• The Wind in the Willows is one of the best-known classics of children's literature and yet it is primarily a book for adults. This new edition considers this conundrum and provides a wealth of fascinating contextual information about the book's author and its historical, cultural, and literary significance.
• The Introduction by one of the foremost scholars of children's literature focuses on the book's status as a classic, and as both a self-portrait of Kenneth Grahame's psyche and the portrait of an age. It considers the book's general and specific influence on children's literature.
• Explanatory Notes explore the sources of the book - biographical, psychological, geographical, and literary - and contain much new material.
• Note on the Text recounts the history of the book from Grahame's letters to his son to final book publication.
• Up-to-date bibliography.
• Reproduces the text of the first British edition.

New to this Edition:

• Introduction by Peter Hunt.
• Up-to-date bibliography.
• Note on the Text.
• Explanatory Notes (previous edition had none).
• Newly set text in a more attractive, larger typeface.

 
'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