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    The Wind In The Willows
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    The Wind In The Willows
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    The Wind In The Willows
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    The Wind In The Willows

    Written by Kenneth Grahame

    Narrated by Richard Briers

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Join Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad on more adventures read by the wonderful Richard Briers.

    Join Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad on more adventures read by the wonderful Richard Briers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 26, 2011
    ISBN9780007434848
    Author

    Kenneth Grahame

    Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, but family circumstances prevented him from entering Oxford University. He joined the Bank of England as a gentleman clerk in 1879, rising to become the Bank's Secretary in 1898. He wrote a series of short stories, married Elspeth Thomson in 1899 and their only child, Alistair, was born a year later. He left the Bank in 1908, the year that The Wind in the Willows was published. Though not an immediate success, by the time of Grahame's death in 1932 it was recognised as a children's classic.

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    Reviews for The Wind In The Willows

    4/5

    3,370 ratings140 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Absolutely Marvelous!
    • 5/5
      Adorable. Sweet. Cute. Great for animal and critter lovers of all ages.

      The tale is told in a series of vignettes, rather than a cohesive story, much like many other late 19th and early 20th century literature.

      Mr. Toad does take the overriding theme, however, once you get a way into the book. Toad loves fast things. He buys motor cars and wrecks motor cars. Then he steals a motor car, goes to jail, breaks out of jail, and has many adventures getting home to Toad Hall. Once almost home, he finds the stoats and weasels have take over his mansion. Can Toad, with the help of his friends Badger, Mole, and River Rat, get back his home?

      This Barnes and Noble classics edition is lovely - leather bound with gilded edges, gold embossing on the cover, and beautiful, sewn-in satiny ribbon bookmark.

      Highly recommend for your chapter book collection and/or home library.
    • 5/5
      It took me a little while to truly appreciate Grahame's prose, but when I adjusted to the style, these charming tales of Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad truly found a home for themselves in my heart. This is, quite possibly, the greatest book ever written about the English countryside. It is magical at times, such as when they are searching for the lost baby otter, and it is joyous at others, such as when Rat meets his traveller counterpart - this is one of the great travelogues in the history of literature. And what can be said about Toad, except that he explains the life and career of Boris Johnson better than any other literary creation I can think of?
    • 5/5
      Read this for the first time and really liked it. A book truly for all ages. Something about anthropomorphic animals and living in the woods gets me into the book. Really enjoyed the scene they see a vision of the god Pan. Makes you wonder. If you haven't read this story and need an quick easy read, then pick this one up.
    • 4/5
      What a treat. Why did I wait until my advanced age to read it.
    • 5/5
      Probably my dad read this to me, though I don’t have as many memories as I do of the Oz books. Reading it as an adult, I liked it very much, the way the characters embodied both animal and human characteristics. I loved their affection for one another.The illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard are perfect.
    • 5/5
      As soon as I finished, this book, I read the first two chapters again.
    • 5/5
      When I read that this book was adapted to the protagonists being female, I decided to give it a go. The book didn’t lose any of its charm—on the contrary, due to the wonderful narrators, it was even more charming than any other rendition I listened to. Absolutely marvellous, and highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Revisited this enchanting collection of anthropomorphic animal fantasies from my childhood, now that I have a child of my own. The adventures of Mole, Water Rat, Badger, and Toad hold a special place in my imagination, and this will be one to read aloud to J-Boy as a bedtime book. One needn't have any special appreciation for the Edwardian era or a golden, idealized Victorian past to delight in Kenneth Grahame's bucolic vision, nor interpret Mr. Toad as a stand-in for the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the lure of automation to be awe-struck by his prosody. Look for the edition with the original drawings by the renowned illustrator E.H. Shepard.
    • 4/5
      I have never read this book and here at the holiday season thought it would be a fun read. Oh yes it was! Kenneth Graham's classic tale of the friendship between the upstanding rat, the loyal mole, the wise badger and the totally disreputable Mr. Toad is as charming today as it was when it was published in 1908.
    • 3/5
      Most of the tales convey a deep appreciation of the natural world, home and friendship, as presented from an unusual angle.Once acquainted with Toad's qualities, or, lack thereof, I did not want to spend time reading about his escapades. Had to force myself through these passages. I guess the tolerance and acceptance of his behaviour exhibited by Mole, Ratty and Badger, shows their goodness.I will take the book down from the shelf to read the Piper at the Gates of Dawn from time to time.
    • 4/5
      A nice collection of stories about Rat, Mole, Toad and Badger. Lovely to think of Nan reading and enjoying these stories as a teenager!
    • 3/5
      It's all about the Rat.

      Feeling a bit perplexed here. On one hand, it had its goofy, ridiculous, and sublime moments (particularly the chapter "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" for the latter--and how am I only just NOW getting that reference?!). The choice couldn't have been better for having Monty Python's Terry Jones as the reader for the audio. On the other, Mr. Toad is HORRIBLE. How does he have ANY friends? There are also some aspects I suspect aren't translating well between 100 years ago, when this was written, and now. I can *kind of* brush them off, but if I had children and were reading this with them, there would be a lot of discussion on what's not appropriate.
    • 5/5
      Great story about morals, respect, love and friends. Everyone should read this not just kids. The whole world could use a big dose of Morals.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to love this book. It started off well, but it just started feeling like a chore to read. With just another 50 pages to read, I can't get motivated to finish. Was there some reason why there weren't any female animals/characters?
    • 4/5
      The Wind in the Willows opens in a bucolic way, as Mole ventures out from home and meets up with Rat, and the two gentlemanly country animals become fast friends. Soon Badger is added to their troop. But then there is Mr. Toad, a wealthy, vain wastrel, who flits from one ridiculous obsession to another.The book sort of splits then, with some chapters following the adventures of the idiotic, boastful, live-for-the-moment Toad, while other chapters focus on the other friends. Those chapters tend towards dullness, for while Mole, Rat and Badger are definitely the characters one might like if one knew them, they do not have interesting adventures. They go about being polite to each other and enjoying a pretty day. Toad on the other hand, wrecks automobiles, steals automobiles, goes to jail, escapes from jail, and on and on. I didn't enjoy the book on the whole as much as I expected to from such a renowned classic; good, but not great in my mind. The duller chapters weighted it down. I also found the presence of humans in this world disconcerting. Seems to me all of the characters should have been animals.
    • 4/5
      Cute adventures of Mr. Toad and his friends. The story where they meet Pan seems out of place.
    • 3/5
      Yes, it's a classic, and it definitely deserves that space. But it's also really meandering and slow and semi-plotless. I'm glad I re-read it after many years away.
    • 4/5
      Not necessarily an avid children's book reader beyond my trusty Hardy Boys....but i recently saw a local community theater production of this, and in between the time i purchased the ticket and actually saw the play, this book showed up in a box of odds and ends someone gave me.....it seemed like fate was telling me to read it....So i did! And what a beautifully illustrated work this is. The fantastical world of these animals came to life for my stifled and stiff brain so much more so than had it not been just littered from end to end with gorgeous vivid drawings in both Black & White and Color
    • 5/5
      I managed to avoid somehow or other reading the complete Wind in the Willows until I was well into adulthood. Of course, it is probably impossible to escape bits of it such as Ratty's wise words...'Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing...."But I found myself reading the full version around the 100 year anniversary of its original publication in 1908. And, despite myself. Quite enjoyed it. There is a bit of the class struggle reflected in it with Toad representing the worst of inherited wealth and privilige and ratty the best blend of smarts and good-heartedness. But really, I didn't buy this book for the story and I already have 3 other copies of the W/W. I bought for the wonderful illustrations by Robert Ingpen. He really is a favourite illustrator of mine. And, as is pointed out in the preface, it is no mean challenge to illustrate a book where everyone has their own mental pictures of Toa's caravan, or of the wild wood, or ratty and Mole's boating expedition etc. But, to my mind, the Ingpen version is simply one of the best, His style is semi realist.....realist enough for one to enjoy the warmth of Badger's fire and the food hanging from the ceiling of his abode. (p 60-61). It doesn't do to be too critical however; Badger's kitchen is true to the text with the glow and the warmth of the fire-lit kitchen whereas a REAK Badger's lair would be pitch black and maybe damp and certainly smelly. There is so much fun detail in Inpen's paintings. (I assume they are watercolour) but not quite sure. And they fade into a blurriness that hints at more details but just not enough to resolve. His draftsmanship is superb and he manages to faithfully portray the various animals whilst bestowing a pleasing familiarity upon them. I don't know how many illustrations there are in the book but did a quick sample count and it averages out at 7.5 illustrations per 10 pages. That is a wealth of illustration and fit makes the book a delight to read to children. Some of my favourite illustrations are of mole in the wild wood with the rabbit p 50; Badger leading Rat and Mole through underground passageways p76; Rat and Mole in the rowing boat just prior to dawn p121; the weasels, armed to the teeth attacking Toad hall.....p195. But these are just a few of the absolute gems in the book. Strongly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      Helen Ward’s illustrations are beautiful!
    • 3/5
      Surprisingly decent.
    • 3/5
      I have never read The Wind in the Willows but enjoyed this moralistic story. I cannot believe that the story was intended for children, as underneath the characters reside many moral stories. The Toad represents a greedy, egotistic individual that must undergo a transformation. His friends, the Rat, the Badger, and the Mole, remain loyal in efforts to assist the Toad. The Toad encounters a lengthy journey of self-discovery and remains set on his misbegotten path. The story spends numerous pages on description that would bore a child. A child needs more action and less speech.
    • 4/5
      What a sweet, lovely listen! Somehow I managed to totally miss this when I was a child. Even with my waning interest in kid lit, this darling tale captivated me. There's adventure and silliness seasoned well with kind friendship.
    • 5/5
      Excellent comfort book for when the day has been just that bad.
    • 5/5
      Five reasons why I love Wind in the Willows1. Playfulness: It’s pure delight when Mole decides to drop his spring cleaning and begin to enjoy a day of rest and play and leisure in the company of his new found friend, Ratty. Grahame reminds us of this essential part of “human” life, remember to take time of to enjoy life and rest and have fun. 2. True friendship: This is specially seen in the way they have patience with the silly conceited Toad and keep rescuing him and save him from himself. As William Horwood writes in the preface: “Kindness is at the very heart of “The Wind in the Willows”, the kindness that makes one character put the interests and needs of another first. For these are not characters out to gain advantage over each other.”3. Sweet Home (Dulce Domum): The scene where Mole feel homesickness and they decide to find his place and he invites Ratty in to his humble dwellings is priceless. Even the caroling field mice have a feast there. It reminds me of this essential breathing space - a home where meals unite family and friends - an almost holy place where we find renewed energy. 4. Transcendence: How to interprete the chapter “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”? The mysterious Friend, nature god Pan, this awe and reverence in the presence of something transcendent - the feeling of both joy and sadness. It’s just a miracle. 5. Poetic nature: Grahames poetic descriptions of nature is remarkable. You just feel a desire to experience it all in its fullness. The wind, the grass, the sun, the snow, the river bank.
    • 4/5
      Excellent language use in a heavily abridged version of the famous story: for the 5 to 10 year age group: some really lovely & lively illustrations of all the main animal characters.
    • 4/5
      It is great to read an old classic!
    • 4/5
      I know I'd read this book as a kid, but have always been a bit surprised by how little impression it apparently left on me and how little I remembered about it. So a revisit seemed in order.And... Well, it's a perfectly fine kids' book. The writing is good, and doesn't condescend to or oversimplify itself for young readers, which I approve of, although a few of the hymn-to-nature passages do get to be a little bit much. And Toad is kind of a fun character; the chapter where his friends stage an intervention for him for his automotive addiction made me laugh out loud. But I can kind of see how kid-me didn't find it all that memorable. I just never quite felt as charmed by it as its reputation suggests I should be. It's nice enough, but when it comes to classic talking-animals-in-the-woods-of-Britain stories, it's never going to rival Winnie-the-Pooh for a place in my heart.
    • 5/5
      I suppose I was in the mood for this book, but it was a sheer delight and it immediately became a favorite book. My copy has an introduction and afterword, as well as a brief author bio written by Jane Yolen which I really appreciated. We only have a small cast of central characters here, a mole, a water rat, a badger and a toad, 'Mr. Toad'. I adore Mole and Ratty. I found myself loving every one of them, maybe even Mr. Toad. This is a children's book for grown-ups as well as mid aged kids. When I got to chapter 7, titled "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" my mouth dropped open. My copy only has a few illustrations in it - lovely black and white drawings, and the artist is not credited, although I think I deciphered the name Zimic. Then I decided that artist Tricia Zimic created the delightful cover illustration as well as the interior pen and ink drawings.I much more partial to the early half of the book, the rather nostalgic, pastoral adventures of Mole, Rat and Badger as well as the Piper piece in the middle. As Jane Yolen notes, this is really three sorts of stories in one book.