The Wind in the Willows

Kenneth Grahame

Description

“The Wind in the Willows” is a 1908 children's novel by Kenneth Grahame. The story centres around four characters: Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad who live in pastoral England during the Edwardian era. Originally adapted from bedtime stories Grahame used to tell his young son, “The Wind in the Willows” has become a classic of children's literature enjoyed by millions the world over. Perfect bedtime reading material not to be missed by lovers and collectors of children's literature. Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932) was a Scottish writer. Other notable works by this author include: “The Golden Age” (1895), “Dream Days” (1898), and “The Headswoman” (1898). Read & Co. Children's is proudly republishing this classic novel now in a new edition complete with a specially-commissioned biography of the author.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528791748
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
By
KENNETH GRAHAME

First published in 1908



Copyright © 2020 Read & Co. Children's
This edition is published by Read & Co. Children's, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd. For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk
Cover illustration by Laura Trinder www.lauratrinder.co.uk


Contents
Ken neth Grahame
I TH E RIVER BANK
II T HE OPEN ROAD
III T HE WILD WOOD
I V MR. BADGER
V DULCE DOMUM
VI MR. TOAD
VII THE PIPER AT THE G ATES OF DAWN
VIII TOAD’ S ADVENTURES
IX W AYFARERS ALL
X THE FURTHER ADVENT URES OF TOAD
XI ‘LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAM E HIS TEARS’
XII THE RETUR N OF ULYSSES




Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908); one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon (1898); and both books were later adapted into D isney films.
Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 8th March, 1859. When he was little more than a year old, his father, an advocate, received an appointment as sheriff-substitute in Argyllshire at Inveraray on Loch Fyne. Kenneth loved the sea and was happy there, but when he was five, his mother died from complications of childbirth, and his father, who had a drinking problem, gave over care of Kenneth (alongside his brother Willie, his sister Helen and the new baby Roland) to 'Gr anny Ingle'.
With their Granny Ingle, the children lived in a spacious, if dilapidated, home, 'The Mount', on spacious grounds in idyllic surroundings. Here, they were introduced to the riverside and boating by their uncle, David Ingles, curate at Cookham Dean church. This delightful ambiance, particularly Quarry Wood and the River Thames, is believed, by Peter Green (Grahame's biographer), to have inspired the setting for The Wind in the Willows .
Whilst attending St. Edward's School in Oxford between 1868 and 1875, Grahame excelled both academically and in sports. Due to financial constraints, he didn't attend university, and in 1879 obtained a position with the Bank of England in London. Grahame rose through the ranks however, until he retired as the Bank's Secret ary in 1907.
During his early career, Grahame began to write in the evenings, and submitted work to such publications as St. Edward's Chronicle , the National Observer , the St. James Gazette and The Yellow Book . Grahame's first published story appeared in 1888, entitled 'By A Northern Furrow'. His most famous short story, 'The Reluctant Dragon', would appear ten years later.
During the 1890s, Grahame published a number of book-length works, including a collection of essays, Pagan Papers (1893), and two collections of short stories: The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898). All of these achieved both commercial and criti cal success.
Grahame married Elspeth Thomson in 1899. They had only one child, a boy named Alastair, who was born blind in one eye and plagued by health problems throughout his short life. On Grahame's retirement, they returned to Cookham where he had lived as a child, and lived at 'Mayfield', now Herries Preparatory School, where he turned the bedtime stories he told Alastair into his masterpiece.
Due to health problems, Grahame retired from the bank in 1907. The exact causes of his ill-health remain a mystery however, with some stating that it may have been precipitated by a strange, possibly political, shooting incident at the bank in 1903. Grahame was shot at three times, all of them missed. An alternative explanation, given in a letter on display in the Bank museum, is that he had quarrelled with Walter Cunliffe, one of the bank's directors, who would later become Governor of the Bank of England, in the course of which he was heard to say that Cunliffe was 'no gentleman', and that his retirement was enforced ostensibly on hea lth grounds.
Despite this, Grahame seemed quite happy to retire, and moved with his family to the countryside. This gave him time to travel and concentrate on his writing efforts. In 1908, Grahame published his best-known work: The Wind in the Willows . Now regarded as one of the most famous works in all of children's literature, the book has been adapted countless times for stage, screen and radio. Grahame took his son for inspiration, and the wayward and headstrong nature he saw in his boy Alastair (also known by the nickname, 'Mouse') was transformed into the swaggering Mr. Toad. Despite the books success, Grahame never attempted a sequel – largely due to immense perso nal tragedy.
In 1920, Alastair (Grahame's only child), committed suicide – he jumped onto a railway track while studying as an undergraduate at Oxford University. This occurred two days before his twentieth birthday, on 7th May. Out of respect for Grahame, Alastair's demise was recorded as an accid ental death.
Profoundly grieved, Grahame became reclusive and spent months at a time in Italy. He died on 6th July 1932, at the age of se venty-three.
Grahame is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford. His cousin, Anthony Hope (also a successful author), wrote his epitaph, which reads:
' To the beautiful memory of Kenneth Grahame, husband of Elspeth and father of Alastair, who passed the river on the 6th of July, 1932, leaving childhood and literature through him the more blest for all time.'


THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
I
THE RIVER BANK
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said ‘Bother!’ and ‘O blow!’ and also ‘Hang spring-cleaning!’ and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, ‘Up we go! Up we go!’ till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a g reat meadow.
‘This is fine!’ he said to himself. ‘This is better than whitewashing!’ The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he reached the hedge on the f urther side.
‘Hold up!’ said an elderly rabbit at the gap. ‘Sixpence for the privilege of passing by the private road!’ He was bowled over in an instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly from their holes to see what the row was about. ‘Onion-sauce! Onion-sauce!’ he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then they all started grumbling at each other. ‘How stupid you are! Why didn’t you tell him—’ ‘Well, why didn’t you say—’ ‘You might have reminded him—’ and so on, in the usual way; but, of course, it was then much too late, as is alwa ys the case.
It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the meadows he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting—everything happy, and progressive, and occupied. And instead of having an uneasy conscience pricking him and whispering ‘whitewash!’ he somehow could only feel how jolly it was to be the only idle dog among all these busy citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows b usy working.
He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting sto