry Z. Walck, 1963. A monograph with an interesting section on the various illustrators and early critical reviews of
The Wind in the Willows.
Grahame, Elspeth. 1944.
First Whispers of “The Wind in the Willows”
by Kenneth
Grahame.
Third edition. London: Methuen, 1946. A short memoir by Grahame’s wife.
Green, Peter.
Kenneth Grahame
(1859-1932):A
Study of His
Life, Work,
and Times.
Cleveland and New York: World, 1959. The best biography of Grahame to date. Notable for its complexity and depth, it situates Grahame within the Victorian period and examines his work through the events of his life.
Carpenter, Humphrey. Secret Gardens:
A Study of the Golden Age of Children’s Literature
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985. An excellent overview of significant books for children during the years 1860—1930, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. It contains two chapters on Grahame entitled “Kenneth Grahame and the Search for Arcadia” and “The Wind in the Willows.”
Kuznets, Lois R. Kenneth Grahame. Boston: Twayne, 1987. Contains a fine critical assessment of
The Wind in the Willows,
with special emphasis on the book’s Odyssean plot and structure, as well as a discussion of Grahame’s early work and his contribution to children’s literature.
Milne, A. A. “Introduction.”
The Wind in the Willows.
New York: Heritage Press, 1940.
British coin worth 6 pennies.
Sauce served with cooked rabbit.
Jewel-like.
Oars.
Rope on a boat used for tying up to a dock.
European ermines, weasel relatives.
Dam in a stream.
Food.
Boat used for sculling matches on which wagers are placed.
Boating with a long, flat-bottomed boat, propelled by a pole.
Insect with large, transparent forewings that lives no longer than a few days.
Foolish or stubborn person.
Footpath for walking while towing a boat in the water.
A ditty is a short, simple song.
Large van on wheels pulled by a horse.
Tobacco leaves dried and prepared for smoking.
Moldy-smelling.
Pebble-grained leather made from goatskin.
Eighteenth-century French dance in quadruple meter.
Close-fitting; usually sleeveless jacket.
Rest or nap (Spanish).
Former British gold coins, each worth 21 shillings.
Fairyland.
Vehicle on runners for conveying people over snow, ice, or rough ground.
Short, thick stick used as a weapon.
Shabby.
Benches with a high back.
Slap.
Chasing.
Hiding places, especially from which one can escape.
Fence of closely planted shrubs separating fields.
Harshness.
Home, sweet home (Latin).
Sudden outburst.
Alphabet letters drawn with even-width strokes.
Finely chopped goose liver, considered a delicacy.
Christmas season.
Mild form of frostbite in which the hands and feet swell from excessive exposure to cold.
Brand of beer from Burton upon Trent, England’s brewing capital.
Pirate ship sailing along the western part of North Africa.
Men employed on the canals, rivers, and coastal waters of England.
Founded in 1774 to save drowning victims by means of resuscitation.
Fine.
Foot or leg coverings.
Gloves with extended cuffs.
Brightly colored covering.
Vertical bar separating panes of a window.
Sixteenth-century British window featuring heavy mullions and leaded glass panels made up of small panes in a geometric pattern.
Judicial officers.
Iron grating of a castle gateway that closes to prevent passage.
Casquet: visorless headpiece;
corselet:
breastplate;
vizards:
visors;
mastiffs:
large, powerful dogs.
Pasty:
turnover filled with meat or fish;
rack-chamber:
where a torture victim is pulled apart on a rack;
thumbscrewroom:
where a torture victim’s thumbs are crushed.
Jailer.
Any of several cattle diseases such as anthrax.
Border, edge.
Impudence.
Innermost, strongest structure of a medieval castle.
Covering, such as a cloth, that protects the arms and backs of furniture; macassar oil was a common hair preparation.
Having patches of two colors.
Leftover meat, potatoes, and greens, mixed together and fried.
Carriage pulled by four horses.
Good-natured teasing.
Witty remarks.
Common nocturnal birds that make a whirring sound in flight.
Small, deciduous European trees.
Common table where set meals are served at a fixed price.
For board and lodging.
Willows.
The eastern Mediterranean with its islands and neighboring countries.
Large haystacks.
Well-born people.
Impudent girls.
Women who are slovenly or have loose morals.
Machine for pressing laundry by passing it between heated rolls.
Breed that resulted from mating trotting mares with thoroughbred and Arabian sires.
Shilling: former British monetary unit equal to 12 pence.
Lord Kitchener (1850-1916), celebrated British military leader.
Long adventure tale.
Moved quickly.
Urge.
Social gathering of artists and intellectuals for the purpose of intelligent discussion.
Broad, curved swords.
A short nap.
Sherry-soaked cake topped with jam, custard, and whipped cream.
Private sitting room.
Affected, excessive earnestness.
Malicious, false report damaging to a person’s reputation.