The Wind in the Willows (original) (raw)

The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame.

The book made Kenneth Grahame's fortune, enabling him to retire from his hated (though respectable and well-paid) bank job and retire to the country, pretty much doing what the animal characters in this book do.

The story is alternately slow-moving and fast-paced, centering on three middle-aged male characters in bucolic England. It had illustrations by E. H. Shepard.

Characters

• Mole -- mild-mannered
• Water Rat (or Ratty) -- loves the river
• Otter -- friend of Ratty
• Portly -- son of Otter
• Badger -- powerful yet solitary
• Toad -- mischievous estate-owner
• The Magistrate
• The Court Clerk
• The Gaoler
• The Gaoler's Daughter
• The Engine Driver
• The Barge Woman
• The Gypsy
• The Chief Weasel
• Pan -- makes a single, otherwise anomalous, appearance

Adaptations and spin-offs

William Horwood created several sequels to The Wind in the Willows:

• The Willows in Winter
• Toad Triumphant
• The Willows and Beyond

A. A. Milne adapted The Wind in the Willows into a play called Toad of Toad Hall.

There are several film and television versions of The Wind in the Willows, notably including:

• a 1949 animated version by Walt Disney
• a 1983 animated (with stop-motion puppets, not drawings) version by Cosgrove Hall, which was followed by an ongoing television series done in the same style
• a 1996 animated version with an all-star cast led by Michael Palin and Alan Bennett as Ratty and Mole; followed by an adaptation of The Willows in Winter
• a 1996 live-action version written and directed by Terry Jones

External link

• Project Gutenberg e-text of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows