New to this Edition:
'Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.'
So says Rat to Mole, as he introduces him to the delights of the river and his friends Toad, the spirit of rebellion, and Badger, the spirit of England. But it is a world where the motor-car is about to wreck the gipsy caravan, the revolutionaries in the Wild Wood are threatening the social fabric, the god Pan is abroad, and the warm seductive whispers of the south are drifting into the English lanes.
An international children's classic, The Wind in the Willows grew from the author's letters to his young son, yet it is concerned almost exclusively with adult themes: fear of radical changes in political, social, and economic power. Mole's acceptance into the conservative world of the River Bank, and Toad's wild attempts to escape from it, are narrated in virtuoso language ranging from lively parody to elaborate fin-de-siècle mysticism. A profoundly English fiction with a world following, it is a book for adults adopted by children, a timeless masterpiece, and a vital portrait of an age.
"Perfect summer reading." - Christopher Hirst, The Independent
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Kenneth Grahame
THE WIND INTHE WILLOWS
Explanatory Notes
In this Oxford World's Classics audio guide, Peter Hunt, Professor Emeritus in Children's Literature at the University of Cardiff, who was responsible for setting up the first course in children's literature in the UK, introduces the newcomer to reading critically texts written for children.
Click on the links below to hear Peter's thoughts on the field and then explore The Wind in the Willows in more detail.
Is it possible to say when children's literature as a recognizable genre started? [0:30]Peter Hunt explains why. [0:56]When, where and why did the academic study of children's books begin?[1:13]When Peter Hunt set up the first children's literature course in the UK, what was his intention? [0:58]Do you have to learn to read in a different way?[1:35]
When studying children's books, is it important to remember that they are often first encountered by being read aloud by an adult?[1:02]Peter Hunt reflects on the fact that the classics of children's literature have been extraordinarily productive of other texts, sequels, prequels, adaptations as well as films. [0:41] Is there now a canon of children's literature? [1:16]
Peter Hunt discusses this. [1:24]Are children's books able to address an adult and a child audience simultaneously, thereby becoming vehicles for satire and social comment?[1:26]Was that an early nineteenth-century phenomenon?[1:23]
About The Wind in the Willows
But he was a much more complex character than first impressions suggest. [1:14]
What did he mean by that?[1:22]
And as with its predecessors, the myth includes the presence of a real child as first listener to the story.[2:14]
What anxieties about a changing world do his texts exhibit? [2:21]
Peter Hunt explains some of the popular genres which helped shape The Wind in the Willows. [4:00]
What has given The Wind in the Willows its extraordinary staying-power as a classic? [1:57]Was there also an element of commemorating a lost domain of pre-first world war childhood and innocence which contributed to its success?[2:40] Peter Hunt discusses if that was disingenuous[1:29]
ISBN : 9780199567560
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