The Wind in the Willows
Dec 2015 · Otbebookpublishing
Ebook
176
Pages
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About this ebook
At the start of the book, it is spring time: the weather is fine, and good-natured Mole loses patience with spring cleaning. He flees his underground home, heading up to take in the air. He ends up at the river, which he has never seen before. Here he meets Ratty (a water rat), who at this time of year spends all his days in, on and close by the river. Rat takes Mole for a ride in his rowing boat. They get along well and spend many more days boating, with Rat teaching Mole the ways of the river. One summer day shortly thereafter, Rat and Mole find themselves near the grand Toad Hall and pay a visit to Toad. Toad is rich (having inherited wealth from his father): jovial, friendly and kind-hearted but aimless and conceited, he regularly becomes obsessed with current fads, only to abandon them as quickly as he took them up. Having only recently given up boating, Toad's current craze is his horse-drawn caravan. In fact, he is about to go on a trip, and persuades the reluctant Rat and willing Mole to join him. The following day (after Toad has already tired of the realities of camp life and sleeps-in to avoid chores), a passing motorcar scares the horse, causing the caravan to overturn into a ditch. Rat does a war dance and threatens to have the law on the motorcar drivers while Mole calms the horse, but this marks the immediate end of Toad's craze for caravan travel, to be replaced with an obsession for motorcars. When the three animals get to the nearest town, they have Toad go to the police station to make a complaint against the vandals and their motorcar and thence to a blacksmith to retrieve and mend the caravan. Toad - in thrall to the experience of his encounter - refuses. Rat and Mole find an inn from where Mr. Toad's horse is taken care of and they organise the necessary steps and, exhausted, return home by train. Meanwhile, Toad makes no effort to help, instead deciding to order himself a motorcar. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)
About the author
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) was a Scottish-born writer whose life and work continue to captivate readers with their charm and depth. Orphaned at a young age, Grahame was raised by his grandmother in the idyllic English countryside, a setting that profoundly influenced his later literary creations. Educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, Grahame's academic aspirations were thwarted by financial constraints, leading him to a career at the Bank of England.Despite his conventional professional life, Grahame's literary talents flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His early works, including "The Golden Age" (1895) and "Dream Days" (1898), are celebrated for their nostalgic portrayal of childhood and the pastoral English landscape. These collections of stories, imbued with a sense of whimsy and introspection, resonated with readers yearning for simplicity amid the rapid industrialization of the era.Grahame's personal life was marked by both triumph and tragedy. His marriage to Elspeth Thomson was fraught with difficulties, and their only child, Alastair, faced significant health challenges, culminating in his untimely death. These personal struggles, however, did not overshadow Grahame's literary legacy.A figure of quiet revolution, Grahame's work subtly critiqued the encroaching modernity and celebrated the virtues of nature and leisure. His influence extended to contemporary writers such as A.A. Milne and J.R.R. Tolkien, who admired his ability to blend fantasy with profound human truths. Grahame's contributions to literature remain a testament to the enduring power of storytelling and the timeless appeal of a well-crafted tale.
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